Health Care News Dec. 13 - 17

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News
FRIDAY
More Americans Without Employer-Provided Coverage
Approximately 44.8 percent of adults reported having employer-based insurance in November, a new low in a general decline from 50 percent in January 2008.
Young People Can Be Enticed to Buy Health Insurance
Contrary to popular belief, many of the healthier, typically younger Americans who shun insurance do so because of cost concerns, not because they think they will avoid illness or injury.

THURSDAY
Health care reform: Battleground shifts to Florida courtroom
The legal battle over health care reform is destined for the Supreme Court, analysts say. On Thursday a US district judge in Florida hears arguments in a case brought by 20 States.

WEDNESDAY
New Rule Requires Hospitals to Report Infections
Hospitals are set to begin reporting bloodstream infections to the federal government starting January 1 in an effort to reduce preventable infections and death; by 2012, hospitals will begin reporting surgical site infections.
U.S. to Appeal Health Ruling
Move Advances Constitutional Struggle Likely to Reach Supreme Court by 2012.
Baby Boomers Will Benefit Most from Health Reform
Baby boomers will likely reap the most benefits from health care reform according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund. According to the report, 6.8 million of the 8.6 million uninsured Americans aged 50-64 will gain insurance through the expansion of Medicaid in 2014.

TUESDAY
Despite conservative victory Monday, experts say Obamacare debate ultimately headed to Supreme Court
President Obama's health care reform law was dealt a serious blow Monday when the part of the law that requires Americans to purchase health insurance was deemed unconstitutional by a federal court in Virginia. But analysts largely agree that the final battle over the law will ultimately be waged at the Supreme Court.
What health care ruling means
A Virginia judge found a key part of the health care legislation unconstitutional; namely, the part that says Americans without health coverage must purchase their own, starting in 2014. Here's what that means for you:
Medicaid cuts: teeth pulled, transplant called off
Across the country, state lawmakers have taken harsh actions to try to rein in the budget-busting costs of the health care program that serves 58 million poor and disabled Americans. Some states have cut payments to doctors, paid bills late and trimmed benefits such as insulin pumps, obesity surgery and hospice care.

MONDAY
Va. Judge to Rule on Health Care Legislation
Judge Considers Constitutionality of 'Individual Mandate' in Health Care Law.
Firms Feel Pain From Health Law
Big employers faced with incorporating the first round of health-care changes next month are grappling with how to comply with the long list of new rules.
Voter Support for Generic Medicaid Drugs
With state legislators facing another tough year of budget gaps, Medicaid has once again become a target for cost cutting. But at least one interest group is using the recent focus on slashing Medicaid’s costs to generate momentum to change how the government plan does business, saving money without reducing benefits.
Republicans say nix to Democrats' health law fix
Republicans rebuffed a Democratic effort to repeal health reform’s universally panned 1099 IRS reporting requirements as a piggyback in the tax cut deal. The move leaves 1099 rollback in play for the next Congress, giving Republicans an easy target in an otherwise challenged landscape for health reform repeal.

Economist Comments
FRIDAY
Why social sharing of medical data is a good idea
Concerns over digital privacy, especially of medical records, have never been higher. Yet startup PatientsLikeMe says there's much to be gained from the crowdsourcing of ailments -- and treatments.
Obamacare will hurt low-skill workers
Come 2014, the health care law will make it more costly for employers to hire low-skill workers. And, as workplaces around the country prepare to implement the new law, employers are considering how best to comply.
Can Congress Force You to Be Healthy?
Judge Hudson explained that whatever else Congress might be able to do, it cannot force people to engage in a commercial activity, in this case buying an insurance policy.

THURSDAY
When the Supreme Court takes up the Obama health-care law 'mandate'
Justice Kennedy will probably be the swing vote on a case concerning the individual mandate. Here is what he may well say against this linchpin of the Obama health-care law.
Enforcement and the health care law
Conservative promises to thwart “Obamacare” by cutting off funds needed for implementation sets up a dangerous precedent that Americans — Republican and Democrat - -should be wary of.
On Health Law, Check Back in a Generation
Whether or not the Supreme Court ultimately upholds or rejects the idea of a government mandate to buy health insurance, the various facets of the new law will be subject to myriad challenges over the next several years — not only in the courts, but on the floor of Congress and inside the agencies that will establish a truckload of new regulations.
Mr. President, tear down this law
Mr. President, the centerpiece of your domestic agenda, the health care overhaul that bears your name, has just been declared unconstitutional. I celebrate this victory for freedom and for limited government, and I invite you to consider the opportunity it offers you.

WEDNESDAY
Romney Agrees Health Care Law Is Unconstitutional
“The court ruling supports Mitt Romney’s view that 'Obamacare' is an unconstitutional power grab by Washington,’’ said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. “We should repeal the law and return to the states the power to determine their own health care solutions."
Obamacare oblivion
Fast-track needed for Supreme Court review.

TUESDAY
Why the Health-Care Law Got Slammed
Early versions of the health reform law specifically called the individual mandate payment a "tax" but the final version of the law specifically changed this terminology to "penalty" not "tax".

