Alaska Health Policy Review

Even as Congress debates health care reform proposals, millions of Americans—with and without health insurance—struggle to pay medical bills, and their numbers continue to grow.

Today, Families USA released three new pieces to help consumers navigate the maze of medical debt. These new consumer guides offer strategies, tips, and warnings to consumers as they struggle to manage medical debt and to avoid bankruptcy.

Your Medical Bills: A Consumer’s Guide to Coping with Medical Debt, details the legal rights and primary actions consumers should take to deal with rising medical expenses. The consumer-friendly guide offers step-by-step instructions on dealing with medical bills, beginning with the vital first step of reviewing each bill and learning how to appeal charges that may be inappropriate or should be covered by insurance. Read the rest of this entry »

This study was completed last year, but I was compelled to post it because it is so important in the current environment.  ~~ldw

Key Findings

In the vast majority of states, insurance companies are permitted to reject individuals for coverage based on their health status, occupation, or even their recreational activities.

• Only five states prohibit all insurance companies from cherry-picking the healthiest consumers and excluding everyone else.

If an insurance company does accept an individual’s application for coverage, few states significantly limit how much an insurer can increase an individual’s premiums based on what the insurer deems to be health risks (which can include anything from cold sores to hobbies to below average height).

• In 35 states and the District of Columbia, there are no limits on how much insurers can vary premiums based on health status. An additional six states have limits that still allow dramatic variations in premiums.

Read the rest of this entry »

*CONFERENCE REGISTRATION*

Conference registration fee goes up $50.00 on November 17.  Register by the 16th and save.  Remember you can register online at: http://www.alaskapublichealth.org/summit.shtml

*BROCHURE*

*There have been a few changes to the program lineup and we will be updating that information shortly. The 2009 Health Summit brochure is still posted at: http://www.alaskapublichealth.org/tracks.shtml. If you would like an individual electronic copy or additional questions, please send a request to: alaskahealthsummit@gmail.com.

At http://www.alaskapublichealth.org/summit.shtml you will also find individual links to the round table discussions, poster sessions and postsummits.  These lists are updated on a regular basis as more information is received. Preliminary information is already posted.

Sincerely, Information Insights Conference Support Team: Brenda Holden, Barb Branton, Jessica Holden, Nancy Lowe, Susan Pruitt.

alaskahealthsummit@gmail.com
907.450.2452
Fax 907.450.2470
www.infoinsights.com

The Alaska Health Summit is one of many efforts of the Alaska Public Health Association to promote the advancement of public health, to promote improved health and quality of life for Alaskans. Go to http://www.alaskapublichealth.org/ for more information.

[Source: ALPHA press release]

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released updated fact sheets on health insurance coverage of women, including state-by-state data. Women’s Health Insurance Coverage provides new statistics on health coverage and describes the major sources of health insurance for non-elderly adult women ages 18-64, including employer-sponsored coverage, Medicaid, individually purchased insurance, and Medicare.

A related fact sheet provides state-by-state figures on the uninsured rate and rates of employer-sponsored insurance, individual insurance and Medicaid coverage among all women ages 18 to 64 nationally, and among low-income women in that age group.See more information about women’s health care and coverage in the Women’s Health Policy section of the Foundation’s Web site.

The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible information, research and analysis on health issues.

This information from the ever vigilant Robert Sewell:

This is a GREAT resource, and there is a very decent web-site & maintained data-base behind it:

Health Workforce News http://www.healthworkforceinfo.org/

Health Workforce News is from the Health Workforce Information Center, an entity located in North Dakota & funded by HRSA. You may be interested in signing up to receive the newsletter on an ongoing basis if you haven’t already.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center analyzed data from more than 23 million children’s hospitalizations in 37 states from 1988 to 2005. Compared with insured children, uninsured children faced a 60 percent increased risk of dying, the researchers found.

The authors estimated that at least 1,000 hospitalized children died each year simply because they lacked insurance, accounting for 16,787 of some 38,649 children’s deaths nationwide during the period analyzed.

See the full NYT article online.

I sent this out to some of my colleagues a couple of weeks ago…

Colleagues:

I would like to share my concerns with you about the possible public health consequences if we do have serious gas shortages this winter, and especially if it is a prolonged very cold winter and there are periods and/or areas where the gas is restricted entirely, or the price of gas skyrockets.

people tighten up air leaks in the home, and use alternative heating sources such as kerosene or briquettes.  This results in carbon monoxide poisonings.  What are we doing to prevent that?

home fires are likely to increase due to inappropriate use of alternative heating sources such as open flames from various sources. What are we doing?

For a variety of reasons more and sicker people are managing their health conditions at home.  Do we know who and where they are?  Do we have the ability to evacuate them?  Do we have alternate places, warm and well-stocked and equiped, to evacuate them to? Read the rest of this entry »

A Commonwealth Fund report just published analyzes the similarities, differences, potential impacts, and costs of the three comprehensive health reform bills passed by key U.S. congressional committees. As explained in the report and an online slide presentation narrated by Karen Davis, Fund president and report coauthor, the Senate and House bills all include provisions that seek to expand and improve health care coverage by building on the strongest aspects of our current private–public insurance system and reorganizing and regulating the individual and small-group insurance markets.

In addition to the report and slide presentation, you can also view interactive tables that provide side-by-side comparisons of the system reform and insurance coverage provisions in the three bills. As health reform legislation evolves, be sure to visit www.commonwealthfund.org for updates to the report and companion resources.

HOUSE STANDING COMMITTEES

FINANCE

Oct 27 Tuesday Anchorage 9:00 AM

Subcommittee Meeting

Location: UAA Campus, Library Building, Room #307

Overview and working session of HB 50 –

LIMIT OVERTIME FOR REGISTERED NURSES

– Teleconference –

– Testimony <Invitation Only> –

– Public Testimony If Time Permits –

Nov 04 Wednesday Anch Lio Rm 220 9:00 AM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES

Nov 03 Tuesday Anch Lio Conf Rm 1:00 PM

– Rescheduled from 09/17/09 –

– Teleconference 1 to 5 pm –

+ CMS Moratorium Review

Department of Health and Social Services

Public Testimony Will Also Be Taken

Steven Woolf, David Satcher, and others estimated that from 1991 to 2000, medical advances averted 176,000 deaths, but equalizing mortality rates between whites and African-Americans would have averted 886,202 deaths. Am J Pul Hlt 2004;94:2078.

The most enlightening new account is Doug Massey’s on the history of how and why the US failed to temper the sharp inequalities and poverty that capitalism brings, while other countries did. European Socio Review 2009:25:9-23. Try http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/GSSW/schram/masseyglobal.pdf.

The term, “health disparities,” pushes clear thinking about inequality, racism, and discrimination into a vague soup. It’s a term we should stop using, like “wellness” which also depoliticizes and beclouds illness, injury and their harsh consequences by focusing on an upper middle class professional view of subjective well-being.

[Source: communique from Donald W. Light]