The Bush administration has opened a huge can of worms with its latest proposal to implement a regulation designed to protect doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who object to abortion from being involved in the procedure, if such procedure violates their personal beliefs. According to The Washington Post, nearly 600,000 hospitals, clinics, health plans and doctors’ offices could lose federal funding if they don’t accommodate these professionals.

The debate then moves to health insurance companies, who might read the regulations as permitting them to remove birth control from their coverage plans, in spite of state laws that require them to cover contraception, according to The Wall Street Journal. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the worst jobs to have in insurance right now would be head of a managed care company. Okay, maybe the $3.9 million proposed salary for Pittsburgh-based Highmark Inc.’s CEO, Kenneth Melani, if Highmark Inc.’s merger with Independence Blue Cross is approved in Pennsylvania, would make it a bit easier to handle. But still, the world of managed care is in great flux and nowhere is it more evident than in the region’s Blues affiliates.

The nation’s health insurers don’t know what to do as medical costs spiral upward and people live longer. Add to that the growing calls for universal health insurance, even though there’s no way to afford it.

Each of these issues would in and of itself be a concern. But collectively, they present a perfect storm. Examples in the region show how health insurers are battening the hatches. Read the rest of this entry »

The old legends of “shotgun weddings” have been usurped by a new kind of nuptial arrangement: the policyholder wedding.

In what might be a trend, some people (who knows how many) are marrying not so much for love, or convenience, or because of an impending nine-month surprise, but to acquire a coveted health insurance policy.

A New York Times article discusses why some people are marrying — or marrying sooner than might be prudent — in order to be added to a spouse’s policy.

It appears that in some cases, affairs of a heart bypass trump romantic affairs of the heart.

An op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun Aug. 3 suggested that universal health insurance is the great panacea for the workplace. The author, William J. Evitts, a historian, builds on the ideas of William Bridges, who in 1995 wrote a book called JobShift, which called jobs a present list of consistent responsibilities for one or more people to accomplish. Evitts argues that given that the definition of a job is shifting and more jobs are consequently being outsourced, the need grows for a non-employer-based health insurance system.

“Freed from the tyranny of employment-linked health insurance, we’ll follow our dreams and take control of our work,” Evitts writes. “The creative energy unleashed by this will electrify the economy, facilitating entrepreneurship and innovation by reducing the risk of doing without the swaddling security of a long-term job.”

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