Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues
| Many States Not Prepared for Health Care Law Only 13 states and the District of Columbia have formally expressed their intention to set up health insurance exchanges... |
| Biosimilars: The Precarious Battle between Cost-Centric Health Care Policy and Patient-Centric Care Incentivizing or requiring patients to purchase biosimilar drugs stifles medical innovation and economic investment, which ends up hurting patients in the long run... |
| ObamaCare's Tax Raid on Medical Devices According to the Congressional Budget Office, there will be no increase in sales to offset the added $30 billion cost from the medical device tax... |
| Medical Students Lack Knowledge of Health Care Overhaul In January 2011, an online survey of 1,235 medical students was taken; 40 percent of students said they did not understand the basic components of the health care reform law... |
| Urgent Care Centers Are Booming One in five visits to the emergency room can be treated at an urgent care center, saving up to $4.4 billion annually in health care costs... |
| Big Firms Overhaul Health Coverage Sears Holdings Corp. and Darden Restaurants Inc. are changing the way they provide health insurance -- giving employees a fixed sum of money and allowing them to choose their medical coverage and insurer from an online marketplace... |
| Medicare Bills Rise as Records Turn Electronic Overall, hospitals that received government incentives to adopt electronic records showed a 47 percent rise in Medicare payments at higher levels from 2006 to 2010... |
| States Seek a Middle Ground on Medicaid Some states are looking into partially expanding their Medicaid programs to receive federal subsidies... |
| ObamaCare -- An Explosion of Regulatory Burdens There are over 80 million hours of rules and regulations that American businesses and families have to comply with under the Affordable Care Act... |
| Higher Prices by Hospitals, Other Providers, Drove 2011 Spending Increases Spending on medical care for Americans with job-based insurance rose 4.6 percent last year... |
