12/25/2008 News For: Cigna Health Care InsuranceNewspapers Examine Health Care Issues Prompted By Current Economic Recession Two newspapers recently published articles that examined the health care issues faced by many individuals as a result of the current economic recession. Summaries appear below.Raleigh News & Observer: The News & Observer on Monday examined the problems with medical costs that many individuals face amid the current economic recession. Study: More have health insurance MONTPELIER -- A recent state survey says the number of Vermonters without health insurance is continuing to go down. ... - The Associated Press Massachusetts Health Officials Approve Guidelines For Subsidized Health Plans That Are Intended To Drive Down Costs The Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority Board on Saturday approved guidelines for contracts with managed care companies that include incentives for cutting costs and patient-protection provisions, the Boston Globe reports. The guidelines will apply to state-subsidized Commonwealth Care health plans, which cover 162,000 residents whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid. Boston Globe Examines Massachusetts Health Insurance Law As Model For National Health Overhaul Plan The Boston Globe on Friday examined how "[k]ey players in the debate over how to provide health care coverage for the nation's 47 million uninsured" residents believe that the Massachusetts health insurance law is "an important model for what Washington could do and how to get it done. Rendell?s top health care chief moving on HARRISBURG ? The director of Gov. Ed Rendell?s efforts to expand health insurance to low-income children and adults, help doctors pay their malpractice bills and modernize Pennsylvania?s health care system is stepping down. Health insurance options limited after job loss John Mathson had been paying about $550 a month to continue his health insurance coverage after the 63-year-old Eureka man got laid off in October after 39 years at the Evergreen Pulp mill. For Mathson, who is undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma... Students may be required to have health plans Students at state colleges and universities could be required to have medical-insurance coverage under a proposal endorsed by a special task force on health-care reform. Early Glance: Managed Care companies NEW YORK Shares of some top managed care companies are up at 10 a.m.: Aetna rose $.16 or .6 percent, to $26.17. CIGNA rose $.37 or 2.4 percent, to $15.90. There really is affordable health care Dear Savvy Senior: Where can a person turn to for low-cost medical, dental and eye care? I?m 62 years old, recently uninsured and living on a tight budget. ? Can?t Wait for Medicare Healthy Families program gets $244k The state's health insurance program for the working poor will receive an added boost this month from First 5 Tulare County. |




