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Date	Fairness.com Resource	Read it at:
Oct 16, 2009	Wellness Incentives Could Create Health-Care Loophole: Workers Who Fail Medical Tests Could Pay More QUOTE: By more than doubling the maximum penalties that companies can apply to employees who flunk medical evaluations, the [new healthcare] legislation could put workers under intense financial pressure to lose weight, stop smoking or even lower their cholesterol,	Washington Post
Oct 04, 2009	Discrimination by Insurers Likely Even With Reform, Experts Say: Economic Pressure Could Give Rise to New Biases Against Prior Conditions QUOTE: simply banning medical discrimination [in health insurance] would not necessarily remove it from the equation, economists and health-care analysts say.	Washington Post
Sep 26, 2009	In Canada, a move toward a private healthcare option QUOTE: Hoping to capitalize on patients who might otherwise travel to the U.S. for speedier healthcare, a network of technically illegal private clinics and surgical centers has sprung up in British Columbia, echoing a trend in Quebec. In October, the courts will be asked to decide whether the budding system should be sanctioned.	Los Angeles Times
Sep 14, 2009	Insurers Fight Speech-Impairment Remedy QUOTE: Medicare and private health insurers decline to cover cheap devices like iPhones and netbook PCs that can help the speech-impaired, despite their usefulness and lower cost.	New York Times
Sep 11, 2009	Joe Wilson aftermath: Illegals get scrutiny in health reform: Current healthcare bills don’t explicitly mention how illegal immigrants would be treated under some important provisions. QUOTE: Republicans in general charge that since none of the [healthcare] bills contain enforcement mechanisms to check that recipients of government subsidies are legal, illegal immigrants would be able to sneak into the system and get US cash [for healthcare subsidies] anyway.	Christian Science Monitor
Sep 08, 2009	When Your Insurer Says You're No Longer Covered: Firms Defend 'Rescissions' as Fraud Control QUOTE: Rescission -- the technical term for canceling coverage on grounds that the company was misled -- is often considered among the most offensive practices in an insurance industry...	Washington Post
Sep 07, 2009	Insured, but Bankrupted Anyway (Prescriptions) QUOTE: The forecast for this year is that there will be 1.4 million to 1.5 million total bankruptcy filings. Our data say 62 percent of those will be medical.	New York Times
Sep 05, 2009	Who Will Care for the Newly Insured? (Prescriptions) QUOTE: 2013. That’s the year everyone would have to have health insurance under the House version of the health care bill. ...many experts say it’s not nearly enough time to beef up the supply of physicians necessary to care for the tens of millions suddenly entering the health care system.	New York Times
Sep 05, 2009	Health Care Debate Revives Immigration Battle QUOTE: During the summer recess, members of Congress faced persistent questions from constituents worried that health care changes could leave taxpayers footing medical bills for illegal immigrants.	New York Times
Aug 27, 2009	Dealing With Being the Health Care ‘Villains’ QUOTE: Humana workers and executives said the [insurance] industry tended to absorb blows that should be directed elsewhere.	New York Times
Aug 18, 2009	The Most Outrageous U.S. Lies About Global Healthcare QUOTE: Many of the most wildly inaccurate statements [about health systems] have been directed abroad -- sometimes at the United States' closest allies, such as Britain and Canada, and often at the best health-care systems in the world.
