This Week in Healthcare - 02/23/07
Hello and welcome to This Week in Healthcare.
Today we’ll look at the people, policies, and politicians impacting the healthcare debate, and we’ll help you try to understand it all.
Our stories this week:
President Bush promotes his healthcare plan, a new study shows healthcare costs could double in 10 years, the federation of American hospitals announces their plan for healthcare, Merck agrees to stop lobbying for HPV vaccinations, and one company gets sued for enforcing employee health standards.
President Bush met with business and insurance leaders to discuss his proposal to expand health coverage this week. The meetings took place Tuesday in Washington and Wednesday in Tennessee. Bush first announced his healthcare plan during the State of the Union Address in January. The President’s plan attempts to expand health coverage by offering tax deductions for people purchasing their own health insurance. The plan would offer a standard deduction of $7500 for an individual and a $15000 for a family.
Amounts above the standard deductions would be taxed. President Bush also would like to see more transparency in healthcare pricing. Senator Edward Kennedy, a critic of the President’s plan, said it would make the healthcare crisis worse by undermining the quality coverage for millions of Americans who are getting healthcare through their employers.
Rahm Emanuel, chair of the House Democratic Caucus said the plan does nothing to control healthcare costs.
A study released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid this week found that healthcare costs over the next 10 years could double.
According to the report, Healthcare costs will account for 20 percent of the American budget by 2016, up from 16 percent today. On average, healthcare costs are predicted to rise at nearly twice the rate of wages and income over the next ten years.
The report did not make policy recommendations, but did warn of the growing possibility that Americans will be forced to make important sacrifices to pay for healthcare.
Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, said that if increases in healthcare costs continue to outpace increases in wages and incomes, more Americans will become uninsured.
The Federation of American Hospitals released a proposal this week that would require all U.S. residents to obtain Health insurance. Under the plan, residents would have to obtain health insurance from employers, purchase individual health policies, or obtain coverage through government agencies. The proposal would provide subsidies based on income for the purchase of the health plans and allow those who buy individual policies to deduct the costs from income taxes.
The plan is predicted to increase Federal spending on healthcare by $115 billion dollars, adding to the $900 billion already spent on healthcare annually. Charles Kahn, President of the Federation of Hospitals, said the proposal is intended to contribute to the national debate on healthcare reform. Last year, hospitals treated more than a million uninsured residents in emergency rooms at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion dollars.
Pharmaceutical giant Merck ended their efforts to lobby state legislatures to require girls nine and older to be vaccinated with their new HPV vaccine, Gardasil. Merck made the announcement after parents protested a decision made by Texas Governor Rick Perry to require all girls get the vaccination when they enter the sixth grade.
Gardasil was approved for use against HPV last year. HPV has been linked to cervical cancer in woman and the vaccine protects against four strains of the virus. Conservative groups protesting the required use of the vaccine believed it promoted premarital sex, and violated their freedom of choice.
Scott’s Miracle Grow was sued in Federal Court last November for firing an employee in Massachusetts that did not pass a drug screening test. He had nicotine in his system. The plaintiff, Scott Rodrigues, claims he was hired by the Miracle grow company before it went smokeless.
According to the company, in an attempt to cut healthcare costs, all employees are encouraged to seek wellness and fitness goals and must abide by the newly instituted no-smoking policy. The lawsuit claims that Scott discriminated against Rodrigues by firing him before he could take advantage of their stop-smoking program provided for in their health plan. The lawsuit also seeks to prohibit Scott from enforcing the no-smoking policy. 21 states courts in the U.S. have upheld the right of an employer to fire an employee who violates their no smoking policy.
That’s it for This Week in Healthcare. Tune in next week for more highlights, when we’ll look at the issues, politics, and people shaping the healthcare debate.
If you have healthcare news you’d like to contribute, please send us an email at this week [at] scribemedia [dot] org and we’ll be sure to include it.
I’m John Mikytuck. Thanks for watching, and stay healthy.
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