With no insurance, broken arm becomes long ordeal

Submitted by pahealth on November 12, 2008 - 4:03pm
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Last winter (January 17), Richard Hershman, a 62-year-old resident of Philadelphia, broke his arm.  An ambulance took him to the emergency room of a local hospital where the staff X-rayed his arm and stabilized it with a splint.  They told Hershman he would need surgery to repair the break.

Mental health parity part of federal bailout plan

Submitted by pahealth on November 11, 2008 - 9:54pm
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Group health insurance plans offered by firms employing 50 or more individuals will be required to provide the same coverage for mental health care as for physical health care under a provision of federal law recently enacted by Congress.

Under current practice, many insurers limit the number of annual doctor visits or stays at a treatment center for mental illness.  Such limits usually do not apply to physical ailments.

Evaluating national health reform policy options

Submitted by pahealth on October 31, 2008 - 3:19pm
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Health care reform will be a major agenda item in the next Congress.  Competing for support among members of Congress will be at least four major policy proposals:  a national single-payer system, a hybrid that offers both private coverage and government-sponsored coverage like what federal employees can already buy, a market reform that requires private insurance to meet federal quality standards, and a market reform that frees private coverage of most regulatory standards.

Each of these four proposals already has substantial support in the Congress.

U.S. health insurance at $5,800 a year?

Submitted by pahealth on October 28, 2008 - 2:04pm
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In a recent debate with Barack Obama, presidential candidate John McCain said "the average cost of a health insurance policy in America today is $5,800."

Uwe. E. Reinhardt, a health care economist at Princeton, responds to McCain's comment in the October 28th edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A sick woman’s odyssey without health insurance

Submitted by pahealth on October 28, 2008 - 1:52pm
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You've heard it said that in the United States, everyone gets health care.  Ruth Spencer's story, as told in the October 25th edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, puts that myth to rest.