Medicare and Medicaid Rise to the Top

The Wall Street Journal blog reports that while the share of Americans that got health insurance through work or bought it on the private market last year declined, the number of Americans insured through Medicaid and Medicare has increased. These are numbers based on the latest report from the US Census Bureau.

This change shows that there is an overall decline in the percentage of Americans who are uninsured, and this goes against recent trends of rising uninsurance rates. See the full report here.

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Health Care Concerns

The main theme discussed in this post on The Healthcare Blog seems to be that consumers are more concerned about the cost of healthcare than the illness itself. Most Americans are often confused when given many choices of insurance providers to shop for. Consumers aren’t used to shopping for insurance, and so it can be quite troublesome.

A survey conducted by McKinsey also found that there are also differences in health concerns varying by age. Younger people aged 18-34 are far more concerned with dental and accidents, whereas older people are more worried about LTC and major medical events. There is still a long way to go in the health care system when fighting costs is a major concern over fighting diseases.

The battle between insurance companies and anorexia

In a recent report at ABC News, they tell of how Janell Smith committed suicide days after she was released from the hospital because of her anorexic disorder. Her parents cite the reason This is just one story in many where parents are fighting against the government because insurance companies are not providing enough money for disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

Insurance companies cover minimal stays in hospitals for those being treated for anorexia, many only 30 to 60 days. Many are reluctant to cover the full costs, as it can run up to $1000 a day. Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey states that they will not cover extended periods of time with anorexia because:

The insurers' argument that eating disorders should not be characterized as biologically based mental illness has been disputed by some leading researchers. The director of the National Institute of Mental Health wrote in a 2006 letter that anorexia has "a biological core, with genetic components."

Employers and Health Insurance

In a recent post at Managed Care Matters, Joseph Paduda discusses the link between employers and the health insurance they offer. He thinks that the reason employers offer health insurance is the important link between health and productivity.

In fact, he states this of the topic:

Keeping workers, and their families, healthy and productive is the primary objective of health insurance

There is another reason employers offer good health insurance: to attract and keep good workers. At the end of the article, he points out that if the system were to reform to individuals choosing policies, health care agencies would have no companies would be responsible for choosing a carrier. As a result, insurance companies would win out, and lower premiums would result in poorer care.

Aetna Ranked Number One In Paying Doctors On Time

In a recent article released by the Wall Street Journal, a study done by Aetnahealth, Aetna was the fastest insurer to pay doctors back for claims. The other fastest insurance companies were Humana at 30 days, Cigna at 33 days, Medicare-B and UnitedHealth at 35 days.

Other factors associated with ranking the fastest health care company were how long it took to pay their bills, percentage of claims solved after one submission and the rate of claim denials.

Other reasons Aetna was ranked at the top were 96% of their claims were solved after the first submission, and they also had the lowest denial rate at 10.6%.

‘I Do’….For Insurance

While financial support has been an important criteria for many who marry, a study, from Kaiser Family Foundation, recently came out about the growing influence that healthcare has on the decision to marry. An astounding 7% of Americans within the past year have either married or know someone who has married for healthcare coverage. This post on the Wall Street Journal provides more detail, including highlighting some issues about how respondents perceived the survey question, resulting in the percentage of 4.5 million Americans who marry with cost of healthcare in mind. Even though the overall percentage is small, it is still a significant part of the population. Here is more information from the full story at the Houston Chronicle.