With the Senate passing a $700 billion Wall Street bail-out last night, the Healthcare Economist wonders who else needs a bail out. The best and brightest health bloggers have your answer. In this edition of the Health Wonk Review, we will examine six groups looking for help:
- Wall Street
- Health Insurers
- Healthcare Reformers
- Doctors
- The Uninsured
- Kids
WALL STREET
- Julie Ferguson of Workers Comp Insider explains how the biggest insurer on the planet suddenly runs out of money.
- Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal: the board of the illustrious New York-Presbyterian teaching hospital included four corporate executives from Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Merrill Lynch and AIG. None of these four executives had any particular knowledge of health care.
HEALTH INSURERS
- David Hamilton of Health Care Industry finds that the Wall Street meltdown will create huge losses for Aetna ($234m), Humana ($62m) and Wellpoint ($211m).
- David Kibbe of The Health Care Blog wonders if we will need a bailout of the health care system as well.
- Beth Capell looks at HMO insolvency at Health Access WeBlog.
HEALTHCARE REFORMERS
- Anthony Wright of Health Access WeBlog reminds us that the major social programs and leaps–Social Security, Medicare–happened during similarly tumultuous times.
- McCain or Obama? Joe Paduda analyzes the healthcare reform efforts of the two candidates.
- Obama vs. McCain? David Williams of the Health Business Blog evaluates the two candidates views on premium subsidies and tax changes.
- Colorado legislators may require individual/family health insurance to be guarantee-issue. Will this attempt at “fairness” make health insurance unaffordable? Louise Norris of Colorado Health Insurance Insider weighs in.
DOCTORS [Especially those owning MRI machines]
- What is a sick physician to do: reveal the extent of his condition to his colleagues and have his practice suffer or keep his condition a secret. Brain Blogger discusses.
- David Harlow of Health Blawg wonders if the Medicare reimbursement cuts for MRI imaging were too deep.
THE UNINSURED
- America has 47 million uninsured…or does it? Henry Stern of Insure Blog argues the true number of uninsured is only 8 million since since “a quarter of Americans eligible for Medicaid choose not to sign up” and 20% of the uninsured are illegal aliens.
- America has 47 million uninsured…the Healthcare Economist takes a look at four of their lives as he reviews the PBS documentary Critical Condition.
KIDS
- Kara Rogers of Britannica Blog claims that childhood obesity may hinder educational attainment.
INTERESTING POSTS that I couldn’t tie in with the bail out theme
- Caterpillar employees now have a choice: retain the freedom of pharmacy choice and pay a high copay or go to Wal-mart and pay a low (usually $0) copay. Adam Fein of Drug Channels explains.
- Vince Kuraitis of e-CareManagement Blog: What’s the Best Way to Get Hospitals Involved in Care Coordination? Pay them to do it.
- Sam Solomon of Canadian Medicine reviews an article in the BMJ that claims that DTC advertising doesn’t really work.
- Annie of Home of the Brave discusses the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- What are the top 100 health care policy blogs? RN Central lists them for you.
Now that the Senate has passed the 700 billon bailout has Obamas destiny been sealed?