Aug 17, 2009	Alternate Plan as Health Option Muddies Debate QUOTE: The White House has indicated that it could accept a nonprofit health care cooperative as an alternative to a new government insurance plan, originally favored by President Obama. But the co-op idea is so ill defined that no one knows exactly what it would look like or how effectively it would compete with commercial insurers.	New York Times
Aug 06, 2009	Big Insurance, Big Tobacco and You QUOTE: the insurance industry is taking these [consumer fraud, incorrect statistics] and other flim-flams straight from the tobacco industry's playbook.	PR Watch
Aug 01, 2009	Talk Radio Campaign Frightening Seniors: Provision for End-of-Life Counseling Is Described by Right as 'Death Care' QUOTE: A campaign on conservative talk radio has sparked fear among senior citizens that the health-care bill moving through Congress will lead to end-of-life "rationing" and even "euthanasia."....But on right-leaning radio programs, religious e-mail lists and Internet blogs, the proposal has been described as "guiding you in how to die," "an ORDER from the Government to end your life," promoting "death care" and, in the words of antiabortion leader Randall Terry, an attempt to "kill Granny."	Washington Post
Jul 24, 2009	Buying a Hearing Aid? You’ve Got a Lot to Learn (Patient Money) QUOTE: “Unfortunately, hearing aids are seen as one of those medical costs, like vision and dental, that doesn’t deserve full coverage,” said Gyl A. Kasewurm, an audiologist in St. Joseph, Mich.	New York Times
Jul 15, 2009	College Athletes Stuck With the Bill After Injuries QUOTE: . While some colleges accept considerable responsibility for [athletes'] medical claims, many others assume almost none, according to a review of public documents from a cross section of universities and interviews with current and former athletes, trainers, administrators and N.C.A.A. officials.	New York Times
Jul 08, 2009	In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Say No? Questions About Cost And Limits Linger QUOTE: How will tough decisions be made about what to spend money on?	Washington Post
Jul 06, 2009	Familiar Players in Health Bill Lobbying: Firms Are Enlisting Ex-Lawmakers, Aides QUOTE: The nation's largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues.... public interest groups and reform advocates complain that the concentration of former government aides on K Street has distorted the health-care debate,	Washington Post
Jul 06, 2009	Paying for healthcare overhaul may fall unevenly on states: States such as New York are most likely to pay higher taxes to fund expanded coverage but have less to gain, policy analysts say. QUOTE: Some of the "bluest" states that propelled Obama into the White House are among those most likely to pay more in taxes to fund expanded health insurance coverage and make other changes to the system, analysts say.	Los Angeles Times
Jul 01, 2009	Autism patients' treatment is denied illegally, group says QUOTE: State regulators are violating mental health and other laws by allowing health insurers to deny effective treatment for children with autism, consumer advocates contend.	Los Angeles Times
Jul 01, 2009	Insured, but Bankrupted by Health Crises (The Work-Up) QUOTE: an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.	New York Times
Jun 25, 2009	Big Health Firms Underpay Claims QUOTE: Congressional investigators have discovered that large health insurers in every region of the country are relying on faulty databases to underpay millions of valid insurance claims.	Wall Street Journal, The (WSJ)
Jun 23, 2009	Bringing Down the House: The sobering lessons of health reform in Massachusetts. (Prescriptions) QUOTE: Despite having health insurance, roughly one in 10 [Massachusetts] state residents still failed to fill prescriptions, ended up with unpaid medical bills, or skipped needed medical care for financial reasons. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to insure more Massachusetts citizens, but many people still weren't getting necessary care.	Slate
Jun 02, 2009	Health Insurers Balk at Some Changes QUOTE: Insurers... have agreed to sell policies even to people with pre-existing medical conditions....Industry has made no such promises about another segment of the health insurance market...the market for small employers.	New York Times
May 11, 2009	'I do' also means 'I'll pay': After you're married, it's too late. You're just as responsible for his debts as you are for your own. QUOTE: once you are married, you will be joining your two lives together financially and otherwise. Even though you may not be financially responsible, you will be intimately involved with the person who is. In other words, if there is no money to pay them, the medical bills that need to be paid and the stress that accompanies being in debt will affect your life, too.	Bankrate.com
