November 10th, 2011 by PreparedPatient in Expert Interviews
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This interview is the ninth and final of a series of brief chats between CFAH president and founder, Jessie Gruman, and experts—our CFAH William Ziff Fellows—who have devoted their careers to understanding and encouraging people’s engagement in their health and health care.
Trudy Lieberman is concerned that despite all the rhetoric, choosing the best hospital, the best doctor, the best health plan, is simply not possible. Some of the so-called best might be good for some people but not others, and the information available to inform/guide choices is just too ambiguous.
Ms. Lieberman is a CFAH William Ziff Fellow.
Gruman: What has changed in the past year that has influenced people’s engagement in their health and health care?
Lieberman: Costs have risen a lot, and employers and insurers have made consumers pay higher deductibles, co-pays and coinsurance. The theory is, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
October 29th, 2011 by PreparedPatient in Health Policy, Opinion
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The Obama administration has dealt a mighty blow to one part of the health reform law by effectively killing off the CLASS Act, which was to be a baby step in the development of a national program to pay for long-term care. The CLASS Act, short for Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act, was supposed to be a voluntary and federally backed insurance program for people to use to cover potential long-term care needs. The idea was for Americans to pay premiums into the fund during their working years. If they later became disabled and needed assistance, they would be entitled to a daily cash benefit of, say, $50 to buy services of a personal care attendant or make home improvements that would allow them to stay in their homes—the preference of most seniors. Advocates of the CLASS Act even envisioned that some of the benefit could be used for nursing home care.
The program, though, was never popular with insurance companies and politicians who listened to them, and the Act barely made it into the final bill. It ran into trouble from the beginning. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, was tasked with Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
October 20th, 2011 by PreparedPatient in Health Policy, True Stories
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A couple weeks ago I walked the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska, talking to men and women about whether they thought Washington was listening to their economic concerns. Jeff Melichar manages his family’s Phillips 66 gas station on the city’s main street, and one of his big financial problems happens to be health insurance. The more we talked, the more I realized what a jam he could be in down the road because of a loophole in the health reform law, which has received almost no press coverage or public discussion: If you have health insurance from your employer, you may have to keep it whether or not it’s adequate or affordable. Buying less expensive or better coverage from one of the state “exchanges” or shopping services will be off limits. So despite all that talk about consumer choice, for many like the Melichars, there may be no choice.
Melichar’s wife is eligible for health insurance from the optical company where she works. But the family waited until this fall to enroll when the firm offered coverage they finally could afford. Their premium is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
October 1st, 2011 by PreparedPatient in News, Opinion
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Cigna launched a $25 million “GO YOU” national branding campaign last week signaling that they are gearing up for tons of new customers as health reform rolls towards 2014. That new business will come from the millions of Americans now uninsured who will start getting government subsidies as an encouragement to buy health insurance coverage. If those uninsured folks don’t get coverage, they will have tax penalties to pay.
No insurer wants to be left behind in this expanding marketplace, so Cigna, by being first out of the gate, hopes to build brand awareness that will ring bells in 2014 when consumers must buy insurance. It’s a smart strategy. One industry consultant says “most insurers have not built enough brand equity with consumers.”
Cigna’s ad campaign positions health insurance as Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
September 29th, 2011 by PreparedPatient in Health Tips, True Stories
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Whether caused by injury, surgery or a toothache so bad it slams you awake in the middle of the night, acute pain is difficult. Receiving prompt and helpful treatment can make all the difference in the world. But lack of care or inadequate care means that the acute pain may develop into chronic agony.
Fortunately, acute pain is not always long lasting or overwhelming, such as when you have a short severe cramp or multiple bee stings that can be handled with time, over-the-counter medication and other home remedies [See: Pain Treatment Options].
Since individuals’ tolerance for pain varies widely, the question of when pain itself requires urgent medical attention is difficult to answer. Chest pain should prompt a visit to the emergency room, of course—but other types of pain are trickier to call. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
