Tagged: health care

A growing number of health experts are warning of potential collateral damage if the Supreme Court strikes down the entire 2010 Affordable Care Act: potential chaos in the Medicare program.

"The Affordable Care Act has become part and parcel of the Medicare system, encouraging providers to deliver better, more integrated, better coordinated care, at lower cost," says Judy Feder, a public policy professor at Georgetown University and former Clinton administration health official. "To all of a sudden eliminate that would be highly disruptive."

Medicare patients who reach the annual gap in coverage for prescription drugs known as the "doughnut hole" are 57 percent more likely than those with continuous insurance coverage to stop taking drugs for heart-related conditions such as high blood pressure or heart disease.

That's the result of a study by researchers from the Harvard Medical School, Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, and CVS Caremark, the drugstore chain. It's in the latest issue of the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, published by the American Heart Association.

By now it's hardly news that the U.S. spends more than every other industrialized country on health care. But a new study suggests that at least when it comes to cancer care, Americans may actually be getting decent value.

What if when you’re sick and need to see the doctor, you could just log on to your home computer for a virtual visit instead of going to the office? That idea and others were kicked around among area health leaders last week at a meeting about what Google’s soon-to-be-installed high speed internet, Google Fiber, could mean for the region’s health care sector.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri's fifth district representative Emanuel Cleaver says he doesn't think yesterday's passage of a bill to repeal the federal health care law poses a real threat, but he is concerned with GOP plans to try to defund the legislation. Across the state line, freshman representative Kevin Yoder says yesterday's vote marks an important step towards finding better ways to reduce health costs and improve quality.

Kansas City, MO – Missouri's high risk insurance program, established under the federal health law, is dropping premiums by as much as twenty five percent.

Jefferson City, MO – The Missouri House has passed a resolution urging state officials to join a multi-state lawsuit challenging the federal health care overhaul and calling on Congress to repeal the law.