Top 5 Medium Health Systems 2016

1. Kettering Health Network – Dayton, OH

2. Scripps Health – San Diego, CA

3. St. Luke's Health System – Boise, ID

4. St. Vincent Health – Indianapolis, IN

5. TriHealth – Cincinnati, OH

 

Source: Truven Health analytics

According to the results of the 2016 National Health Security Preparedness Index,

... the United States scored an overall 6.7 on a scale of 1 to 10, regarding its emergency preparedness. Six categories were assessed independently as follows:

• Health Security Surveillance scored 7.5
• Community Planning & Engagement scored 5.4
• Incident & Information Management scored 8.4
• HealthcareDelivery scored 5.1
• Countermeasure Management scored 7.0
• Environmental & Occupational Health scored 6.4

Source: "Nation's Preparedness For Public Health Emergencies Is Improving, 2016 Index Shows," April 25, 2016, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, http://nhspi.org/nations-preparedness-for-public-health-emergencies-is-improving-2016-index-shows/

End Social Security for the Rich

April 6, 2016 By Greg Allen 6 Comments

It’s a provocative title especially in the world of Bernie Sanders and the enmity against the so-called 1%.

The Brookings Institute’s Stuart Butler makes his case to transform Social Security away from the current defined benefit pension program and toward what he calls an “insurance against old age poverty” program.

What if we were to recast regular Social Security as true insurance? Insurance is something that pays out only when things go wrong. If you don’t have a car crash, or your house doesn’t burn down, you don’t get your premiums back later in life. What you do get is protection and peace of mind.

So imagine Social Security as insurance protection against being financially insecure in retirement. If it were that, it would be very different from today.

For one thing, we would want the lowest-income retirees to get the largest regular check – assuming they had dutifully paid their payroll tax “premiums” when working – and also enough to keep them comfortably out of poverty without having to rely on SSI.

Some retirees with a modest income from, say, an IRA, might still need a small Social Security “insurance payout” to maintain a reasonable standard of living.

He makes no mention of this but would this “insurance” system by voluntary or mandatory?  Could you decide to not accept this insurance or would it be an Obamacare model where the government forces you buy insurance?
In a true insurance model like this, retired Americans with healthy income from assets would get no Social Security check at all, rather than getting the largest checks as they do today. If Social Security is seen as insurance against financial insecurity then Warren Buffet clearly doesn’t need a check. Nor do other older Americans for whom a monthly Social Security check is just a little bit more icing on an already rich cake.

If we reformed Social Security to make it more like real insurance, we’d need to do it gradually so people could plan, with the changes only fully affecting workers who are perhaps in their early 40s today. There would be a significantly higher basic benefit check for the least well-off. For retired singles with retiree income over, say, $25,000 in today’s dollars, the check would be reduced according to income until for a retiree with, say, $100,000 in other income there would be no check at all.

With this reform, regular Social Security would more efficiently protect the elderly against economic insecurity and from poverty without the stigma of applying for SSI “welfare.” And it would help put the program on a more secure footing. To be sure, some would say it’s not fair that many Americans would pay Social Security taxes and get nothing in return. But that misses the point that Social Security should be insurance. And what’s really not fair is that many today pay high payroll taxes for a check that doesn’t keep them out of poverty.

http://senioramericansassociation.com/2016/04/06/end-social-security-rich/?utm_source=160516SAADBBEETUS1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=160516SAADBBEETUS1

Fading Fast: Fewer Seniors Have Retiree Health Insurance

May 05, 2016 

| Tricia Neuman Follow @tricia_neuman on Twitter and Anthony Damico

• Issue Brief
• Endnotes

Employer- and union-sponsored retiree health benefits have served as an important source of supplemental coverage for people on Medicare.  Retiree health plans help fill the gaps in Medicare’s benefit design, often cover some or all of Medicare’s cost-sharing requirements and deductibles, and include a cap on out-of-pocket spending – a benefit that is required to be provided by all Medicare Advantage plans, but not covered under traditional Medicare, and of great value to retirees needing costly medical care.  For retirees, employer-sponsored supplemental coverage limits the costs they would otherwise incur for their medical care.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has been tracking trends in employer-sponsored health coverage, and has documented a significant drop in the share of large employers (200+ workers) offering retiree health coverage, from 66 percent in 1988 to 23 percent in 2015.  Firms that continue to offer retiree health benefits have adopted various strategies to limit their liability for these costs, including: hard caps on their financial liability, a shift from a defined benefit to a defined contribution approach, and increases in premiums and cost-sharing requirements paid by retirees and  their spouses.  In recent years, some employers have elected to offer retiree benefits through contracts with Medicare Advantage plans and private health insurance exchanges.

http://kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/fading-fast-fewer-seniors-have-retiree-health-insurance/

Price Transparency Tool Increased Spending

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a study of the impact of price transparency tools on healthcare spending at two large companies. Here are some key findings from the report:

·         Spending among employees with a price transparency tool went from $2021 before the tool to $2233.

·         Among controls, mean outpatient spending changed from $1985 to $2138.

·         Being offered the tool was associated with a mean $59 increase in outpatient spending.

·         Out-of-pocket spending among those offered the tool was $507 in the year before and $555 the year after.

·         Being offered the transparency tool was associated with a $18 increase in out-of-pocket spending.

·         In the first 12 months, 10% of employees who were offered the tool used it at least once.

Source: JAMA, May 3, 2016

Three Examples Of Obamacare Enrollment With Low Proportions of Smokers

Phil Galewitz: Smokers' Ranks Look Conspicuously Sparse In Obamacare

 

1. In Idaho, 17 percent of adults smoke, but fewer than 3 percent who bought coverage this year on the state’s insurance exchange paid the tobacco surcharge

2. In Kentucky, more than a quarter of adults smoke regularly, but just 11 percent paid the tobacco surcharge

3. In Minnesota, 18 percent of adults smoke, but under 5 percent paid the tobacco surcharge  

 

Source: Kaiser Health News

According to an analysis of five large national surveys ...

... the survey providing the highest estimates of retiree health insurance coverage among people ages 65 and older on Medicare—the American Community Survey—found that the percentage of seniors on Medicare with employer-sponsored retiree health coverage has fallen from 31% in 2008 to 25% in 2014.

Source: "Fading Fast: Fewer Seniors Have Retiree Health Insurance," The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, May 5, 2016, http://kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/fading-fast-fewer-seniors-have-retiree-health-insurance/