Health Insurance

Last Monday, leaders from Partners HealthCare System Inc. gathered in the dark-paneled office of Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo to lay out their objections to his expansive 278-page plan to tame health care costs. The House proposal, unveiled 10 days earlier, called in part for closer oversight of the prices and operations of hospitals and their physicians groups, especially more costly ones like those owned by Partners, and influential board chairman Jack Connors requested a meeting.

The May 9 edition of the Globe included an article on the State House debate on health care payment reform ("2 Mass. plans vie for savings on health care," Page A1) and a column by Derrick Z. Jackson on obesity and health care costs ("Obesity, the new cigarette," Op-ed). Providers were the primary target in the payment reform article; the food industry the target in the column about obesity. What is missing in both debates is a mention of personal responsibility and the role of the consumer in controlling skyrocketing costs.

Mitt Romney's first general-election TV commercial promises he would introduce tax cuts and approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline on the first day of his presidency. The Republican candidate released the ad Friday, coupling it with a fundraising pitch. The 30-spot is upbeat, in contrast to an ad President Barack Obama is running that criticizes Romney as a businessman. Romney has called the Obama ad "character assassination. " In Romney's commercial, his first since becoming the presumptive nominee, an announcer asks: "What would a Romney presidency be like?"

Cancer patient Kathy Watson voted Republican in 2008 and believes the government has no right telling Americans to get health insurance. Nonetheless, she says she'd be dead if it weren't for President Barack Obama's health care law. Now the Florida small businesswoman is worried the Supreme Court will strike down her lifeline. Under the law, Watson and nearly 62,000 other "uninsurable" patients are getting coverage through a little-known program for people who have been turned away by insurance companies because of pre-existing medical conditions.

The state's landmark health insurance law passed an important hurdle yesterday, with the announcement that the federal government has agreed to continue providing Massachusetts $385 million in annual Medicaid money for the next two years. State officials have said that the money, needed to subsidize coverage for low-income residents, is crucial to carrying out the ambitious new healthcare plan, which seeks to insure nearly all Massachusetts residents over the next several years . The federal funding was considered at-risk earlier this year because Massachusetts...

Ten years ago, Susan McWhinney-Morse had no desire to leave her longtime Beacon Hill home and neighborhood just because she and her husband were retired and growing older. The expectation then, as it is now, was that retired people sold their homes, then moved to Florida or some other retirement-like community where they would be surrounded by other senior residents. "But my little slogan was ‘No, no, I won't go!' " said McWhinney-Morse. "I love where I live, and I felt strongly about a society that takes the elderly and warehouses...

AUGUSTA, Maine - New US census figures show more Mainers living in poverty, but fewer lacking health insurance. Figures released yesterday and based on the 2010 Census show about 161,000 Mainers lived in poverty. The poverty rate of 12.5 percent was up from 11.4 percent in 2009. Maine's 2010 poverty rate was still lower than that national rate of 15.1 percent. Advocates for low-income people in Maine said the recession and high unemployment have driven the poverty rate up. "With unemployment at 9.6 percent nationally and 7.7 percent in Maine, it is not surprising that more people...

Selectmen last week voted to consider changes in the health insurance plans offered to town employees. Because of recently enacted state health insurance legislation, many communities now have more of a say in setting insurance premium costs and potentially saving money for their towns. Selectmen chairman John J. Connolly said leaders of the town's unions expressed concern over the vote, reminding selectmen of their willingness to forgo a cost-of-living raise last year. The move came as the town is preparing a budget and renegotiating contracts with school and town worker unions.

If you are out of work and finding it difficult to pay for your health insurance, it might be helpful to know that you can take a penalty-free withdrawal from your 401(k) or your IRA to pay for the premium. This withdrawal is possible even if you are under age 59 and a half. The amount of the withdrawal would still be taxable but you can avoid the 10 percent penalty normally assessed on early withdrawals. To qualify, you have to unemployed and receiving unemployment checks for at least 12 consecutive weeks.

