Latest California Healthline Stories
Drug Plan Choices Await California Medicare Beneficiaries
With more Medicare beneficiaries than any other state, insurers are offering more than 100 options for Medicare drug coverage in California. Beneficiaries now must weigh the benefits and copayments of the plans to determine what their best option is.
Groups Look to Tobacco Tax Increase for Health Care Funding
Groups seeking to raise funds for children’s health insurance coverage, medical research, and tobacco cessation, as well as a group seeking funds for hospital emergency departments are considering ballot measures in 2006 to increase the state tobacco tax.
Employers, Retirees With Drug Coverage Question Implications of Medicare Drug Benefit
Health insurers have begun marketing Medicare prescription drug plans, but some retirees with prescription drug coverage and employers that provide such coverage are questioning what the drug benefit means for them.
Experts Debate Possible Effects of Long-Term Care Insurance Bill
Legislation under consideration in Congress is intended to create incentives for middle-income consumers to purchase long-term care insurance, but some insurance experts have questioned how much the legislation would benefit consumers.
Healthy Kids Programs Gain Momentum in Counties Statewide
Four years after the first Healthy Kids program sprang up in Santa Clara County, homegrown health insurance programs have spread to almost half the counties in California, covering children who fall through the cracks in state and federal programs.
HealthVote2005: Proposition 73
Proposition 73 on the Nov. 8 special election ballot would amend the state constitution to require health care providers to notify a parent or guardian 48 hours before performing an abortion on an unmarried minor. Proponents say the measure would reduce abortions, but opponents say it could compromise girls’ access to safe health care.
Care Provider Preparedness Could Affect Part D Rollout
The federal government has recommended that Medicare beneficiaries consult care providers with questions about the Medicare drug benefit, but some senior advocates and professional associations say providers might not be prepared to answer such questions.
HealthVote2005: Proposition 78 and Proposition 79
Two measures on the Nov. 8 special election ballot seek to create prescription drug discount programs, although the provisions of each measure — one sponsored by a coalition of drug makers and one sponsored by a coalition of labor and advocacy groups — differ.
In an interview for a California Healthline special audio report, Lynn Rolston, CEO of the California Pharmacists Association, said that pharmacists currently are not taking a position on either of the competing propositions addressing prescription drugs on the Nov. 8 special election ballot because they contain “so little detail” on how the legislation would affect pharmacists and patients’ access to pharmacists.
New Medicare Drug Benefit Might Be a Tough Sell
Advocacy groups in California and nationwide are preparing to help Medicare beneficiaries enroll in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit and are specifically preparing to educate beneficiaries about provisions of the benefit while addressing their concerns about enrollment and the benefit itself.