Latest California Healthline Stories
Employers Face Health Insurance Hikes in 2001?
While consumers nationwide will face “double-digit increases” in health care costs next year –the “biggest surge” in medical inflation since the early 1990s — employers will likely “absorb” most of the “hefty” rise in cost to retain key employees in a tight labor market, the New York Times reports.
USA Today Examines State of Managed Care
With the “biggest” jumps in health insurance premiums in a decade — 10% to 13% for large companies and more than 20% for small businesses — predicted for next year, medical inflation has returned, “besting” managed care and raising doubts about the future of health insurance, USA Today reports in a special front page feature on HMOs.
Audit Details Problems at UCI’s Willed Body Program
An internal audit of the University of California-Irvine Willed Body Program released Wednesday reveals how former program director Christopher Brown misappropriated money and “left the program’s records in such disarray” that nearly 75% of donated bodies cannot be identified, the Orange County Register reports.
Davis Awards $300M to Three New Science and Technology Centers
Gov. Gray Davis (D) yesterday awarded $300 million in tax dollars to create three University of California institutes that will investigate new “frontiers” in science and technology, the Los Angeles Times reports.
State’s Antismoking Efforts ‘Work,’ Times Says
Californians “should be gratified by moves in other states to copy our aggressive antismoking efforts,” a Los Angeles Times editorial says.
Commonwealth Fund’s Davis Offers Plan for the Uninsured
Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis announced a plan yesterday to “wipe out the problem of the uninsured” by using a portion of the budget surplus to increase employer-based and public health coverage, CongressDaily reports.
eHealthInsurance Works to Expand Coverage
House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based eHealthInsurance Chair and Founder Vip Patel yesterday held a briefing on the Internet’s potential in solving “the national problem of access to affordable health insurance.”
Congress Continues Work on Givebacks, Labor-HHS Spending
During a meeting with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, President Clinton urged lawmakers to “not give up” on passing the tax relief bill that includes $35 billion in Medicare and Medicaid givebacks, CongressDaily/A.M. reports.
Negotiations Between Nurses, St. John’s Hospitals Fail to Settle Differences
A Wednesday meeting between negotiators for nurses and owners of St. John’s hospitals in Oxnard and Camarillo failed to resolve “key” differences regarding pay and work conditions between the two groups, with each side “blam[ing]” the other for the session’s failure, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Many Incarcerated Juveniles with Mental Illness Untreated
Most incarcerated youths have diagnosable mental health disorders and are in facilities that cannot treat them, according to a report from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice.