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Update on Health Care Reform

Even though the federal version of health care reform is stalled, the states are still working on these issues. After a lengthy and heated debate, the California Senate last week passed a single-payer bill. As with past incarnations, the bill passed on a party-line vote. Previous attempts to advance single-payer legislation have been vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Supporters of the bill claim it would actually cost the state nothing, despite a Senate Appropriations Committee analysis that pegs the cost at $200 billion. Republicans decried the bill as a government take-over of health care.

In other news, California in 2011 will become the first state to set legal limits on the time patients must wait to see their HMO doctors. The Department of Managed Health care has announced there will be a maximum wait time of 10 business days for an appointment to see a family practitioner, 15 days to see a specialist, and 48 hours for people seeking urgent care. In addition, doctors’ offices must return telephone calls within 30 minutes. The time limits apply only to doctors in HMOs, which officials say will cover 21 million Californians. A 2002 state law mandated timely access to medical care, and the specifics were worked out after years of negotiations with doctors, hospitals, HMOs and consumer groups. Also, the CEO of the California Medical Association, Alfred Gilchrist, has announced his resignation after serving for just over 2 months. Gilchrist is returning to his former role as CEO of the Colorado Medical

States Consider Their Own Health Reform Ideas

Medical News Today covers some news about states considering their own health reform ideas.

Drug Company CEOs Under Pressure

Medical News Today covers this issue:

In a separate article, Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal reports on a high and “generational” turnover among pharmaceutical CEOs. “The new leaders are taking over an industry under pressure. The past decade has brought heightened scrutiny of drug safety, government probes of sales and marketing practices, and greater pricing pressure from drug-benefit plans and generic competitors. Drug makers feel compelled to control costs and do more to get results from the billions of dollars they pour into their research labs”

Poll: Health care bill won’t help Democrats

Politico writes about this issue:

“At this point, it looks like the political damage for Democrats on health care has been done, whether they end up passing the bill or not,” said PPP President Dean Debnam. “Republican support for this fall is identical with, or without it.”

The Debate Over Selling Insurance Across State Lines

Kaiser Health News writes about this issue:

Congressional Republicans have proposed the concept in the past and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., embraced it as part of his 2008 presidential campaign. Advocates – including some insurers and small business groups – say it would give the more than 17 million Americans who buy individual coverage a greater choice of plans and the possibility of lower prices. (The measure does not apply to the 159 million non-elderly Americans who obtain insurance through their employers.)

But critics — including consumer watchdog groups and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners — say the provision would erode many state government consumer protections, leave policyholders with inadequate coverage and could actually lead to higher premiums for some people.