No Pain, No Gain ;O): Public

Public health groups are rallying the troops to try to help preserve the public health fund created under the 2010 health reform law, which Republicans now say they’ll raid to help pay for a student loan program.

Republicans call it a slush fund, while public health experts who called for the fund say it protects vital programs from the vagaries of year-to-year Congressional funding fights – fights like this one.

“For example, funding for rural health programs at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) decreased by more than $10 million from Fiscal Year 2008 to FY 2009, but then increased by nearly $10 million in FY2010. These types of fluctuations in funding streams make it difficult to maintain and enhance public health programs,” the American Public Health Association said in one plea sent to supporters.

The Prevention and Public Health Fund is meant to be used the fund will be used for programs at the local, state, and federal level to fight obesity, smoking, obesity and pandemics and bioterror attacks.

“By repeatedly proposing elimination of the Prevention and Public Health Fund, policymakers have focused on a series of short-term ‘fixes,’ and, in so doing, are jeopardizing the health and wellbeing of all Americans,” said Richard Hamburg, Deputy Director of the Trust for America’s Health.

“Thus far, policymakers have attempted to use the $15 billion Fund to pay for what appears to be a never-ending parade of offsets for other policy priorities. The health and wellness of Americans are not pawns to be played in a game of federal finances.”

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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Dementia: A public health crisis?

Almost a year after the World Health Organisation declared Dementia including Alzheimer's Disease as a Non-Communicable Disease, the WHO is all set to declare it as a Global Health Crisis, urging governments across the world to make it a health priority. For India this declaration is crucial, given that 90 per cent of the cases go undetected.

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Obama health reform law goes on trial amid deeply split public opinion

Whatever you call it – the Affordable Care Act, health-care reform, Obamacare – one aspect of President Obama’s signature health-care law is taken almost as if etched in stone: Americans “don’t like it, they think it’s unconstitutional, and they want it repealed,” as Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell put it in the GOP’s weekly television address last week.

As the US Supreme Court begins three days of argument over the 2010 health-care reform law, a close reading of several recent opinion polls shows that public sentiment may be more complex than that – and may complicate Republicans’ push to make health care a central part of their political agenda through November.

The crux of the matter? Americans see the individual mandate, the law’s requirement that almost every American buy health insurance or pay a penalty, as unconstitutional.

RECOMMENDED: Obama health care law at Supreme Court: mega case for the history books

At the same time, the overall law – with popular measures like the ability to keep children on a parent’s health-insurance policy through age 26 – either divides public opinion or tilts slightly toward Democrats' positions.

Americans have consistently shown a constitutional concern with the health-care law. Earlier in Senator McConnell’s weekly remarks, for example, he cited a February poll conducted by Gallup/USA Today in which 72 percent of respondents said they believed that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. A poll released Monday by The Hill newspaper found half of voters believe Mr. Obama’s health-care law should be overturned, versus 42 percent who say it should be upheld. A March 14 poll by Pew Research shows similar results – 41 percent “approve” of the individual mandate, while 56 percent “disapprove.”

Those same polls, however, show that overall public opinion about the law is more evenly divided.

In the Gallup/USA Today survey, a slight 47 percent to 44 percent edge goes to those who would favor repealing the entire health-care law under a Republican president come 2013. The Pew poll, moreover, shows a majority of voters say the law should be either expanded (33 percent) or left as is (20 percent), compared with 38 percent who say it should be repealed.

Similarly, The Hill’s poll shows a majority of voters (52 percent) say health-care quality will be about the same or better if the health-care law survives. Forty-two percent predict it will be worse.

Democratic voters are much more likely to support the health-care law than are Republicans. Independent voters, who are key to deciding the 2012 election, tend to be more sanguine than Republicans about the health-care reform law.

Independents are more likely to oppose repeal (47 percent) than favor it (43 percent), according to the Gallup survey. In the Pew report, a plurality of independents favor repeal (40 percent), but a combined 51 percent said Congress should expand the law (33 percent) or leave it as is (18 percent).

Finally, whom does the public trust to handle health care? Far and away, the answer is Democrats.

Pew’s poll shows the public says Democrats are better able to handle health care than are Republicans, by a 14 percentage point margin. They are also deemed better able to handle Medicare (13 percentage points) and abortion (16 percentage points).

What does that add up to for this election season? While both parties have vowed to make health care a top issue going into November, Democrats are expected to hammer Republicans over proposed changes to Medicare contained in the House Republican budget plan, because the Democrats have a significant polling edge on that issue.

