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July 25, 2005
Rewarding Bad Medical Care
This weekend, the Washington Post started a series looking at the many flaws of the Medicare system. As the article clearly demonstrates, hospitals and health care providers often make more money when they provide worse care. These perverse incentives are not limited to government programs. Fundamentally changing the way that providers are paid for care is a critical component of making insurance more affordable for small businesses.
Posted by Green Hornet at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
Consumer-driven Health Care Gains Popularity
According to America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are seeing sharp increases in enrollment. As of May this year, more than one million people nationwide have enrolled in HSAs, twice the enrollment numbers from September 2004.
Posted by WorkerBee at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2005
HSAs Continue to Grow
The New York Times published an informative story this Saturday about Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), featuring NSBA Board Member Scott Hauge.
Hauge's company, Cal Insurance and Associates, recent began offering HSAs to its employees and it has done very well.
NSBA supports HSAs and applauds the Times for publishing an insightful piece.
Posted by Bee Line at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
Hospital Infections Tallied $2 Billion in Pennsylvania Last Year
A new report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council quantifies the painfully obvious -- medical mistakes cost a LOT of money. Pennsylvania began a pilot program last year to evaluate the cost of hospital-acquired infections, as well as the outcome of establishing quality and reporting protocols.
What did they learn? Nearly 12,000 Pennsylvanians contracted infections during a hospital stay in 2004, costing an extra $2 billion in care and at least 1,500 preventable deaths.
Posted by WorkerBee at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
States Seek Increased Payroll Taxes for Universal Health Care
Currently, 18 states are considering bills that would create a single-payer health care system. The majority of these bills propose to create a state government-run insurance plan funded by payroll taxes and new taxes on income.
Though people's satisfaction with their insurance is decreasing, a Kaiser Foundation poll earlier this year showed that 55 percent of Americans opposed a single-payer health system.
Posted by WorkerBee at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2005
CBO Estate Tax Report is Bunk
The Congressional Budget Office released a report last Thursday that purportedly shows the effects of the estate tax on family-owned farms and businesses. The report, requested by the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee Senator Max Baucus, also looked at the impact of small increases in the exemption levels.
According to the report, "only" ~1,500 small businesses filed estate taxes in 1999 and 2000.
Do expect this to be widely reported in the press as proof that estate tax repeal is not a small business issue. Do not expect it to be widely reported in the press that the CBO only counted as small businesses affected by the estate tax those who filed a QFOBI deduction.
Yes, the same QFOBI that is considered so onerous to calculate that most CPAs won’t touch it. Aside from undercounting small businesses, the report also totally failed to take into account the cost of estate planning undertaken solely to avoid estate tax penalties.
But perhaps this quote from page three of the report says it best
The variety of definitions and forms of small business that exist precludes a comprehensive examination of the effect of the estate tax on small business.
Thanks for nothing CBO.
Posted by at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)