Health Care Reform:

News Related to Health Care Reform

191. Mental Illness Drugs Battle Medicare Plan
     

     Sept. 27, 2004 -- Mental health advocates say they are worried that rules governing the new Medicare prescription drug benefit could restrict access to needed medication for people with severe disorders. Medicare beneficiaries will find themselves in a battle between the drug companies, who want as

     Read Full Article
192. Bush vs. Kerry: Whose Health Plan Is Better?
     

     Sept. 23, 2004 -- President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have both cranked up the rhetoric in an effort to sell their health care plans to American voters, both promising to ease rising costs and reduce the number of families without insurance. At the bottom of the complex plans and flowery -- and somet

     Read Full Article
193. Medicare Steps up Outreach on Rx Cards
     

     Sept. 22, 2004 -- Medicare is preparing to directly mail prescription drug discount cards to 1.8 million low-income elderly beneficiaries. Nearly 7 million poor beneficiaries are eligible for the extra help with drug costs under the card program, but officials say they chose this smaller group becau

     Read Full Article
194. Health Care Concerns Rank 4th Among Voters
     

     Sept. 22, 2004 -- Concerns about rising health care costs and insurance coverage rank fourth among issues that voters see as critical in deciding how to cast their vote in the 2004 presidential election, according to new research. The study shows health care ranks higher in importance than domestic

     Read Full Article
195. Medicare Offers Some Rx Price Transparency
     

     Sept. 15, 2004 -- Officials are acting to increase the transparency of some retail drug prices on Medicare's web site, a move they say will allow seniors to more easily shop for lower cost prescriptions. The new information will allow seniors using Medicare's drug discount card to compare average pr

     Read Full Article
196. Companies Tout Worker Health to Save Costs
     

     Sept. 10, 2004 -- American workers' soaring health care costs could have a one small upside: They seem to be spurring companies to get more serious about worker health in a desperate bid to save money. According to a survey of 3,000 employers nationwide who help provide health coverage for workers,

     Read Full Article
197. Health Costs Rise 11.2% in 2004
     

     Sept. 9, 2004 -- Employee-sponsored health insurance premiums rose an average of 11.2% between spring 2003 and spring 2004, now averaging just under $10,000 per year for the average worker with a family of four, according to a report released Thursday by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Premiu

     Read Full Article
198. Democrats Move to Limit Record Medicare Rise
     

     Sept. 8, 2004 -- Democrats blasted President Bush Wednesday over an expected record rise in seniors' Medicare premiums next year, vowing to push legislation to limit the increase. The move comes on the heels of a Bush administration announcement late last week warning that beneficiaries' premiums fo

     Read Full Article
199. Uninsured Americans Up by 1.4 Million in '03
     

     Aug. 26, 2004 -- An estimated 45 million Americans don't have health insurance, and that number is rising faster than the number of Americans with insurance, according to a new report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report shows the number of people without health insurance grew by 1.4

     Read Full Article
200. Too Many Elderly Are Taking Dangerous Drugs
     

     Aug. 9, 2004 -- Millions of elderly Americans are taking prescription drugs that are widely considered to be too dangerous for them, new research suggests. Investigators from Duke University report that over the course of a year, one in five people 65 or older filled prescriptions for at least one "

     Read Full Article