WALTHAM - Don't get used to those moderating health insurance premium increases. Even as Massachusetts business and government leaders celebrate the most modest premium rate hikes in years for small employers and individuals, speakers at a health insurance seminar here yesterday warned that the main trend restraining bigger increases - fewer people seeking health care in the past year - already may be changing. "We definitely are starting to see some uptick," said Martha R. Temple, president of the New England market for insurance giant Aetna Inc. "The...

Mitt Romney's first general-election TV commercial promises he would introduce tax cuts and approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline on the first day of his presidency. The Republican candidate released the ad Friday, coupling it with a fundraising pitch. The 30-spot is upbeat, in contrast to an ad President Barack Obama is running that criticizes Romney as a businessman. Romney has called the Obama ad "character assassination. " In Romney's commercial, his first since becoming the presumptive nominee, an announcer asks: "What would a Romney presidency be like?"

Speaking to both state and national audiences, Governor Deval Patrick today defended the idea of government promoting near universal health care, even as he called on lawmakers, health care providers, and the business community to work jointly on controlling its cost. The twin targets reflected his role both as leader of the state and a top surrogate speaker for President Obama. The Democratic president is defending his federal health care overhaul from criticism by Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who enacted the state's...

Speaking to both state and national audiences, Governor Deval Patrick today defended the idea of government promoting near universal health care, even as he called on lawmakers, health care providers, and the business community to work jointly on controlling its cost. The twin targets reflected his role both as leader of the state and a top surrogate speaker for President Obama. The Democratic president is defending his federal health care overhaul from criticism by Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who enacted the state's health care reforms...

After registering sharply higher earnings in 2011, the state's nonprofit health insurers posted falling operating income - and in two cases, operating losses - for the first quarter of this year as they handled more medical claims. The early months of the year typically bring more claims. People delay elective procedures until after the holidays and insurance companies have to make payments for supplemental Medicare policies until members meet their deductibles and government funding kicks in. But another factor affected health insurers' finances in the first quarter of...

Back in 1999, Michael Paolini, an inventor at IBM in Austin, Texas, was having lunch at a Ruby Tuesday with fellow engineers when the group decided that too many burgers and fries were translating into thicker waistlines. It was time to lose weight. But, being engineers, they weren't just going to hit the StairMaster. They decided to build a computer program to make shedding pounds as geekily fun as playing Xbox, but with an added incentive: the opportunity to win cash. The idea for this program, which recently won patent approval, was simple: Participants would be...

A union says 40 private security guards who work at several state agencies based in Hartford are on a one-day strike. The Service Employees International Union says the guards are demanding that their employer, state contractor SOS Security, make pension contributions required by its contract with the state. They walked off their jobs on Thursday. A man who answered the phone at the East Parsippany, N.J., company declined to comment. Workers at buildings housing state agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Office of Policy and Management earn $9.56 to $12 an...

WASHINGTON - American workers - whose taxes pay for massive government health programs - are getting squeezed like no other group by private health insurance premiums that are rising much faster than their wages. While just about all retirees are covered, and nearly 90 percent of children have health insurance, workers now are at significantly higher risk of being uninsured than in the 1990s, the last time lawmakers attempted a healthcare overhaul, according to a study to be released today.

Every Massachusetts resident would be required to have health insurance on July 1, 2007, under a landmark healthcare bill the Legislature could send to Governor Mitt Romney as early as today. The agreement, unveiled by legislative leaders yesterday, aims to increase coverage in phases over three years to include 90 to 95 percent of the uninsured, through the insurance requirement for individuals, along with a new assessment on employers that don't cover workers and creation of private, subsidized health plans for people who can't afford them on their own. ...

RE " HEALTH coverage: H elping A yla B rown " ( e ditorial, m ay 5): I t has been suggested that since Ayla Brown has secured health coverage as a dependent on her father Senator Scott Brown's policy, that this is an act of hypocrisy on the senator's part, because of his opposition to President Obama's health plan. Can we then assume that it is hypocritical for people to collect unemployment for years, when many of the same people believe the system to be flawed?