Wal-Mart goes for mandatory insurance

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wal-Mart a huge company once criticized for less than generous employee benefits, has embraced President Barack Obama’s call for requiring all large employers to offer health insurance to their workers.

The move, joined by a major labor union that sometimes assails Wal-Mart, could add momentum to Obama’s push for far-reaching changes to the nation’s health care system, which Congress is weighing.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, announced its position in a letter to congressional and administration officials Tuesday.

There are 20 Wal-mart stores within 30 miles of Boston.

1. Lynn, MA 01905

2. Quincy, MA 02169

3. Salem, MA 01970

4. Weymouth, MA 02188

5. North Reading, MA 01864

6. Danvers, MA 01923

7. Framingham, MA 01701

8. Walpole, MA 02081

9. Avon, MA 02322

10. Brockton, MA 02301

11. Hanover, MA 02339

12. Abington, MA 02351

13. Tewksbury, MA 01876

14. North Chelmsford, MA 01824

15. Hudson, MA 01749

16. Methuen, MA 01844

17. Bellingham, MA 02019

18. Salem, NH 03079

19. Plaistow, NH 03865

20. Raynham, MA 02767

Massachusetts June 24 State House health bill testimony

The Joint Committee on Health Care Financing held a hearing Wednesday afternoon on several bills including one on health care affordability.

Health Care for All reports on the hearings on their blog.

“Dorcas Grigg-Saito, the CEO of the Lowell Community Health Center, shared the struggles many of her clients have with the costs of health care. Grigg-Saito informed the Committee that the Lowell Community Health Center serves one-third of the population of Lowell and 93% of the patients are below 200% fpl.”

(Click here for my story on how the Lowell health center works with the Khmer community’s preference for traditional medicine.)

 

Week in review and accessible hospitals

Check out my Week in Review and the rest of Mass Device. This business news site covers a key part of the health care industry —   everything from computers to catheters to scanners. The device industry faces many of the same issues as pharma – safety, financing, high prices and the uncertainty of health reform. 

My review covers Kennedy, Dodd, overtired surgeons and more.

Also, the Globe reports that the Brigham and Mass General “are pledging to spend millions of dollars to resolve complaints that ill-suited equipment and sometimes-indifferent medical workers make disabled patients feel unwelcome.”

HWR: H1N1 scams, elderly drivers and the health reform debate

 

The new “Health Wonk Review” –the floating web digest of health policy blog posts – is up.

The “Healthcare Economist” site hosts with Mass-relevant posts on scam H1N1 flu products and older drivers. You’ll also find thoughtful insights on HIT, the DC reform debate and Canada’s single-payer system.

 This week’s Confederations Cup theme honors the US soccer team’s surprise win over Spain in that contest. They’ll play in the finals on Sunday. Here’s hoping — win or lose — the team will inspire kids and grown-ups to play and exercise.  

 Click here for more about the Health Wonk Review.

More woes for Massachusetts insurance model

From the Globe:

Overseers of Massachusetts’ trailblazing healthcare program made their first cuts yesterday, trimming $115 million, or 12 percent, from Commonwealth Care, which subsidizes premiums for needy residents and is the centerpiece of the 2006 law.

WBUR’s CommonHealth also reports

The economy is hitting the state’s free and subsidized health insurance program, Commonwealth Care, from 2 angles. First, more state residents affected by the shrinking job market are signing up. Second, the state has less money to spend on this…and hundreds of other programs.

For more on the way the state casts the plan, see the Commonwealth Connector website.

The Globe has this interview as well:
State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill has come out strongly against the $1 billion in tax increases approved by the Legislature, proposing instead deep cuts in the state’s landmark effort at universal healthcare, calling it a luxury taxpayers can no longer afford.

As the Globe points out, Cahill has no say in this except that he’s apparently toying with the idea of running for governor.

