Health Insurance / Healthcare Website and Blog

Can universal health insurance really guarantee universal healthcare if doctors choose not to accept your insurance?

A 2005 Community Tracking survey of physicians in New York state showed that only 50% accepted Medicaid. Dr. Marc Seigel of New York University says the regular $25 payment from Medicaid for an office visit is not worth the paperwork involved. Doctors continue to drop out of the Health Insurance Plan of New York and Health Net of New York too.

Even at major medical centers like the New York University Langone Medical Center, where this is less of a problem, 11% of doctors don't accept at least two insurance plans, private or public.

The bottom line is that none of the present plans, public or private, provide patients with the care they need.

Louisiana state health secretary Alan Levine acknowledged yesterday that a tax on smoking could help meet the government's healthcare expenses, but said he was not qualified to argue tax policy with the legislature.

House speaker Karen Peterson (D-New Orleans) is pushing the Louisiana Healthier Families Bill, which proposes to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1. If this becomes law, it could raise $209 million a year.

But Governor Bobby Jindal is opposed to increasing taxes, and though the Department of Heath and Hospitals' budget will shrink by $413 billion this year from June, the Republican government is looking for other ways to cut costs. One way, Levine suggested, would be laws to limit indoor smoking so smoking-related healthcare costs go down.

According to the latest Rasmussen polls, the number of voters who call themselves Democrats declined 2 percent in March, and, more ominously, the margin of support for the Democrats reached its lowest point since the Iraq war started and the slump began: 1% (40% vs 39%).

This might not bode well for President Obama's reforms, in healthcare, energy, or anything else. To maintain momentum, Democrats need to hold on to or increase their majorities in the 2010 elections. Democrats voted from traditionally conservative states and districts need to show results from the stimulus package by summer 2010 so they don't get branded tax-and-spend liberals.

Paradoxically, Obama continues to enjoy wide support and his standing in the polls in continuing to hold steady or improving. Democrats need to leverage the support the new president has - and work hard to make, especially, healthcare reforms work - to hold the dominance they now enjoy.

Dr. David Lawrance of the McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois says that he has recently seen an increase in the number of students who visit the clinic for emergencies.

Most of them, he says, have opted out of the University's student medical insurance plan, and they avoid going to large hospitals because they cannot afford to pay. "Previously, they were covered by a parent's plan, but then their parents' situation changed, and now they've lost their coverage."

Dr. Lawrance says health centers like his don't usually have the facilities to handle a real medical emergency - when students go to a health center instead of a hospital for a serious condition, they are gambling with their lives. "Choosing the wrong place to present for care can be a life or death decision in an emergency."

According to a survey by the American Academy of Family Physicians, 16 million Americans depend on health centers for most of their medical needs.

The Food and Drug Administration will be regulating tobacco and tobacco products, according to legislation passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday. The bill will now move to the Senate for approval, and should become law by the end of this year.

This means the FDA will have the authority to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make their ingredients public, prohibit flavoring, require larger warning labels and strictly control or prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.

Tobacco and tobacco products are the leading cause of preventable death in the United States - more than 400,000 people die every year because of illnesses caused or complicated by the use of tobacco.