http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news from Commonwealth Fund Combining Medicare's hospital, physician, and prescription drug coverage with commonly purchased private supplemental coverage into one health plan could produce national savings of $180 billion over a decade while improving care for beneficiaries, according to a new study by researchers at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Commonwealth Fund published today in the May edition of Health Affairs. Under the proposed plan, called "Medicare Essential," Medicare beneficiaries could save a total of $63 billion between 2014 and 2023, with total premium and out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries estimated to be 17 percent to 40 percent lower than current costs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-medicare-essential-billion-years.html Health Mon, 06 May 2013 16:00:10 EST news287073877 Eighty-four million people―nearly half of all working-age U.S. adults―went without health insurance for a time last year or had out-of-pocket costs that were so high relative to their income they were considered underinsured, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2012 Biennial Health Insurance Survey. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-health-survey-million-people-uninsured.html Health Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:00:01 EST news286128493 Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have selected the health insurance plan in their state that will serve as the "essential health benefit" package sold by all insurers participating in the new health insurance marketplace and the individual and small-group markets beginning January 2014, according to a new Commonwealth Fund study. Designed to improve the adequacy of health coverage, the essential health benefit covers 10 broad service categories, including ambulatory patient care, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, and prescription drugs. The federal government allowed each state to choose a benchmark plan to help meet the Affordable Care Act requirement that the essential health benefit reflect a typical employer health insurance plan. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-states-benchmark-essential-health-benefit.html Health Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:48:34 EST news282368905 Only 11 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or issued regulations to implement the Affordable Care Act's major health insurance market reforms that go into effect in 2014, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Thirty-nine states have not yet taken action to implement these requirements, potentially limiting their ability to fully enforce the new reforms and ensure that consumers receive the full protections of the law. These reforms include bans on denying people health insurance due to preexisting conditions, a minimum benefit standard, and limits on out-of-pocket costs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-state-action-health-reforms.html Health Fri, 01 Feb 2013 05:05:45 EST news278917533 Average premiums for employer-sponsored family health insurance plans rose 62 percent between 2003 and 2011, from $9,249 to $15,022 per year, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. The report, which tracks state trends in employer health insurance coverage, finds that health insurance costs rose far faster than incomes in all states. Workers are also paying more out-of-pocket as employee payments for their share of health insurance premiums rose by 74 percent on average and deductibles more than doubled, up 117 percent between 2003 and 2011. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-employer-health-premiums-percent.html Health Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:03 EST news274465790 Consumers saw nearly $1.5 billion in insurer rebates and overhead cost savings in 2011, due to the Affordable Care Act's medical loss ratio provision requiring health insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health care or quality improvement activities or pay a rebate to their customers, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Consumers with individual policies saw substantially reduced premiums when insurers reduced both administrative costs and profits to meet the new standards. While insurers in the small- and large-group markets achieved lower administrative costs, not all of these savings were passed on to employers and consumers, as many insurers increased profits in these markets. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-consumers-benefitted-billion-aca-medical.html Health Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:39:15 EST news273904723 Two-thirds (69%) of U.S. primary care physicians reported using electronic medical records (EMRs) in 2012, up from less than half (46%) in 2009, according to findings from the 2012 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey, published as a Web First online today in the journal Health Affairs. Primary care physicians in the U.S.—the only country in the study without universal health coverage—stand out in the survey for reporting that their patients often cannot afford care (59%). By comparison, between 4 percent and 25 percent of physicians reported affordability problems for their patients in Norway (4%), the U.K. (13%), Switzerland (16%), Germany (21%), and Australia (25%). Moreover, more than half of U.S. doctors (52%) said insurance restrictions on their care decisions are a major time concern—by far the highest rate in the 10-country survey. U.S. physicians also were the most negative about their country's health system, with only 15 percent agreeing the health care system works well. