Universal health care watch
Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan (CNN)
It's a version of the "health insurance like car insurance" approach that's been bubbling for the last few years and took some form in Massachusetts under Mitt Romney. The Clinton plan also aims to "end discrimination [by health insurance companies] based on pre-existing conditions or expectations of illness and ensure high value for every premium dollar." The price tag is quoted at $110 billion.
"Healthy San Francisco" debuts (SF Examiner)
The plan aims to provide coverage to the 82,000 residents currently without health insurance. It's funded in part by taxes on employers, which has led to a lawsuit charging that the requirement violates federal law.
Cancer society ads push health reform (AP)
The American Cancer Society is spending $15 million on an ad campaign calling for people to take on the nation's "unfixed" health care system. Interesting fact: according the AP, the ACS is the nation's richest health charity.
Not all favor SCHIP expansion (Marketplace)
A few interesting quotes from John Dimsdale's piece about SCHIP reauthorization. A rep from the National Association of Health Underwriters cautions that public funding of health care "leave[s] millions of dollars of employer money on the table." And this from the director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations:
The government programs are now starting to compete with the private programs. The way insurance pools work best is having as many lives as possible in that insurance pool where you are spreading the risk. You get caught in a spiraling effect when you start taking people out of the pool.
-Greg Dahlmann
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