In other news, The Washington Post has an interview with Atul Gawande, the Harvard doc whose New Yorker piece put the concept of practice pattern variation into the conversation.
 

 

Libertarians: Mass model a failure

The Washington Post had a short item this morning on a Capitol Hill forum where conservatives trashed the Mass insurance plan. The event turned on a report from the Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner, whose 2007 book – Healthy Competition – can be had for between $2 and $5 on Amazon. (Granted, health policy books — even those from people with much deeper health resumes than this author– are not big sellers.)

 Here’s Cato’s new health reform page which makes this point.

The coming debate is not just about the freedom to make one’s own medical decisions. It is about life and death. If we insist on a dynamic and competitive market, health care will be better, cheaper, safer, and more secure.

Here’s the Connector’s page for a whole different point of view.

Non-profit hospitals behaving badly?

I was surprised by this factoid. It was buried is Scott Allen’s fine Sunday story in the Globe on the fight for outpatient business in the suburbs. 

Beth Israel set up a taxpayer group in 2006 to oppose a proposed $13 million cancer center at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, in part because it would be less than 5 miles from a Beth Israel cancer center. Beth Israel later dropped its opposition in a settlement whose terms were not disclosed.

Paul Dreyer, state director of Health Care Safety and Quality, said hospitals commonly set up independent taxpayer organizations as a way to oppose other hospitals’ building plans. That’s because a grass-roots group with as few as 10 members can force a public hearing under state law.

There’s a name for this in policy circles – instead of grass roots organizations, these are astroturf orgs.

 A business tactic or a way to game the system?  I guess it depends on which side of the fight you’re on.

Health of Boston report, 2009

 

The city of Boston just released its 2009 “Health Report.” Lots of interesting factoids, such as:  

 

Boston’s Black and Latino residents experience higher levels of chronic disease, mortality, and poorer health outcomes than White residents…The city has become more racially and ethnically diverse over the past several decades. In 2007, approximately 28% of Boston residents were foreign born, originating from a wide array of countries such as Haiti, China and Colombia. This diverse population brings with it fluency in a variety of languages including Spanish, French, Chinese, and Vietnamese. The percentage of Latino residents in Boston has continued to increase from 1980 (6.4%) to 2007 (16.9%). Understanding the diversity within our city is essential to combating racial/ethnic disparities that persist in medical care for a number of health conditions and services.

The commissioners themselves blog on it at WBUR’s Commonhealth site. Click here for the full report, or below for individuals chapters.  

Also see my blog entry on the topic of health disparities.

From the Health of Boston 2009

Neighborhoods

Demographics

Socioeconomic Status

Community Assets

Access to Health Care

Environmental Health

Health Behaviors

Natality and Infant Mortality

Sexual Health

Infectious Diseases

Injury

Mental Health

Substance Abuse

Violence

Chronic Diseases

Cancer

Mortality

Health week in review and a peek at doctors’ notes

See the BHN week in review, hosted by Mass Device, where we try to untangle the news about what kind of health information systems will qualify for federal funds. We also ask — How much of that eco- friendly drug company tower in Kendal Square was paid for by national health care systems in places like Costa Rica, Bulgaria and Libya?

 Also,  the Globe has great story on why doctors may not want you to see their notes on your records. Of course you have access to your official records. It’s the little asides the docs jot down that they fear might be misunderstood. Here’s one the story cites:

 “She worries about money, enjoys her hobbies, and is basically doing quite nicely, although she is certainly dependent on narcotics for pain control at this point and is dealing with underlying depression…”

 Addicted to prescription drugs and depressed = “doing quite nicely”?

H.E.L.P.! Senators start swinging on health reform

Apparently it was quite a scene on Wednesday as the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions tried to begin the debate on the health care bill.

Kaiser Health News has a good round up.

Sen. John McCain, R., Ariz., interrupted the opening remarks of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D., Conn., saying the proceedings were a “joke.”

Ouch.

More from the NY Times.