“The Affordable Care Act shows that Democrats remain firmly committed to Medicare,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D) of Maryland, the House Democratic whip, in a statement. “This law strengthened Medicare by improving benefits, extending its solvency, and laying the foundation for reforms that will constrain costs and improve quality.”

On the other hand, Republicans may have to fight the perception that the fight over the health reform law is much ado about little. Seventy percent of Americans told Gallup that the law has not affected them at all.

The margin of error in the Gallup/USA Today poll is plus or minus 4 percentage points. It is 3 points for the Hill and the Pew polls (but greater when the Pew poll results are broken down by party affiliation).

RECOMMENDED: Obama health care law at Supreme Court: mega case for the history books

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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Unimmunized Kids Pose Public Health Risks

KMBC's Kelly Eckerman reports.

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Health secretary Andrew Lansley announces NHS public health shake-up

The Health Secretary says councils will be given extra-funding to take back
responsibility for public health for the first time since the 1970s.

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Health secretary Andrew Lansley announces NHS public health shake-up

The Health Secretary says councils will be given extra-funding to take back
responsibility for public health for the first time since the 1970s.

View the original article here

Health plans launch own exchanges ahead of public versions

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St. Paul, Minn. — Commercial health insurers are scrambling for position as a key part of the federal health law threatens to upend their marketplace in two years.

Health plans are trying to lock in business before government-sponsored health insurance exchanges go online in 2014. Several large insurers are launching private insurance exchanges to protect themselves against competition from the public exchanges.

Not since the advent of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s has there been such big changes looming on the horizon for health insurers. In less than two years, the federal health care law will usher in more restrictions on premium increases, tens of millions of new customers, and a way for consumers to comparison shop online for their health insurance.

An estimated 1 million Minnesotans will eventually get their health insurance through an exchange.

Sabrina Corlette, research professor at Georgetown's Health Policy Institute, said those are just a few of the changes coming in 2014. Just how insurance markets will shake out is anyone's guess, she said.

"Insurance companies are grappling with the uncertainty like everybody else and trying to look two years down the road and how to position themselves," Corlette said. "[What] also needs to be watched closely [is] that it's working for the consumer."

Corlette says there's a lot of jockeying going on as insurers try to position themselves to either maintain or expand the market share they currently have. That's no simple task given the shifting sands.

The prospect of public insurance exchanges are driving some of the maneuvering. As laid out in the health care law, they will allow consumers and small businesses to comparison shop for health plans. Now, a spate of new privately-run online insurance shopping sites are cropping up to cater to small businesses struggling with rising premiums, including "My Plan by Medica" in Minnesota.

Last August, United Health Group's subsidiary OptumHealth bought Connextions, an exchange company based in Florida. Then in September, three large, independent health insurers invested in Minneapolis-based Bloom Health's private exchange.

Medica's John Naylor said public or private, the basic concept of an exchange — allowing employees to choose among many different policies online — is a good one.

"We have seen a trend of giving consumers more choice. And in health care, it's an industry that with the exchanges out there coming in 2014, there's a lot of focus and energy around how do we give employees choice," Naylor said.

But with many private exchanges, there's only so much choice. On the public exchanges, users will be able to choose among a variety of plans offered by different insurers who are competing for business.

Not so on some of the new private exchanges. They may offer plans from only one insurer — the one that's providing the exchange. That's the case with both My Plan by Medica and the Blue KC Exchange from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City.

Blue Cross' Ron Rowe said the goal is to get people used to dealing with an exchange and the company's products before there's additional competition from the public exchanges.

"Our thought is that at least today we're better off to develop a relationship with them, have them used to getting their service from us, feeling good about the service they get from us, developing some rapport, some trust," Rowe said.

Rowe said the hope is to develop some customer loyalty, so Blue Cross won't lose business to the public exchanges once they go online.

Washington and Lee health law professor Timothy Jost said the private exchanges may help insurers fend off competition once the public exchanges go online.

"It's not all that easy to switch a plan once you have a plan in place; people are used to using the doctors and hospitals associated with a particular plan," Jost said.

Exchanges are also allowing employers to cap the amount they pay for workers' health coverage. Employees get to pick from a range of plans, some of which may require that they pay extra.

Abir Sen of the Minnesota-based private exchange Bloom Health said that approach is attractive to small businesses. He said it's a way for them to gain control over unpredictable, but growing health care costs.

