This Week in Healthcare - March 02, 2007
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:
Lawmakers in California push a single payer solution, the AARP makes healthcare a priority, New York Medicaid cuts could hurt hospitals, Health information technology conference opens in New Orleans and Prince Charles warns against McDonalds.
Frustrated by Governor Schwarzenegger’s healthcare proposal, California state senator Sheila Kuehl reintroduced her proposal for a single payer system for the third time.
Kuehl’s plan was passed by California legislators last year but was vetoed by the governor. The governor has promised to do the same again if the bill passes.
Debra Burger, president of the California nurses association, says Governor Schwarzenegger’s plan is not a solution to the state’s healthcare problems.
According to Burger, Schwartneggers proposal is a windfall for big insurance companies.
Kuehl’s proposal would create a state agency to pay for the healthcare of all Californians. Financed by payroll and income taxes, the plan is seen as a way to offer better health care and save money by reducing administrative costs of the current California healthcare industry.
The AARP announced on Wednesday that health care will be at the top of their political agenda for 2007.
The 35-million member group will concentrate on prescription drugs, rising healthcare costs, and covering the uninsured.
The group has actively support two bills during the current congressional session. A bill allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies has already passed in the house.
It faces a tough challenge in the Senate.
A second bill, to allow legal importation of drugs from Canada is winding its way to both the House and Senate floors. Both bills will require the President’s signature.
New York governor Eliott Spitzer’s proposed Medicaid budget for 2008 would reduce reimbursements for many state hospitals. According to state assemblyman Fred Thiele, under the governor’s budget NY state hospitals will lose 2.4 billion dollars over the next five years.
New York’s Medicaid program is the most expensive in the country. The average New York resident paid almost 2000 of their state taxes toward the program.
The largest health information technology conference opened this week in New Orleans. It is expecting to draw almost 25,000 attendees. The annual event brings together members of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
Buddy Hickman, chairman of the group, said the members’ work was urgently needed to help address the ballooning healthcare crisis.
While touring the Middle East, Prince Charles unpredictably got into the healthcare debate.
According to a report, Prince Charles asked a nutritionist at the Imperial College London diabetes center in Abu Dhabi whether the country had any McDonalds. The Prince then recommended they ban the fast-food chain.
That’s the key, said the Prince of Wales who is first in line to the royal throne. A spokesperson for McDonalds said the remarks were unfortunate, and said the Prince was out of step with recent additions to the fast food giant’s menu; including low-calorie salads, and chicken dishes.
Prince Charles is an advocate for organic food and in 1986 set up a farm at one of his estates.
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 ThisWeek [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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