MONDAY
Graham: U.S. competitive without medical monopoly
The November election made a bull's-eye out of Obamacare, which some Republicans want to repeal. Obamacare is a worthy target because it is a significant lurch toward so-called "universal" health care.
Kicking the Medicare Can -- Again
Since 2003, as health-care costs have skyrocketed and Medicare's finances grown worse, the SGR has dictated reimbursement cuts every year. And every year, Congress intervened to postpone those cuts.
Obamacare must be repealed
The American people have spoken, and the message they sent to Washington is clear: Americans want Obamacare ripped out of the U.S. Code by the roots. With their actions, America's voters have shown that they want the 112th Congress to make Obamacare repeal a reality.
Following the Money, Doctors Ration Care
Unequal access to health care is hardly a new phenomenon in the United States, but the country is moving toward rationing on a scale that is unprecedented here.

Blogs
FRIDAY
It's a Penalty ... It's a Tax ... No, It's SUPERMANDATE!
So the latest talking point I'm seeing is that the individual mandate is no big deal--just a tax dodge like we've always had.  The government is raising taxes, and then giving a deduction of equal size to those who buy health insurance.
ObamaCare Challenges Gain Steam
Today’s hearing in Pensacola built on Monday’s ruling out of Richmond: Judge Roger Vinson is likely to hold the individual mandate unconstitutional.
Government Arguing That Health Insurance Premiums Are Really Taxes?
The arguments on the health care mandate in Florida went forward today, with the government trying to clarify how the mandate is a tax, and not an attempt to grossly exceed the enumerated powers of the legislature.
NYT got it wrong on the health care big picture
With regard to health care, the major reason for the high prices and dislocations are government restrictions, programs, and interventions of all sorts. This is the reason for the existing problems. More government intervention will do nothing to correct them but instead will lead to ever more rationing, technological stagnation, and deprivations of all kinds.
Will National Health Care Improve Our Economic Health?
During the latter half of the debate over the health care bill, you started to hear an intriguing argument about the effects of the bill.  Where conservatives claimed that it would stifle the economy, liberals countered that in fact, it would unleash the entrepreneurial power of people "locked into" their jobs by fear of losing their health coverage.

THURSDAY
Medicare Entitlement Crowd Out: We Told You So
Any time Congress creates a health care entitlement, it “crowds out” (i.e., displaces) private coverage, replacing private sector spending with increased taxpayer spending. The end result: Private spending and coverage contract while government entitlements, dependency, and spending grow.
Breaking Health Care Research
Deficit reduction is in vogue right now thanks to the recent efforts of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, but Representative Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) “Roadmap for America’s Future Act” started it all as the first proposal to offer comprehensive solutions to the nation’s pending fiscal crisis, balancing the budget and eliminating national debt while also fixing the health care system.

WEDNESDAY
Medicare Variation Revisited
Health economists and policy analysts have long known that Medicare spends much more, per patient, in some parts of the country than in others.
Breast cancer drug offers glimpse of death panels
OnFriday, the Food and Drug Administration could doom thousands of breast cancer victims. The FDA will be considering the unprecedented step of revoking approval for Avastin, a drug that represents the last hope for women with late-stage breast cancer.

TUESDAY
Judge Rules Health Reform Mandate Unconstitutional
This has naturally attracted a lot of electrons, and ink, but it's not a surprise--his earlier comments on the mandate, when he ruled against the government's motion to dismiss, seemed to indicate that this was coming.  This is going all the way to the Supreme Court, and ultimately, it will depend on whether our swing justice wants to make history by affirming the law, or by overturning it.
Judge Rules Obamacare Mandate Goes Beyond Letter and Spirit of the Constitution
After declaring the individual mandate and the alleged tax (really a penalty) unconstitutional, the judge had to confront two remedial issues.
Breaking Health Care Research: A New Way Forward in Medicare Reform
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) will impact every corner of the health care system, especially Medicare. Unfortunately, the new law speeds the program’s travel in the wrong direction by building upon existing problems and creating new ones.
Another Victory on the Road to Repeal
Obamacare simply may not survive that long. It is already collapsing under its own financial and bureaucratic weight.

MONDAY
Follow the reimbursement rates

A large number of doctors, for instance, do not accept Medicaid patients and that is because the Medicaid reimbursement rate is lower than Medicare or private insurance.  It's a key question how the queueing of Medicaid patients (and to some extent Medicare patients) will proceed as the demand for health care rises.
Number of Waivers Grows As a Result of Obamacare Authors’ Sloppy Handiwork
Jamie Dupree recently reported for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the number of waivers granted by the Obama Administration for a certain provision in the new health care law has now reached 222. That’s double the amount of just three weeks ago.

Reports
TUESDAY
How to Fix Medicare: A New Vision for a Better Program
Medicare is an entitlement program intended to secure health care for senior and disabled citizens. But its current design, based on government central planning and price controls, falls far short of guaranteeing access to high-quality care for current and future retirees. With no budgetary limit, program costs have soared and will become unaffordable for future taxpayers. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) reinforces bureaucratic micromanagement and price regulation and makes the program’s current problems even worse.