Health & Social Services

101 Ways to Find A Job - TRCB

2010-02-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

101 Ways to Find A Job - TRCB

Adding another source of information

2009-12-09T10:43:00.001-08:00

http://www.cmio.net/index.php?option=com_articles&division=cmio

AARP backs $460B in Medicare cuts - FierceHealthcare

2009-12-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

AARP backs $460B in Medicare cuts - FierceHealthcare

2009-12-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

AARP backs $460B in Medicare cuts - FierceHealthcare

Coburn-Ryan Health Bill Would Jeopardize Coverage for Many, While Failing To Reduce the Number of Uninsured Significantly — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

2009-11-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

Coburn-Ryan Health Bill Would Jeopardize Coverage for Many, While Failing To Reduce the Number of Uninsured Significantly — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Economic Indication

2009-11-18T07:02:00.000-08:00

Housing starts may be down but what about existing housing sales. How much weakness does the reduction in durable goods associated with new home sales account for in the economy?
" U.S. housing starts fall sharply, inflation edges up (2009-11-18) -- Construction of new homes in the United States fell sharply last month, showing potential weakness in the economy's recovery, while consumer prices rose slightly more than expected. Read the remainder of the article at ...http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/n1899353-us-usa-economy/

News on Sustainable Growth Rate Formula in Healthcare Reform

2009-11-18T06:24:00.000-08:00

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091117/REG/311179961

Healthcare reform for elderly

2009-11-16T06:17:00.000-08:00

A report from the governments health insurer estimates health expenditures for elderly and indigent to increase quicker than previously reported.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091115/REG/311159992

Add a Quarter Trillion Dollars to the Deficit to Replace Medicare......

2009-11-12T18:32:00.001-08:00

Thats what it's gonna cost.

Managed Care Matters

S&P notes not-for-profits' slimmer operating margins - Modern Healthcare

2009-11-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

I checked out S&P reports through web search. S&P Analysts are adjusting their positions on these to reflect the summary in this article

S&P notes not-for-profits' slimmer operating margins - Modern Healthcare

Getting the Young Covered is a Major Reform Challenge

2009-11-12T06:03:00.000-08:00

Even as Congress attempts to iron out differences on health reform, some major problems remain, and it seems unlikely that any current reform is likely to solve them. One concerns the requirement that everyone buy health insurance.
Despite offering coverage to all comers, as well as equal pricing for people with any medical history and both genders, young, poor consumers in good health have traditionally refused to buy a policy.
Right now, young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 are the most likely to be uninsured, often because they're working entry-level jobs that don't offer benefits. Between the financial demands they face and the sense that they don't need the coverage, they're unlikely to take an insurance mandate lightly, observers say.
The problem is that if young, healthy people aren't included in the pool, it could bankrupt insurers, as their premiums are needed to counterbalance coverage for patients with expensive medical problems. Senate and House leaders differ on how to handle the problem.
To work around this issue, some states are extending the age limits on coverage within parental policies. In Wisconsin, for example, people up to age 27 will remain on their family's health plan starting Jan. 1.
Read more: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/getting-young-covered-major-reform-challenge/2009-11-11#ixzz0WebYjGTD

Another source for health care economics data

2009-11-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

This source provides publications, events, funding opportunities and other resources to support university teachers of economics. I recently found on there a paper that examined the top health economics journal articles by frequency of citation on reading lists.Economics Network in UK source for health economics http://www.economicsnetwork...

Social Networking personal or professional?

