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.

We're getting ready to launch a new blog that looks at the broader issues of Medicare, update your RSS feed now as we get it ready for our official launch: http://medicareadvantagecongress.blogspot.com.

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.

What’s the Real Cost of Healthcare?

Trisha Torrey brings up a good point in her latest post on the Patient Empowerment Blog, the true cost of healthcare remains a mystery still to many patients.

First is the copay, then the insurance takes the rest of the doctors charges if the patient is insured. If there is a balance after the insurance has paid their stated amount, the patient is responsible for remainder of the payment. Costs are sometimes negotiated between insurance companies and doctors, but for those who don’t have insurance, negotiations are made between the patient and the doctor. So here’s a solution that can possibly help patients make wiser decisions when it comes to costs.

Change Healthcare is an online service that finds average costs of doctor visits, services, and what insurance companies typically negotiate with doctors. You can upload information about your own costs to the website. By sharing information, it is possible to help people in your area discover the true costs of healthcare.

Health Crisis: A Move to Private Insurance?

Funding for prescription medication and doctor visits has long been a health care crisis in the United States. This latest article in the NY Times highlights Senator John McCain’s detailed plan to solve this phenomenon by emphasizing a shift in insurance provided by employers to private insurance bought by individuals.

This plan would eliminate tax breaks given to businesses that offer insurance to employees, and would replace that with $5,000 tax credits to families who choose to buy their own insurance. This proposal is completely different from the Democrat’s move towards universal healthcare.

McCain’s plan came about because of the growing concern of affordable healthcare for low-income families and elderly people who are not able to work. There is much criticism for McCain’s plan. Pre-existing medical conditions make it tougher for elderly and sick individuals to be approved for private insurance.

This strategy offered in this plan focuses on easing the burden for individuals and families to purchase private insurance. It’ll be interesting to see what industry insiders think about how this can affectively achieve that result.