Looking for Solutions to Health Care Spending
1) State Public Health Official, Dr. Alvin Jackson, Brings Public Health Practices to White House (source: ASTHO.org)
"President Barack Obama met with Dr. Alvin Jackson, Director of the Ohio Department of Health, yesterday to discuss "Take Charge! Live Well!" an Ohio program that is reducing health risk factors for state workers. The meeting was part of President Obama’s initiative to meet with employers and unions whose health and wellness innovations have produced promising results."
2) The Social Security COLA and Medicare Part B Premium: Questions, Answers, and Issues (source: Kaiser Family Foundation)
"Social Security recipients are not expected to receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first time in 2010, with no or low COLAs projected through 2012. The absence of a COLA will result in higher Medicare Part B premiums for roughly a quarter of all Medicare beneficiaries, with a particularly steep increase in premiums expected between 2010 and 2011."
3) The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care (source: The New Yorker)
"The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here [referring to McAllen, Texas] in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn."
