Workers on average are paying nearly $4,000 this year toward the cost of family health coverage – an increase of 14 percent, or $482, above what they paid last year, according to the benchmark 2010 Employer Health Benefits Survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET). The jump occurred even though the total premiums for family coverage, including what employers themselves contribute, rose a modest 3 percent to $13,770 on average in 2010, the survey found. In contrast, the amount employers contribute for family coverage did not increase. Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) continue to dominate the employer market, enrolling 58 percent of covered workers. Average PPO family premiums topped $14,000 annually in 2010. Since 2005, workers’ contributions to premiums have gone up 47 percent, while overall premiums rose 27 percent, wages increased 18 percent, and inflation rose 12 percent. Read more…

The 2,000-page healthcare law passed in March harms small business in many ways. But arguably, its least defensible provision is the innocuous-looking, 162-word, Sec. 9006 (“Expansion of Information Reporting Requirements”). Starting in 2012, Sec. 9006 drowns small business under an ocean of IRS Form 1099s. Sec. 9006 is part of the healthcare law, yet it has nothing whatsoever to do with healthcare. It aims to increase federal revenues, yet there’s little evidence that it will. It vastly expands the flow of paperwork that businesses must file with the IRS, yet the IRS already says it cannot manage this flow. It guarantees that business will shift purchases from small vendors to big-box stores. It forces employees and employers to devote fewer hours to productive work and more hours to mind-numbing recordkeeping. Read more…

America’s doctors have millions of personal interactions each week with patients. We have political power. And we intend to use it by working to defeat those who have disrupted and gravely endangered the best health-care system in the world. My colleagues and I at Docs4PatientCare are enlisting thousands of doctors in an unorthodox and unprecedented action. Our patients have always expected a certain standard of care from their doctors, which includes providing them with pertinent information that may affect their quality of life. Because the issue this election is so stark—literally life and death for millions of Americans in the years ahead—we are this week posting a “Dear Patient” letter in our waiting rooms. Read more…

In the past, most patients placed their entire trust in the hands of their physician. Your doc said you needed a certain medical test, you got it. Not so much anymore. Many physicians say an increasing number of patients are getting involved in decisions about their medical care, including medication choices, whether they need a specialist, and especially whether they need expensive diagnostic tests, which some health economists say are driving up the cost of health care.Read more…

Federal domestic spending increased a record 16 percent, to $3.2 trillion, in 2009, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, largely because of a boost in aid to the unemployed and the huge economic stimulus package enacted to rescue the sinking economy. Overall, the largest chunk of federal spending – about 46 percent of the $3.2 trillion – went to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, entitlement programs that are projected to swell as the population ages. Read more…

The claim that repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would cost $455 billion is built on the accounting tricks that the White House used to proclaim in March that the bill would reduce the deficit. Both spurious White House claims, regarding the cost of repeal and the cost of implementing the law, cherry pick Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data to present cases to the American people that are built on a foundation of sand. Read more…

Most malpractice suits turn out to be against doctors who were not at fault. Of every 100 malpractice claims filed, only 17 appeared to involve a negligent injury, such as a medication overdose resulting in death, according to a 2004 New England Journal of Medicine review. This means that patients and lawyers appear to be suing the doctors and hospitals for non-negligent injury 83 percent of the time. Some researchers have likened our malpractice system to a traffic cop who gives out 100 tickets to nab 17 drivers who have run a red light, in the process ticketing 83 who drove through a green light quite properly. The second paradox is this: Studies of hospital records show that of every 100 injuries that occur due to medical negligence, only two result in malpractice claims. This means that 98 of 100 negligent injuries go unchallenged. To continue with the traffic analogy, of all the drivers who run red lights, only a very few are caught and receive a ticket. Read more…

As the CEO of a manufacturing business I spent over 25 years developing extensive expertise regarding the issues of health care. There is a good reason that most politicians, commentators, and journalists know so little about the problems and solutions. It is a tremendously complex problem that touches on everything from the health care system itself, to Federal, State, municipal and school budgets, to even our education system which fails to adequately educate students to understand our own economic system. It is frustrating to be dependent on politicians to improve the health care system, who appear to have such inadequate problem solving skills. Frequently it appears they are coming up with solutions when they don’t even understand the problem or the cause of the problem. Perhaps the following list of questions below can help people understand the importance of reform, the problems that need to be solved, and possible solutions. Read more…

If you understand my summary of health reform issues, now that ObamaCare has passed, you will realize that instead of solving the root causes of the health care problems, the new legislation makes them worse. As a result, the government will continue to “negotiate” unrealistic costs for providers. More and more providers will refuse to take Medicaid and Medicare patients, there won’t be enough retail patients to whom to spread a higher and higher cost. As costs for non-government beneficiaries continue to increase, along with mandates in the new legislation, insurance costs will have to increase. There is no way they can decrease as anticipated by the Democrats. Read more…

Watch this Heritage Foundation video on YouTube…