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-survey-percent-primary-doctors-electronic.html Health Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:00:01 EST news272130742 The number of uninsured individuals is estimated to increase in every state and to 72 million nationwide—with children and low- and middle-income Americans particularly hard hit—under Governor Mitt Romney's plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with block grants to states for Medicaid and new tax incentives, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. While the details of Governor Romney's proposals have not been specified, a set of assumptions was made for the report based on similar proposals advanced in the past. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-analysis-presidential-candidates-health-uninsured.html Health Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:07 EST news268331544 The Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, the name for the federal high-risk health insurance pool established by the Affordable Care Act, is serving its purpose as a bridge program, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Currently, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan is providing a coverage option for people with pre-existing health conditions until they are eligible to purchase insurance through the new state exchanges in 2014, with much of their costs subsidized. However, the program's high costs and relatively low enrollment numbers indicate that high-risk pools, which are designed to cover people excluded from the individual insurance market because of a health problem, are not a tenable long-term solution. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-aca-pcip-bridge-high-risk-pools.html Health Thu, 13 Sep 2012 04:46:17 EST news266730320 The United States lags three other industrialized nations—France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—in its potentially preventable death rate, and in the pace of improvement in preventing deaths that could have been avoided with timely and effective health care, according to a Commonwealth Fund–supported study published as a web first online today in Health Affairs. Between 1999 and 2006/2007, the overall potentially preventable death rate among men ages 0 to 74 dropped by only 18.5 percent in the United States, while the rate declined by nearly 37 percent in the U.K. For women, the rate fell by 17.5 percent in the U.S. but by nearly 32 percent in the U.K. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-worst-potentially-death-france-germany.html Health Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:43:40 EST news265477410 Elderly beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare plans are more satisfied with their health insurance, have better access to care, and are less likely to have problems paying medical bills than people who get insurance through employers or those who purchase coverage on their own, according to a new Commonwealth Fund study published today in Health Affairs. The study also found that beneficiaries enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans are less satisfied with their insurance than those with a traditional Medicare plan, and more likely to experience access problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-elderly-medicare-beneficiaries-health.html Health Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:09:00 EST news261846529 Twenty percent of U.S. women (18.7 million) ages 19-64 were uninsured in 2010, up from 15 percent (12.8 million) in 2000, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report on women's health care. An additional 16.7 million women were underinsured in 2010, compared with 10.3 million in 2003. The report estimates that once fully implemented, the Affordable Care Act will cover nearly all women, reducing the uninsured rate among women from 20 percent to 8 percent. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-twenty-percent-women-uninsured.html Health Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:13:32 EST news261371598 In 2011, 13.7 million young adults ages 19 to 25 stayed on or joined their parents' health plans, including 6.6 million who would likely not have been able to do so before passage of the Affordable Care Act, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-million-young-adults-parents-health.html Health Fri, 08 Jun 2012 04:21:30 EST news258348038 More than half of Americans with individual market health insurance coverage in 2010 were enrolled in so-called "tin" plans, which provide less coverage than the lowest "bronze"-level plans in the Affordable Care Act, and therefore would not be able to be offered in the health insurance exchanges that are being created under the law, according to a Commonwealth Fund–supported study published today as a Web First in the journal Health Affairs. The analysis suggests that once the state-based exchanges—set up to make it easier for individuals and small businesses to shop for health insurance—go into effect in 2014, many of these Americans will be able to purchase plans that offer better coverage. In addition, many will be eligible for premium subsidies that will help offset the cost of the plans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-americans-individual-health-gain-coverage.html Health Wed, 23 May 2012 16:00:01 EST news256996661 The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries yet does not provide "notably superior" care, according to a new study from The Commonwealth Fund. The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on health care services, while other countries in the study spent between one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much. While the U.S. performs well on breast and colorectal cancer survival rates, it has among the highest rates of potentially preventable deaths from asthma and amputations due to diabetes, and rates that are no better than average for in-hospital deaths from heart attack and stroke. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-health-industrialized-nations-quality-varies.html Health Thu, 03 May 2012 03:05:42 EST news255233122