Alaska Health Policy Review

By Paul N. Van de Water:

Raising Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67, which the new Joint Select Committee will likely consider this fall as a deficit-reduction measure, would not only fail to constrain health care costs across the economy; it would increase them.

While this proposal would save the federal government money, it would do so by shifting costs to most of the 65- and 66-year-olds who would lose Medicare coverage, to employers that provide health coverage for their retirees, to Medicare beneficiaries, to younger people who buy insurance through the new health insurance exchanges, and to states.

The principal study of the effects of raising the Medicare eligibility age, by the Kaiser Family Foundation, estimates that its increased state and private-sector costs would be twice as large as the net federal savings.  If the proposal were fully in effect in 2014, Kaiser estimates, it would generate $5.7 billion in net federal savings but $11.4 billion in higher health care costs to individuals, employers, and states.

[Excerpted from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Read the full report here.]

Filed under: Of interest

“Over the past several legislative sessions, APCA members have been voicing concern both over challenging processes of obtaining licensure in Alaska for some health professionals, and not having adequate reimbursement for some licensed provider types (particularly with regards to behavioral health provider types).”

Excerpted from the Alaska Primary Care Association Legislative Update Vol. 6, Issue 30.

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Filed under: Of interest

The Centers for Disease Control has released a disaster preparedness memo in their Public Health Matters Blog geared toward a zombie apocalypse.

The blog entry is tongue-in-cheek, but is geared toward raising community awareness about disaster preparedness. With heightened awareness being given toward disasters, both natural and man-made over the past few years, the notion of preparing for emergencies is not out the realm of reality.

[Read “Social Media: Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse” by the Centers for Disease Control.]

Filed under: Of interest

Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths

The decades-long neglect of pedestrian safety in the design and use of American streets is exacting a heavy toll on our lives. In the last decade, from 2000 through 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the United States, the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing roughly every month. On top of that, more than 688,000 pedestrians were injured over the decade, a number equivalent to a pedestrian being struck by a car or truck every 7 minutes.

Despite the magnitude of these avoidable tragedies, little public attention – and even less in public resources – has been committed to reducing pedestrian deaths and injuries in the United States. On the contrary, transportation agencies typically prioritize speeding traffic over the safety of people on foot or other vulnerable road users.

[Download and read the full national report Dangerous by Design 2011, published by Transportation for America, which explores the numbers, the causes and the solutions for solving this epidemic of preventable deaths.]

Filed under: Of interest