The talk in Albany and Manhattan is all of Governor Spitzer’s political impotence, but with one bold policy stroke Mr. Spitzer is about to show he is more powerful than the Washington Democratic leadership, not to mention President Bush.

Earlier this month, when President Bush vetoed a bill that the Democratic Congress had passed to saddle federal taxpayers with the health insurance costs of families earning more than $80,000 a year, the Democrats in Washington erupted in paroxysms of handwringing and moral posturing. “In a country as wealthy as ours, it is immoral to deny health care to our children. President Bush cares more about politics than our nation’s kids,” huffed a statement from Dr. Howard Dean’s Democratic National Committee.

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Health insurance contracts–and government plans like Medicare and Medicaid–rightly contain provisions that can be used to deny payment for unnecessary or inappropriate treatment. If they didn’t have these limitations every quack in America would be feeding at the reimbursement trough.

But what these provisions should not do is ever deny a legitimate attempt to save someone’s life. The insurer has the burden to act responsibly and, if the family disagrees with the call, provide an independent and fast third-party appeals process for what can be life and death decisions.
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The modest spending increase that Congress approved for a popular children’s health insurance program will maintain coverage for those already enrolled. But many lacking insurance will have to look elsewhere.Few expected such a result when 2007 began. Democrats proposed a huge spending increase on the federal-state partnership known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Many Republicans embraced the idea. Meanwhile, states all over the country were drawing up plans to expand health coverage.

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The flier from Hillary Clinton’s campaign declares in bold letters: “What’s being said about Obama’s health care plan.” Obama’s plan is “incomplete,” “wrong” and “could leave as many as 15 million poor without any guarantee,” the flier quotes from articles in The New York Times and on CBS News.

In response, a glossy mailer shows Obama surrounded by men and women in scrubs. “Everyone in this race has a universal plan for health care – including Senator Clinton,” Obama is quoted as saying. The mailer accuses Clinton of misleading attacks.

The battle for the Democratic nomination for president is being fought over health care, as Clinton, Obama and John Edwards in particular have seized on the issue to showcase their differences. But independent policy experts say that while there are differences among the plans – particularly over the issue of mandates – they are far outweighed by the similarities.

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Pat Lawrence’s bustling catering business in San Francisco is so small she doesn’t think she can afford health insurance. So when her face suddenly became paralyzed one morning as she was baking muffins, she went to the Internet for a diagnosis — not to a doctor or a hospital.

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Did you know that 1 of 3 women die of heart disease? Sadly, only about one-third of women know that heart disease is the #1 killer of women in the United States; it’s also the number one killer of men. Not only can heart disease lead to death, but it can also lead to disability and a greatly decreased quality of life.

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Uninsured Americans are less likely to get screened for cancer, more likely to be diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease, and less likely to survive that diagnosis than their privately insured counterparts, according to a new American Cancer Society report examining the impact of health insurance status on cancer treatment and survival.

The article, posted online today and set to be published in the January-February 2008 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, was authored by American Cancer Society researchers, led by Elizabeth Ward, PhD, managing director, surveillance research.

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Senate negotiators have put the final touches on a bill that would temporarily shield physicians from a 10 percent cut in their Medicare payments while extending funding for a children’s health insurance program through March 2009.

A spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., said Senate Democratic leaders would seek to move the measure by unanimous consent.

Physicians would receive a 0.5 percent increase in their Medicare rates for six months, instead of the 10.1 percent cut they otherwise would face on Jan. 1 under Medicare’s cost containment formulas. But the legislation would not stop doctor payment cuts in future years or, presumably, after the six-month payment package expires.

The legislation would extend several programs designed to help rural health providers by giving doctors in rural areas a slightly higher Medicare reimbursement rate. Hospital laboratories in rural areas receive similar treatment.

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After pay, health insurance is the single-most important incentive that small businesses use to recruit and keep workers, according to results of an annual employer survey published Dec. 12 by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO).More than half of the 365 small businesses participating in the survey said their health care premiums rose as much as 10 percent this year. But a whopping 70 percent of business owners said they wouldn’t raise employee contributions for health coverage in the coming year. Five percent, however, said they are unsure if they will continue to offer health care coverage at all.

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