"This is very much a market-driven solution where the market is telling us here's what we need and the industry is responding accordingly," Sen said.

But over time, capping employer contributions could leave workers shouldering an ever-growing portion of premium costs.

The big question for insurers is if they build exchanges, will small employers come?

Economist Paul Fronstin, director of the non-partisan Employer Benefits Research Institute said small business owners will approach both private and public exchanges with caution.

"Enrollment in both is going to start off slow and grow over time as employers see how they're working and get more information about them," Fronstin said.

Corlette said cost will be the deciding factor in whether businesses buy insurance from either a public or private exchange.

"It's got to be affordable. And if you're offering them an alternative, it's got to be cheaper than what they can currently get," she said.

Corlette says the exchanges also need to provide decent coverage that's easy to administer.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Health Net and UCLA School of Public Health Expand T2X Health Literacy Social Media Program to All Teens Nationwide

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Health Net, Inc. (NYSE: HNT - News) and the UCLA School of Public Health today announced the expansion of its health literacy social media program, T2X. The program was previously limited to its study testing phase, but access to the program now is available to all cyber-savvy teens nationwide.

The T2X project was created as a result of a partnership between Health Net, UCLA School of Public Health and EPG Technologies. It was funded by a $1.1 million NIH research grant that tested whether a cutting-edge intervention using an online social network would increase low-income teens’ capacity to access and use their insurance, become more engaged in their health care and health behavior decisions, and develop pro-health attitudes.

“We believe that this innovative approach has helped create best practices for encouraging all teens to become knowledgeable health care consumers,” said Nancy Wongvipat Kalev, Health Net’s director of Health Education and Cultural and Linguistic Services, and one of the study’s collaborators. “The study’s findings are currently being evaluated and the highly anticipated results are expected mid-2012. If this intervention is indeed successful in allowing teens to become more engaged in their health care and health decisions, we could validate the use of social networking sites for the rest of our population and open doors to exploring other innovative technology-based approaches to promoting healthy behaviors in the future.”

The T2X website offers a teen-only community of users, with teen and professionally produced content, competitions, games, quizzes, blogs, video sharing and other interactive and participatory communication methods. The site covers lifestyle issues for teens – nutrition, fitness, stress management, substance abuse and sexual behavior – to help them live life to the fullest and accomplish their goals.

On the T2X website, teens have access to:

Chat online with health experts 24/7 and ask questions about sensitive health topics that they may not be comfortable discussing with their physician Learn how to access health services at the right level of care Intelligent SMS campaign that allows teens to text keywords to a designated number and receive customized content back to their mobile devices Participate in health-oriented social networking through blogs, videos and other transmedia tools Nurse Advice Line to obtain health care information from a registered nurse 24/7 (available to Health Net members only)

The transmedia component of T2X is extremely unique as the project is the first of its kind to explore the effectiveness of this intervention. “Transmedia” is telling different parts of a story using different types of media, which provides opportunities for participants to get deeper into the story, topic and characters, eventually putting the story together into a coherent whole.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to engage the T2X community through transmedia storytelling to make issues related to health care literacy more relevant and engaging for teens as they transition into adulthood,” said Deborah Glik, professor for the UCLA School of Public Health and another one of the study’s collaborators.

The ongoing project has already garnered recognition in prominent publications. T2X was recently highlighted as a best practice in patient engagement in National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) publication entitled “NCQA Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series--Focus on Patient Engagement” and also in America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)’s Innovations in Health Literacy publication entitled “Health Literacy and America’s Health Insurance Plans: Laying the Foundation and Beyond.” The Health Net-UCLA project team also has presented at several prestigious conferences such as the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media, the American Public Health Association Conference, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media.

About Health Net

Health Net of California, a subsidiary of Health Net Inc., is one of the largest health plans in the state. Together with Health Net Life Insurance Company, it serves more than 2.2 million members statewide and contracts with more than 56,000 physicians, 300-plus hospitals and nearly 5,000 pharmacies, giving its members greater choice and more convenient access to care. Its commercial HMO and POS, Medicare, and Medicaid lines of business have received “Excellent” accreditation status from the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

For more information on Health Net, Inc., please visit Health Net’s website at www.healthnet.com.

About The UCLA School of Public Health

The UCLA School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public’s health by conducting innovative research; training future leaders and health professionals; translating research into policy and practice; and serving local, national and international communities. For more information, visit www.ph.ucla.edu.

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