CT 28th in nation in tobacco prevention spending, and that’s the good news

CT is up to 28th among states in spending on tobacco prevention, according to a new report from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. The bad news is that we will spend only $7.2 million this year on prevention, 16 % of what CDC recommends. However we bring in $494 million from the tobacco settlement and in tobacco taxes annually. Every year 4,000 new CT children become smokers and 4,700 CT adults die due to their own smoking.
Ellen Andrews

How reducing health care costs could work

Many pundits have criticized the national health reform bills because they don’t do enough to reduce costs – to “bend the cost curve” – and deride the pilot programs to test cost cutting innovations. But an article by Atul Gawande in the latest New Yorker magazine describes how government sponsored pilot programs reduced skyrocketing food costs and reformed agriculture a hundred years ago. Criticized for leading to a government takeover of agriculture, the pilot programs are responsible for the fact that the average American family now spends 8% of income on food, down from 40% in 1900. Efficiencies have also allowed most workers to expand to other sectors, like health care. The pilots included data collection and analysis, dissemination of best practices, and reducing fragmentation. Sound familiar?
Ellen Andrews

Obesity and tobacco forum

The CT Public Health Policy Institute will hold a breakfast forum on overweight and obesity in CT and tobacco use and smoking in CT Tuesday Jan. 19th from 8 am to noon in Room 2A of the Legislative Office Building. The forum will include presentations with background, cost analysis and consequences of the problems followed by a panel on future interventions and time for questions. The research was funded by the Universal Health Care Foundation of CT. Previous work by the CT Public Health Policy Institute includes an analysis of overweight and obesity in CT, and another on CT’s primary care capacity.

Insurance Dept. approves United-Health Net acquisition

Not surprisingly, the CT Insurance Dept. (CID) has approved United Health’s proposal to purchase information on all Health Net members, past and present. Advocates and providers have raised grave concerns about the merger including privacy of sensitive health information, consolidation in CT’s already anti-competitive insurance market, and large increases in premiums for consumers and small businesses. Health Net will no longer be offering health insurance in CT; United has proposed paying millions to buy Health Net’s list and information on members. In defending their decision, CID maintains that if Health Net members who are offered coverage by United aren’t happy, they can shift to another plan. The only problem is that every one of those consumers always had the option of choosing United for their health care and rejected them. It is not clear that United was everyone’s second choice. Defaulting them into United or dumping them into an even more hostile insurance environment with one less choice is no favor. Based on CID’s softball questions to the insurers and refusal to allow us a voice as interveners, it was clear to this observer that the outcome was decided before we entered the hearing. The Attorney General’s office is investigating the proposed merger for anti-trust violations.
Ellen Andrews

Way too much fun

The pink glove dance to raise breast cancer awareness from the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR.

December web quiz – CT managed care plan performance

Test your knowledge about the performance of CT’s managed care plans. Take the December CT Health Policy web quiz.

The upside of rising unemployment and rising health costs

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal found the silver lining in our current economic crisis. As incomes for many dropped this year and health care costs for virtually everyone went up, more Americans will be able to qualify for the end of year tax deduction for medical expenses. Because the rules do not allow deductions until health care costs rise over 7.5% of income, few filers have been able to take it in the past. But this year more people will be eligible. In more good news, the range of expenses that qualify as medical for IRS purposes is large but there are important strategies to claiming the deduction. Most important is documenting the expenses and managing the paperwork.
Ellen Andrews