Health Plan Used by U.S. Is Debated as a Model
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Though candidates suggest adapting the health care program that covers Congress and offering it to millions of uninsured Americans, such a plan would be unlikely to cut costs.
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Many people agree that America&#39;s health-care system needs fixing. Few agree on how to fix it. During last week&#39;s debate and in a flurry of political ads that will become more intense as the Nov.
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A group of the nationâs largest for-profit hospital chains plan to propose that individuals be required to have basic health coverage.
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With a comprehensive immigration overhaul now perhaps years away, Latin American governments concerned with the well-being of their nationals living in this country are taking on an equally thorny issue: the U.S. health-care system.
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Though candidates suggest adapting the health care program that covers Congress and offering it to millions of uninsured Americans, such a plan would unlikely cut costs.
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Both presidential candidates agree the American health care system is troubled: Coverage is too costly, too many are uninsured. But President Bush and Democratic
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Question: If government and business leaders do their part to lower the cost of health insurance, should people be required to sign up?
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President Bush and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry are offering distinct plans to help Americans cope with the rising costs of health care.
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President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are promoting very different plans for improving the nation&#39;s troubled health care system, either of which could dramatically change how millions
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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said Thursday her health care proposal provides a Ã¢ÂÂsensible, centristÃ¢ÂÂ approach to achieving universal coverage, and that if elected president, she would work closely with Congress to craft legislation, conceding that the White House task force that assembled her 1993 health care plan was the wrong approach.
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President Bush charged on Thursday that Democrat John Kerry&#39;s health care plan would give the government sweeping powers to decide &quot;who gets the coverage and how much
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So what do Americans want when it comes to health care? Two things, according to a citizens group created by Congress: protection for all from high medical expenses and guaranteed coverage for specific checkups and treatments.
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President Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, both have plans to lower rising health care costs and broaden health insurance coverage for Americans, but their visions would take health care in two different directions.
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The Mayo Clinic proposal doesnât advocate a government-run single-payer system, but urges private insurance companies to offer plans with many options. The Mayo Clinic proposal doesnât advocate a government-run single-payer system, but urges private insurance companies to offer plans with many options.
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KANSAS CITY, Missouri  - As health care generates debate in this year's presidential campaign, about 68 percent of Americans say individuals should be required to have medical insurance, with government help for those who cannot afford it, a survey released on Tuesday found.
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(InfoWorld) - Two large health insurance trade groups based in the U.S. have released a model for personal health records, a portable, Web-based tool that includes a customer's insurance claims, immunization records, medication records and other health information. America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, whose members provide health insurance to about two thirds of U.S. residents, unveiled the personal health record model Wednesday. The two groups saw the importance of working together on the project, said Susan Pisano, vice president of communications for AHIP. "This is really an effort that cries out for collaboration," she said. U.S. President George Bush has pushed for electronic health records to be available to all U.S. residents by 2014. Backers of such records say they will improve the efficiency of the U.S. health-care system and cut down on errors such as drug interaction problems. Personal health records, or PHRs, "may be one of our most important contributions to helping improve health care," Ronald Williams chairman, chief executive and president of insurer Aetna Inc., said in a statement. PHRs are similar to other electronic health records, although they include less specific treatment information. Electronic health records typically are used by health-care providers to store and manage detailed clinical information. Patients will be able to enter information into their PHRs, in addition to information from pharmacies, laboratories and medical providers, the groups said. The model released Wednesday includes definitions of data elements that should be included in PHRs, such as risk factors, family history, health-care facilities and medications taken. The model also includes standards for the PHRs to be portable between insurers and providers, and rules about when insurers can share the information. Insurers can send the information to a new insurer only after the patient gives consent and has enrolled in the new insurance plan, Pisano said. Those tight sharing rules were designed to address concerns about the PHRs used by insurance underwriters, she said. The PHR model also set 2008 as the deadline for insurers to incorporate the data elements and adopt the portability standards, she added. The groups said the U.S. is still "many years" away from a fully interoperable health records system. But Dr. Robert Kolodner, interim national coordinator for health information technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, praised the groups' efforts. The new model is a "step forward in the national health IT agenda," he said in a statement. Earlier this month, five major corporations -- Applied Materials Inc., British Petroleum America Inc., Intel Corp., Pitney Bowes Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- announced plans to fund the development of a Web-based system that would allow their employees and retirees to access and maintain personal medical records. The companies said the plan could help them cut health-care costs.
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With health care the top domestic issue among voters as the nation heads into the 2008 elections, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease asked presidential candidates Tuesday to focus on ways to prevent, treat and manage chronic diseases that account for more than 75 cents of every dollar spent on health care.