Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues
| Facts about America's Health Care Quality that the World Doesn't Know For breast cancer, the mortality rate in Germany is 52 percent higher and in the United Kingdom it is 88 percent higher than in the United States... |
| New Affordable Care Act Mandates Force Unnecessary Benefits Patients ages 18 through 24 can expect a 45 percent jump in their premiums because of new health insurance coverage mandates... |
| U.S. Health Care Spending Growth Continues at Slow Pace The year 2010 marked the lowest rate of annualized personal expenditures on health care since the National Health Expenditure Accounts statistics were first calculated in 1960... |
| A Health Scare for Small Businesses Even though the rule doesn't go into effect until early 2014, a business could be subject to the so-called employer health care mandate if, during 2013, it averages 50 or more full-time equivalent employees... |
| Doctors Give in to Patient Demands for Brand-Name Drugs Thirty-seven percent of doctors surveyed admitted to sometimes prescribing a brand-name drug at a patient's request even though a generic version of the medication was available... |
| Disease Management Programs Don't Work A new study concludes that diabetic disease management programs in Washington, Texas and Georgia were not effective... |
| As 2013 Begins, Get Ready For an ObamaCare Tax Onslaught The medical device tax under the new health law will impose a 2.3 percent on profit from gross sales, even if the company has no profit at all... |
| Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits, Despite New Health Law PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that health care costs may increase just 7.5 percent next year, well below the rate increases being sought by some insurers... |
| Switzerland: A Case Study in Consumer-Driven Health Care In 2000, 43 percent of Swiss consumers' payments were for insurance premiums, 0.1 percent for deductibles and copayments, and 28 percent for all other out-of-pocket costs... |
| Medicaid Reforms and Emergency Room Visits Evidence from West Virginia's Medicaid reform shows that if individuals are more involved with their health and are in constant contact with their health providers, there is potential to reduce overall costs... |
