Proposal Would Create Near-Universal Health Care Coverage in California; Report Estimates $1B Increase in Medicare Hospital Payments in FY 2006

• "A Proposal To Cover the Uninsured in California," Health Affairs: In a Health Affairs Web exclusive, George Halvorson -- chair and CEO of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals in Oakland, Calif. -- and colleagues propose a state-based approach that would provide near-universal coverage uninsured residents by utilizing existing systems. The plan would be financed by a health care sales tax and an "in-lieu" payroll tax, which would be paid by employers that do not provide employer-sponsored health coverage. The plan emphasizes primary and preventive care and recommends catastrophic care coverage for uninsured state residents with higher incomes (Halvorson et al., Health Affairs, 12/12). A perspective piece on the proposal by Rick Curtis, president of the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, and Ed Neuschler, a senior program officer at the institute, is available online. Please note: The Kaiser Family Foundation is not associated with the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan or Kaiser Foundation Hospitals.
  
  
• "Rural Payment Provisions in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003," Medicare Payment Advisory Commission: Medicare payments to hospitals are expected to increase by about $1 billion in fiscal year 2006 because of rural payment provisions in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. In FY 2006, rural hospitals are expected to receive $377 million and urban hospitals are expected to receive $774 million. The act also allowed hospitals to change their status to critical access hospitals to make them eligible for cost-based reimbursement (MedPAC, "Rural Payment Provisions in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003," 12/8).