Health Care News Nov. 22-24

---

News
WEDNESDAY
High Deductibles Prompt Many Families to Forgo Treatment
Lower-income families with high-deductible insurance plans are opting to forgo treatment more often than other groups, a new study finds.
HHS Sells Overhaul Law With Data
HHS found that average deductibles in employer-sponsored insurance had nearly doubled, increasing from $446 to $917 for single coverage from 2002 to 2009, and $958 to $1,761 in family coverage during the same time period.
Poll: Voters want foes to reject health care
Most voters say members of Congress who campaigned against the health care reform bill should turn down the medical insurance offered them as federal employees.

TUESDAY
Rules Eased for Some Health Plans
Amid pressure from employers, the Obama administration on Monday loosened rules for bare-bones health-insurance policies. It marks one of the administration's biggest steps to peel back regulations that big business found onerous under the health- care overhaul.
Insurance Regulations Follow State Recommendations
The HHS rules lay out a process for states to request an adjustment over the next three years if they believe that the rules' medical-loss ratio will destabilize their insurance market.
Johanns Hopes to Repeal Health Care Provision in Lame Duck
The Senate is scheduled to vote after Thanksgiving on legislation to repeal a small but increasingly maligned provision of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, and the Republican author of the repeal is optimistic that it will pass this time.

MONDAY
Health insurers: Pay more for medical care or give refunds
Beginning in 2011, insurance companies have to spend 80% to 85% of premiums on medical care instead of toward their own profits and overhead costs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
States Battle with Federal Government on Health Care
Medicaid Becomes First Victim of Blame Game in Some States
Rivlin Throws Grenade Into Medicare Debate
Former Clinton budget director teams up with GOP budget cutter.

Economist Comments
WEDNESDAY
Health Reform's Competition Crushers
Liberal consumer groups are aghast to learn that the Obama health team are really monopolists at heart, bent on handing hospitals a cartel in their local markets.
More Good News for Thanksgiving
In the Wall Street Journal just before Thanksgiving last year, Melinda Beck detailed some of the health care advances that we should continue to give thanks for this Thanksgiving Day:

MONDAY
Business on Obamacare: Resist, Don't Repeal
Congressional Republicans are touting plans to repeal the Obama Administration's health care reform law, but they face wariness for a full rollback from a key constituency: the business lobby.

Blogs
WEDNESDAY
Does the UK have the best health care institutions in the world?
Not in the present day time slice sense, but think of it over time.  There is a big lock-in effect.  The United States, for instance, cannot easily switch into another way of organizing its health care system.  Obamacare is built upon current institutions and, for better or worse, does more to lock them in than to modify them.

TUESDAY
Will Health Reform Save Lives?
Ideal health insurance actually would not include Medicaid at all. It would involve people enrolling in private plans that are portable, and travel with them from job to job. And this result is consistent with other research. For although there is some argument about how much difference health insurance makes, almost every study finds that private insurance is better than Medicaid.
One More Step toward the Right Medicare and Medicaid Reforms
The President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is not set to release its final recommendations on how best to tackle deficit spending and entitlement reform until December 1. However, several of its members have already gone public with proposals to reduce runaway spending and put Medicare and Medicaid, two of the fastest-growing entitlement programs, on the road to solvency.

MONDAY
Welfare Reform: British Style
According to British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, the United Kingdom will put into place “a radical new welfare state where it always pays to work.”

Reports
None