Story Archives of 'health insurance'

Everyone knows that health insurance premiums are particularly expensive for small businesses and individuals.

One reason: considerably more of their premium dollars pay for insurance companies’ administration.

NHPR’s health reporter Elaine Grant has the story.

On Sunday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius suggested that the Obama administration was backing off from what’s become known as the public option for health insurance.
Her comments sparked strong protests from liberal Democrats who feel that a public option is fundamental to a health care overhaul.
Since Sunday, the administration has been trying to reassure supporters that it is committed to a public option.
Congress may be on recess, but as NHPR’s Elaine Grant reports, New Hampshire lawmakers and health care advocates are continuing the debate.

What can Massachusetts teach us about health care? As the debate rages on Capitol Hill, politicians of all stripes have been pointing to that state’s system of universal care as an example of both what to do and what not to do. We’ll look at how the Massachusetts reforms are faring and find out which parts, if any, might work well on a nationwide scale.

Guests

• Martha Bebinger, reporter for WBUR in Boston
• Jonathan Gruber, health care economist at MIT, board member of the Massachusetts Health Connector Program and health care advisor to former Governor Romney and President Obama
• TBA

President Obama has made health care reform his top domestic priority, and now Congress is hashing out the details, including a controversial “public option” which would be a government health plan that would compete with private insurers. We’ll get the latest from Capitol Hill reporters who’ve been following the story.

Guests

• Carrie Budoff Brown, staff reporter for Politico who has been following the health care reform debate in Congress
• Jeff Young, staff writer for The Hill newspaper who’s been covering the health care debate in Washington

More than 47 millions Americans are living without health insurance. If you’re out of work or working without benefits, finding a doctor who will see you without health insurance is no mean feat.

A group of Arizona physicians is developing a new model for treating uninsured patients. It’s called the "no insurance club" and it gives patients up to 12 visits a year for a fixed fee of $480. They opened enrollment in January, and with us to explain this outside-the-box health care system is "no insurance club" co-founder Chad Harris.

(Photo by romanlily via Flickr/Creative Commons)