May 08, 2009	For Gay Couples, Obstacles to Health Insurance (Patient Money) QUOTE: “For the vast majority of gay couples,” she [Mary Jo Hudson, director of the Ohio Department of Insurance] said, “getting health insurance for a domestic partner is still a challenge.”	New York Times
Jan 04, 2009	Stuck in Paradise, Needing Medical Help (Practical Traveler) QUOTE: As premium American Express card members, we are eligible to receive emergency medical transportation assistance. But a fractured ankle does not require an air ambulance, I was informed.	New York Times
Dec 09, 2008	Uninsured Put a Strain on Hospitals QUOTE: As increasing numbers of the unemployed and uninsured turn to the nation’s emergency rooms as a medical last resort, doctors warn that the centers — many already overburdened — could have even more trouble handling the heart attacks, broken bones and other traumas that define their core mission. Even before the recession became evident, many emergency rooms around the country were already overcrowded, with dangerously long waits for some patients...	New York Times
Oct 29, 2008	Women Buying Health Policies Pay a Penalty QUOTE: "Striking new evidence has emerged of a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage, according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers."	New York Times
Oct 29, 2008	Solutions to the health care problem QUOTE: Is health care a right or a responsibility? During the third presidential debate, Barack Obama declared it to be a right, while John McCain called it a responsibility.	Bankrate.com
Oct 14, 2008	Equal Treatment for the Uninsured? Don't Count on It. Lack of Compensation Can Tempt Doctors to Tailor Their Care to a Patient's Coverage QUOTE: It's not uncommon for patients with no insurance or poor insurance to receive different treatment. A 2006 study of 25 primary care private practices in the Washington area showed that in nearly one in four encounters, physicians reported adjusting their clinical management based on a patient's insurance status; nearly 90 percent of physicians admitted to making such adjustments.	Washington Post
Sep 29, 2008	Crisis of Care on the Front Line of Health QUOTE: The problem is that in this era of managed care and reimbursements dictated by Medicare and other insurers, doctors don’t get much compensation for talking to patients. They get paid primarily for procedures, from blood tests to surgery, and for the number of patients they see.	New York Times
Jun 12, 2008	Buyer beware: Understand what 'medical discount plan' means (The Tough Customer) QUOTE: Medical discount plans are not insurance plans. A health insurer agrees, for a premium, to assume responsibility for a portion of your medical expenses. Medical discount plans, on the other hand, grant access to a network of providers who have agreed to give participants a discount on their services, but the plan itself assumes no liability. In their marketing, however, these plans use the buzzwords of insurance plans...	Hook
May 10, 2008	Illegal Farm Workers Get Health Care in Shadows QUOTE: The people [immigrants] need help because they are in the United States illegally and because they are poor. Few have health insurance, but the backbreaking nature of their work, along with the toxicity of American poverty, insure that many are ailing.	New York Times
May 07, 2008	Identity thieves prey on patients' medical records QUOTE: Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, an advocacy group, says "sophisticated crime rings" often can make more money by stealing medical identities than by going after individuals' bank accounts or credit cards. "If you steal someone's medical identity, then multiply that by 100 or 1,000" other thefts "and do fake billings, you can make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars," Dixon says.	USA TODAY
Apr 23, 2008	High court: Do health insurance plans have conflict of interest? MetLife withdrew the long-term disability benefits of an Ohio woman after she got better. QUOTE: On Wednesday, the justices are set to examine how judges should approach policyholder disputes involving companies that both evaluate and pay medical disability claims administered under a federal retirement income law. Do such companies operate in a conflict of interest between caring for their policyholders and enriching their shareholders? If such a conflict exists, how rigorously should federal judges examine decisions to deny benefits?	Christian Science Monitor
Mar 31, 2008	Insure Me, Please: The Murky Politics of Mind-Body QUOTE: This month, the House passed a bill that would require insurance companies to provide mental health insurance parity....Parity raises all sorts of tricky questions. Is an ailment a legitimate disease if you can’t test for it?	New York Times
Feb 25, 2008	Insurance Fears Lead Many to Shun DNA Tests QUOTE: The first, much-anticipated benefits of personalized medicine are being lost or diluted for many Americans who are too afraid that genetic information may be used against them to take advantage of its growing availability.	New York Times
