Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues
| 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... |
| Save Our Seniors by Delaying ObamaCare Delaying the start of scheduled cuts in Medicare by five years and delaying the 2014 starting date of ObamaCare by two year will protect seniors, save taxpayers money and allow lawmakers time to enact health reforms that actually work, say John C. Goodman, president and CEO, and Devon Herrick, a senior fellow, at the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| The Crisis of the Uninsured Is Far from Over The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 30 million people will remain uninsured a decade from now when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, says Devon Herrick, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| Tax Penalty to Hit Nearly Six Million Uninsured People Nearly 80 percent of those who will face the penalty for not having health insurance will be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level -- about $55,850 or less for an individual and $115,250 or less for a family of four... |
