Health Care Reform

Healthcare Reform Law Already Affecting Millions

Posted by on December 28, 2011 at 6:35 am

USA Today (12/28, Kennedy) reports that “it can be difficult to dig through the rhetoric to determine just what the 2010 health care law has done,” but “proponents and foes say big pieces of the law have been enacted and have already affected millions of people’s lives.” Don Berwick former administrator of the Centers for [...]

Supreme Court To Review Healthcare Reform Law In March

Posted by on November 15, 2011 at 6:38 am

The Supreme Court’s announcement that it would take up the challenges to healthcare reform drew heavy print and broadcast coverage, including nearly 7 and a half minutes of coverage on network newscasts (it was the lead story on NBC Nightly News) and several stories that appeared on the front pages of major newspapers. Most reports [...]

Provisions In Healthcare Law May Impact Insurance Brokers

Posted by on September 19, 2011 at 5:56 am

American Medical News (9/19, Berry) reports, “Physicians who use agents or brokers to buy health insurance for their practices are likely to notice changes when it comes time to renew policies or buy new ones. Among them: Their usual insurance brokers could be unavailable, because they’re getting out of the health insurance business.” These “changes [...]

Healthcare Law Likely Bound For Supreme Court After Appeals Court Ruling

Posted by on August 15, 2011 at 6:04 am

The ruling of a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that the individual healthcare mandate in the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional received limited attention on the broadcast network newscasts, but much wider coverage from major newspapers. ABC World News (8/12, story 5, Sawyer) reported Friday’s ruling “contradicts another [...]

Birth control recommendation will have no impact for now

Posted by on August 4, 2011 at 1:49 pm

I’ve been getting questions about a recent recommendation that birth control and some other services approved by the FDA be covered 100% as a preventive care under health care reform. This recommendation received a lot of coverage in the press, including stories in the Los Angeles Times and Indianapolis Business Journal. Some headlines misled readers [...]

HHS Says Insurers Must Cover Contraception In Full

Posted by on August 2, 2011 at 5:37 am

ABC World News (8/1, story 9, 0:30, Sawyer) reported that the Obama Administration “announced sweeping changes in birth control and other healthcare for tens of millions of American women.” The CBS Evening News (8/1, story 8, 0:25, Pelley) reported, “Starting in 2013 most health insurance plans must provide free contraceptives to women. It’s part of [...]

CMS Study: Reform Will Raise Healthcare Spending By 0.1%

Posted by on July 29, 2011 at 5:26 am

Politico (7/29, Norman) reports, “The Affordable Care Act will drive health care spending up slightly, to nearly a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product by 2020, while extending insurance coverage to 30 million more Americans, a new report from” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Yet, “health care’s hefty share of the [...]

Two Health Insurers To Cover Autism Therapy In California

Posted by on July 15, 2011 at 4:55 am

The Los Angeles Times (7/15, Helfand, Zarembo) reports, “Under pressure from regulators, Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross said they would pick up the initial cost of a treatment known as applied behavior analysis. Insurers, worried about rising demand for expensive services as the number of autism cases grows, have argued that the [...]

Romney Defends Massachusetts Healthcare Reforms

Posted by on May 13, 2011 at 5:21 am

Last night and this morning, Mitt Romney’s widely anticipated healthcare speech is being portrayed, by and large, as a failed attempt to achieve several objectives simultaneously – defending his Massachusetts healthcare reform plan, differentiating it from President Obama’s Federal law and shedding his image as a flip-flopper willing to renounce long-held positions due to political [...]

States Want Appeals Court To Declare Healthcare Law Unconstitutional

Posted by on May 5, 2011 at 5:36 am

The AP (5/5, Bluestein) reports, “More than two dozen states challenging the health care overhaul urged a US appeals court on Wednesday to strike down the Obama administration’s landmark law, arguing it far exceeds the federal government’s powers.” The states filed a motion urging “the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to uphold a [...]