Feb 18, 2008	Study Finds Cancer Diagnosis Linked to Insurance QUOTE: [Authors of a new study say] that “individuals without private insurance are not receiving optimum care in terms of cancer screening or timely diagnosis and follow-up with health care providers.” Advanced-stage diagnosis, they wrote, “leads to increased morbidity, decreased quality of life and survival and, often, increased costs.”	New York Times
Feb 13, 2008	New York Investigates Medical Rate Setting QUOTE: Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [is] investigating whether the nation’s health insurance companies [have] systematically forced patients to pay more than they should when using doctors or hospitals outside of their insurer’s networks...“We believe there was an industrywide scheme perpetuated by some of the nation’s largest health insurers to deceive and defraud consumers,” Mr. Cuomo said...	New York Times
Dec 17, 2007	For Recipients of Medicare, the Hard Sell QUOTE: Such experiences help explain why Ms. Barksdale and some of her neighbors here in eastern Mississippi are wary of the sales pitches they are now receiving again. Many said they had been tricked into enrolling in private Medicare plans, sometimes without realizing it.	New York Times
Dec 16, 2007	Doctor Ratings Revised (Health Costs) QUOTE: Several health-insurance companies have recently agreed to improve their existing or planned ratings of physicians....Ratings by some insurers have come under fire for giving top scores to doctors who cost the least -- but who are not necessarily the best in quality or the ones handling the most complex cases. In some plans, there are financial incentives for members to pick high-scoring doctors for their care.	Wall Street Journal, The (WSJ)
Nov 27, 2007	In Hospice Care, Longer Lives Mean Money Lost QUOTE: Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Medicare.	New York Times
Nov 27, 2007	Lawyers step up to help veterans gratis QUOTE: The approach marks the first time since the Civil War that attorneys have been recruited in large numbers to represent veterans. The lawyers hope their legal expertise will speed consideration of claims and result in better benefits for veterans, Stichman says.	USA TODAY
Nov 18, 2007	Health-Insurance Scams QUOTE: Small employers and individuals searching for affordable health insurance increasingly are falling victim to scams and misleading offers....The bogus insurers collect premiums, but they don't pay claims.	Wall Street Journal, The (WSJ)
Nov 13, 2007	A Health Plan for Wal-Mart: Less Stinginess QUOTE: But the changes in its policies have accomplished what once seemed impossible. Many of its most ardent critics have put down their pitchforks. Andrew L. Stern, whose Service Employees International Union set up an advocacy group to attack Wal-Mart three years ago, now concedes that “there is clearly a focus on covering more people.”	New York Times
Oct 31, 2007	Council Says Some Hospitals Don’t Follow New Law on the Uninsured QUOTE: “Hospitals are in a fiscal crisis,” he said. “They are being squeezed by the payers and they are being squeezed by the uninsured, and then we have the social and moral imperative to do the right thing for the patient. We really are between a rock and a hard place.”	New York Times
Oct 22, 2007	Wounded troops overwhelm care: The current means of caring for returning vets is antiquated, compounding concern over the long-term cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. QUOTE: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) last week cited "fundamental system weaknesses" on the part of both the Defense Department (DOD) and the VA in how they treat wounded vets – including not enough staff and staff training.	Christian Science Monitor
Oct 17, 2007	Children’s Health Bill Dispute Turns to Income Limits QUOTE: When the House votes Thursday on whether to override the veto, Republicans will insist that the answer is yes. They will express outrage that rich children could get coverage from the government while hundreds of thousands of poor children still go uninsured. Democrats say it is a total distortion for Mr. Bush and his Republican allies to say that the bill allows coverage with family incomes up to $83,000 a year.	New York Times
Oct 12, 2007	Minnesota Limit on Gifts to Doctors May Catch On QUOTE: The interest in legislation to register or limit the food, gifts and money that drug and device makers lavish on doctors stems from growing concerns that these benefits lead doctors to prescribe more, and more expensive, drugs and devices, raising the costs of health care and changing care to patients.	New York Times

184 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 50]   [End]

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