Health Care: C-

Karen Dolan, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and Director of its Cities for Peace program, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses Obama’s health care policy choices in IPS’s report Barely Making the Grade: Obama’s First Year.

The Obama administration, mainstream Democrats, and even many progressives are asserting that we are on the verge of a historical step forward for health reform, bringing us closer to desired affordable quality health care for all. Obama deserves credit for making health reform his top priority and likely will preside over a bill that historically covers many of the 46 million Americans currently uninsured.

Click here to read the full report.

Answers About Cobra Benefits and Subsidies: Part 1

Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, and contributing author to Mandate for Change discusses the need for changes in health care in an interview with The New York Times.

“Ask an Expert” is a recurring feature on Bucks in which you’ll have the opportunity to question big-brained individuals about a particular area of personal finance or consumer affairs.

This week, Ron Pollack, the founding executive director of Families USA, a nonprofit health care advocacy organization, is answering readers’ questions about Cobra health benefits and subsidies and unemployment-related Cobra issues.

Click here to read the article.

U.S. Unemployed Face Higher Healthcare Premiums

Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, and contributing author to Mandate for Change discusses the need for changes in health care.

“When workers lose their jobs, they often lose their health coverage as well,” said director Ron Pollack. “For millions of laid-off workers and their families, the federal COBRA subsidies have been a health-coverage lifeline.”

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Health Care Experts: Affordability A Tricky Proposition

Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, and contributing author to Mandate for Change discusses changes in the health care plan.

Ron Pollack, the executive director of FamiliesUSA, says that Americans don’t see reduced costs in numbers like $800 billion or $1 trillion: “Instead, the value of health insurance reform for America’s families… will be determined by their own ‘pocketbook test’: Will health reform result in sufficient savings so health coverage and care fit within family budgets.”

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Democrats Unveil Healthcare Bill to Cover 36m Uninsured

Dean Baker, Director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses the House of Representatives’ new health care bill with The Financial Times.

“This is really just a first step,” said Dean Baker, a healthcare expert at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. “By not tying rates to Medicare, it does very little on costs.”

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Schumer Resuscitates Public Option Plan

Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, and contributing author to Mandate for Change discusses health care changes and the public option plan.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and a handful of other moderates remain critical of the public option. As a result, Reid may have to fashion a compromise that merges Schumer’s proposal with Snowe’s, said Ron Pollack, founding executive director of Families USA, a leading health reform advocate.

“It sounds like there’s an effort being made to blend the two concepts,” Pollack said.

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FCC Moves on Net Neutrality Rules

Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, and contributing author to Mandate for Change discusses healthcare in Florida with The Orlando Sentinel.

“People who receive a pink slip experience a double-whammy,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. “Health reform is essential if families wish to gain protection for their health coverage when they either lose their job or decide to switch jobs.”

Florida ranked third among states with the largest losses in health coverage among working-age adults. The state’s average unemployment rate in 2008 was 6.2 percent, while the average between January and August of this year was 10 percent. In the metro Orlando region, which includes Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties, the average jobless rate last year was 5.88 percent. In 2009, the unemployment rate though September rose to an average of 10.44 percent.

Nationwide, Families USA estimates the number of uninsured working-age adults rose by 4 million so far this year, with the total now exceeding 50 million.

Click here to read the article.

New Stimulus Funds Will Make Black & Latino Communities Healthier

Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO of PolicyLink, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses how Obama’s announcement of a $650 million in community-level health funding will benefit the black and latino communities.

“This new funding will throw a lifeline to millions of Black and Latino children and their parents and help create healthier communities across America,” said Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO of PolicyLink and a principal advisor for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity. “Black and Latino Americans are hit hardest by the dual crises of obesity and diabetes. All people deserve to live in healthy communities — places with clean air, safe streets, clean parks, and easy access to healthy food options. These new funds will put us on a path toward healthy communities for all.”

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Health Insurance Costs Rise More than Wages

Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, and contributing author to Mandate for Change discusses Families USA’s new report on insurance costs.

The cost of health insurance in Colorado far outpaced wage increases in the past decade, and workers — not employers — swallowed a steeper increase, according to a report released Tuesday.

Health premiums for Colorado families increased 4.2 times more than salaries from 2000 to 2009, consumer health organization Families USA reported.

Premiums, on average, jumped 86.9 percent while wages rose 20.5 percent, according to the study, which relied on U.S. census and other government data.

The national group used its findings to push for immediate health care reform, backing President Barack Obama’s framework and the four bills coming from congressional committees.

“Costs will continue to skyrocket,” said executive director Ron Pollack. “Families will be priced out of health care.”

Workers, Pollack said, “are being squeezed on both ends” because at the same time premiums are increasing, employers are tapering salaries.

Click here to read the article.

The Public Plan Option and the Big Government Conservatives

Dean Baker, director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and contributing author to Mandate for Change discusses contrasting political views regarding healthcare.

We all know that there are basic philosophical differences between liberals and conservatives. Liberals believe that the government can be used to improve the lives of ordinary people. Conservatives, on the other hand, believe that the government should redistribute money to the wealthy. This philosophical difference has come through very clearly in the debate over giving people the option to buy into a publicly run health insurance plan.

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