CoverTheUninsured

CoverTheUninsured.org Weekly News Digest

Cover the Uninsured Week 2007, April 23-29, will focus on covering America's children. Please visit www.CoverTheUninsured.org to find resources for people seeking health coverage, as well as news and information about this year's campaign and the importance of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

For the week of May 14, 2007:

News & Opinion

Easing Small Business Coverage Woes Seen as Essential for Helping Uninsured
As states, the Congress and presidential hopefuls try to tackle the growing problem of the uninsured, the problems faced by small businesses--which employ about 40 percent of the nation’s work force and whose employees are one of the fastest growing groups of uninsured--"are likely to become a central issue," reports the New York Times.
Source(s): Freudenheim, New York Times, 5/5/07 [registration required]

OPINION: Los Angeles Times Finds It Promising That a Coalition of Large Businesses Is Seeking Solutions for the Uninsured
"The prospects for fundamental change in the health care system improved Monday when three dozen businesses, including some of the country’s largest employers, announced their support for universal health insurance," according to an editorial in the Los Angeles Times.
Source(s): Los Angeles Times, 5/8/07

OPINION: Market Measures Help the Uninsured and Lower Health Care Costs
Political leaders seeking to expand the government’s role in health care should note that "private companies are far ahead... in answering Americans’ needs, this time for more accessible and more affordable health care," writes Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, in a Wall Street Journal commentary extolling retail health clinics.
Source(s): Grace Marie-Turner, Wall Street Journal, 5/14/07 [subscription required]

Study Quantifies How Much More the Uninsured Pay for Hospital Care
A study from Johns Hopkins University found that hospitals bill uninsured patients two and a half times more, on average, than what the insured are billed through their health plans and more than three times what patients are billed through Medicare, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Source(s): Yi, Los Angeles Times, 5/8/07

Kansas Governor Signs Bipartisan Health Reform Measure That Aids the Uninsured
Kansas Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed into law a bipartisan health care measure that falls short of her aim but puts Kansas "on a path toward coverage for all," reports the Associated Press.
Source(s): Milburn, Associated Press, 5/10/07

Illinois Plan to Cover All Residents by Raising Taxes Meets With Opposition
Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich’s plan to fund comprehensive insurance coverage in his state with a new tax "has created outrage" among businesses and some others, reports the New York Times.
Source(s): Saulny, New York Times, 5/5/07 [registration required]

OPINION: Health Coverage Mandates Give Republicans the Edge in Solving the Problem of the Uninsured
Republicans might be winning in the "struggle between advocates of socialized medicine in America and those who believe economically competent Americans should be required to budget and save for their own health care, as they do for the rest of their personal consumption," writes Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
Source(s): Jenkins, Wall Street Journal, 5/9/07 [subscription required]