Medicare Advantage Premiums To Fall 4% In 2012
As premium costs fell, enrollment rose
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The plan takes the commission into an area it generally tries to avoid: how to pay for such a major change to the Medicare system. Its suggestion is to pay for the SGR fix by reducing payments to specialists and imposing cuts on other parts of the health care sector.
This week's studies come from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Health Affairs, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, The Archives of Internal Medicine, The Kaiser Family Foundation, Health Management Associates, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
A campaign that began in 2000 encouraging women in China to give birth in hospitals instead of at home helped cut the nation's neonatal mortality rate by 62 percent between 1996 and 2008, according to a study by researchers from Peking University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, BBC News reports. For the study, published Friday in the Lancet, researchers analyzed "data from China's Maternal and Mortality Surveillance System to examine trends in neonatal mortality by cause and socioeconomic region," the news service writes (9/15).
"Afghanistan is intensifying efforts to eradicate polio by the end of next year, but security remains a major challenge especially in the southern provinces where the virus is localized, says" Arshad Quddus, head of the WHO polio program in Afghanistan, IRIN reports. Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan, according to the WHO, IRIN notes, adding that Afghan "[g]overnment data show that 85 percent of the population now live in polio-free areas, but the virus is still circulating in 13 districts, including the seven where [13] recent cases have been detected." In addition to security issues, "low literacy rates, poor hygiene practices and low awareness of the benefits of vaccination" are hindering campaigns, according to IRIN (9/15).
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Chad Thomas Gurtner "says Chad faces daunting food security and health challenges" but that "peace and growing stability in Chad bodes well for the country's future," VOA News reports. He cited high rates of food insecurity and malnutrition among children, "insufficient rainfall" that likely will "limit agricultural production," rising food prices, the "worst cholera epidemic in years," and the return home of more than 80,000 Chadian migrants who were working in Libya and sending money home to their families, the news service notes.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that, despite dire predictions by health law opponents about the Medicare Advantage program, its premiums are falling and its enrollment is rising.
Meanwhile, media outlets consider whether the 'super committee' will ultimately opt to go for a "grand bargain."
State Medicaid directors as well as patient and consumer advocates are detailing the harms that would result from various Medicaid changes under discussion.
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Today's articles come from The Atlantic, Marketplace, The Economist, The Nation and Modern Healthcare.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports on the quality of weekend care at stroke centers, and nursing homes are trying to reduce their use of powerful antipsychotic drugs for patients with dementia.
The Washington Post reports that Dems plan to maintain their focus on House GOP plans to change Medicare, despite this week's difficulties at the polls.
Since Monday night's GOP primary debate, the two presidential hopefuls continue to be the targets of discussion and coverage regarding both the style and substance of the HPV vaccine issue.
Maryland report finds the average stay in a hospital in 2010 was up about 2 percent, less than the 3 percent national increase.
In the wake of this week's Census Bureau report, news outlets report that the dire data about the percentage of Americans living in poverty could feed the current deficit-reduction discussions in Congress.
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Enroll America, which is a group of health care organizations and companies, is making a health coverage push to boost the new health law.
The state appellate court will hear arguments next month on whether the governor can reduce enrollment in Medicaid.
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