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Californians' health premiums rise 5 times faster than pay
Sacramento Bee - 10-16-2008 - In the past seven years, family health premiums rose by 95.8 percent, while median earnings rose by 19.3 percent, according to a study released Wednesday by Families USA, a national nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C.
As budgets tighten, more people decide medical care can wait
Washington Post - 10-16-2008 - The global economic crunch is forcing a growing number of Americans to scale back on medical care. Consumers are pushing off seemingly less-urgent services in the hope that their financial health will improve. But the danger is that the short-term savings may translate into more severe long-termhealth implications, physicians say. Hospitals report that unpaid medical bills are on the rise, pharmacists are seeing a spike in cheaper generics, and demand for low-cost care is climbing.
Opinion: The king is dead
Sacramento News & Review - 10-16-2008 - The 2008–09 budget and related legislation reject many of the governor’s proposed deep cuts in Medi-Cal and other health programs,” reports the California Budget Project, a nonprofit agency that provides fiscal and policy analysis on the state’s finances. Nevertheless, the budget extended the 10 percent cut on Medi-Cal payments to providers and capped or reduced payments to children receiving dental and eye care from the Healthy Families Program, among many other cuts.
Death rate 70% lower at top U.S. hospitals
Washington Post - 10-16-2008 - The death rate at top-ranked U.S. hospitals is 70% lower than at the lowest-ranked hospitals, according to a study that examined 41 million patient records at 5,000 hospitals over three years. The study focused on 17 procedures and found that overall death rates declined by 14.7% from 2005 to 2007. Top-performing five-star hospitals reduced their death rates faster (about 13.2%) than poorer-performing one- and three-star hospitals (12.3 and 13.1%, respectively). The findings resulted in large state, regional and hospital-to-hospital variations in the quality of patient care.
U.S. falls behind other developed countries in infant mortality
Los Angeles Times - 10-16-2008 - After a century of declines, the U.S. infant mortality rate barely budged between 2000 and 2005, causing the United States to slip further behind other developed countries despite spending more on healthcare, according to a report released Wednesday.
Higher Medical Costs Pinch UnitedHealth
Wall Street Journal - 10-16-2008 - UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s third-quarter net income fell 28% as medical costs jumped, though the company's fourth-quarter profits could top analysts' expectations.
How New Law Boosts Coverage of Mental Care
Wall Street Journal - 10-16-2008 - The financial-bailout package signed into law earlier this month included legislation requiring employers and health insurers to put their mental-health and substance-use coverage on par with their physical-health coverage.