2009-11-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

What began as social networking, a tool for connecting people, has quickly given way to social media, which has been defined as an outlet for publishing;
http://www.messagingnews.com/story/social-media-enterprise-approach-caution

Public-service careers: A tough search for talent | The Economist

2009-11-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

Public-service careers: A tough search for talent The Economist

Federal Govt to ship H1N1 to Goldman Sachs

2009-11-06T10:13:00.001-08:00

I'm so happy for them!
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2009/db2009112_606442.htm

Following House of Rep Health Care Reform bills

2009-11-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

http://bit.ly/40E6Jg

Seasonal Flu Vaccine Shortage

2009-11-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

Not enough seasonal flu vaccine either. NYT: http://bit.ly/1C9FTP

Social Media Time Management: 9 Guiding Principles

2009-10-30T13:42:00.001-07:00

Social Media Time Management: 9 Guiding Principles

Posted using ShareThis

House Dems health care bill

2009-10-29T17:45:00.001-07:00

House Dems unveil $894 Billion health care bill
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/29/health.care/index.html

Internet, Twitter, Web Pages of Healthcare information

2009-10-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

Medical News Today web site. They also twitter and Facebook http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

http://www.ahrq.gov/

Kaiser Family Foundation

http://kff.org/

Link to The Effect of Health Care Cost Growth on the U.S. Economy
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/08/healthcarecost/report.html

and the root to that which is
The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on policy development, and is responsible for major activities in policy coordination, legislation development, strategic planning, policy research, evaluation, and economic analysis.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/_/index.cfm

Health Reform Health Insurer's profit margin

2009-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Oct 26, 10:06 AM EDT
FACT CHECK: Health insurers' profits 35th of 53
By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press Writer

GOP: Health Reform Negatively Impacts Life
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up."
But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. Ledgers tell a different reality.
Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.
Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of some of the largest insurers were downgraded to negative from stable heading into this year, as investors were warned of a stagnant if not shrinking market for private plans.
Insurers are an expedient target for leaders who want a government-run plan in the marketplace. Such a public option would force private insurers to trim profits and restrain premiums to compete, the argument goes. This would "keep insurance companies honest," says President Barack Obama.
The debate is loaded with intimations that insurers are less than straight, when they are not flatly accused of malfeasance.
The insurers may not have helped their case by commissioning a report that looked primarily at the elements of health care legislation that might drive consumer costs up while ignoring elements aimed at bringing costs down. Few in the debate seem interested in a true balance sheet.
A look at some claims, and the numbers:
THE CLAIMS
-"I'm very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who also welcomed the attention being drawn to insurers' "obscene profits."
-"Keeping the status quo may be what the insurance industry wants. Their premiums have more than doubled in the last decade and their profits have skyrocketed." Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, member of the Democratic leadership.
-"Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe." A MoveOn.org ad.
THE NUMBERS:
Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th of 53 industries on the Fortune 500 list. As is typical, other health sectors did much better - drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.
The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4 percent.
HealthSpring, the best performer in the health insurance industry, posted 5.4 percent. That's a less profitable margin than was achieved by the makers of Tupperware, Clorox bleach and Molson and Coors beers.
The star among the health insurance companies did, however, nose out Jack in the Box restaurants, which only achieved a 4 percent margin.
UnitedHealth Group, reporting third quarter results last week, saw fortunes improve. It managed a 5 percent profit margin on an 8 percent growth in revenue.
Van Hollen is right that premiums have more than doubled in a decade, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study that found a 131 percent increase.
But were the Bush years golden ones for health insurers?
Not judging by profit margins, profit growth or returns to shareholders. The industry's overall profits grew only 8.8 percent from 2003 to 2008, and its margins year to year, from 2005 forward, never cracked 8 percent.
The latest annual profit margins of a selection of products, services and industries: Tupperware Brands, 7.5 percent; Yahoo, 5.9 percent; Hershey, 6.1 percent; Clorox, 8.7 percent; Molson Coors Brewing, 8.1 percent; construction and farm machinery, 5 percent; Yum Brands (think KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), 8.5 percent.
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Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
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I attempted to follow the copyright rules listed by AP but could not get the thml to work.

Initial Basis of the blog

2009-10-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

I'm going to write about data, information, and such items about the state level health and social services. At the state level this space will be mostly is about the operation of a Medicaid program.