NEWSHEALTH CARE REFORM

It seems like a good idea. Invest in the expansion of our nation's community health centers (CHCs) so that low income workers without adequate health insurance would have a regular doctor to visit, instead of the only other alternative, high-cost hospital emergency rooms. Keeping this workforce healthy and on the job would also maintain productivity in our recovering economy.

Unfortunately, the federal funding to grow health center capacity is in doubt right now as Congress debates a new budget. House Republicans have proposed cutting $1.3 billion from health center funding.

This week, new research, from the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative, pinpoints just how much we stand to lose in health care efficiency savings if the funding is cut as proposed; $15 billion. Put another way, for every $1 invested in CHC expansion, there is a potential savings in health care costs of $11.50.

A recent Canadian study found that hospital patients who are homeless end up costing hospitals more money. Really, it took a study to find this out?

Please excuse the sarcasm; this just seems to be obvious. Obvious to those of us advocating for the health and wellbeing of those living in poverty and homelessness. Not so obvious to those who enforce inhumane laws against those living in poverty and homelessness. Like Gainesville, Florida officials who impose a 130-meal-limit on area soup kitchens. We'll get back to that in a minute -- first, the research.

The study was conducted by a Canadian physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. The study found that overall, homeless patients cost hospitals an additional $2,500 each. The reasons for this extra cost are most often related to housing issues. Specifically, a homeless patient often does not have a place to go upon discharge and therefore the hospital keeps them for additional time. Often homeless shelters will not accept a person if they are recently discharged from the hospital or are still ill, which can further complicate the issue. The study team found similar findings from a study conducted in New York City in 1998.

The furor over Scott Walker's union-busting budget-repair bill is causing a national outrage, and rightly so. Taking away workers' collective bargaining rights won't solve Wisconsin's budget woes, and merely serves to limit the rights of workers.

But there's another reason why Walker's bill deserves some negative attention. In January, we brought you the news that Walker was likely to make cuts the state's popular Medicaid program, known as Badgercare. He had promised on the campaign trail to do so, and earlier this month, he lived up to his promises. But instead of simply reducing how much the state spends on the Badgercare, as other cash-strapped governors have done, Walker introduced language that would give the administration "sweeping powers" to change the program, with little legislative oversight.

The Cap Times reports that the Medicaid provision, which is part of the budget-repair bill, "would give the Walker administration unprecedented power to revamp the state's BadgerCare programs without following the legislative processes, public vetting, and even state laws normally required."

It should come as no surprise to those following the fate of health care reform that a measure to defund it is finally on the table. Today, Representative Denny Rehberg (R-Mont), chairman of the House Appropriations health subcommittee, introduced the defunding amendment to the ongoing resolution to fund the government through September.

Knowing that there's no chance of repeal, defunding is one of the most plausible ways to drag the law under. As reported by HealthWatch, the amendment states that no money can be paid to "any employee, officer, contractor, or grantee of any department or agency," that is funded by the law and would be used to implement provisions of the law.

But although the GOP usually claims that attacking the health care reform is what the "majority of Americans" want, a new poll from CBS News shows that they don't want to see it defunded.

In fact, the majority of the public disapproves of the Republican idea to cut off funding for health care reform. And rightly they should -- defunding and other measures to thwart implementation could be a long process that grinds any progress to a halt.

As the GOP claims to move us toward a more "sustainable" financial future by slashing funding for numerous health programs, someone might want to clue them in on the old adage, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Under attack are family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood, community health centers, farm-to-school lunch programs and tobacco prevention measures. It doesn't take more than a rudimentary understanding of population health to understand that cutting programs like these will almost certainly lead to more spending in the future, as preventable disease and health care costs rise.

One of their targets is the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which backs scientifically-supported measures for disease prevention, like halting tobacco use, curbing the obesity epidemic, promoting better nutrition and physical activity. The Fund supports programs that increase fruit and vegetable consumption in schools, improves physical education programs for kids and helps communities source healthful food locally.

As the Republicans continue their fight to dismantle health care reform, only 16 House members have opted out of their government-sponsored health care. So today, two new ads are calling out specific members on their hypocrisy -- and letting their constituents know that the Representatives aren't always voting in their best interest.

Americans United for Change and DailyKos are sponsoring the local radio ads, which target Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and New Hampshire Rep. Charlie Bass for their vote to repeal the health care law.

"Congressman Bass gets affordable health care, with protections against insurance companies cutting him and his family off. No lifetime limits. No annual caps. No preexisting conditions. But last month Bass voted to deny you and your family these same protections. That’s not equal. That’s not fair," one ad begins (listen to the ad in full).

It was a symbolic vote with a predicted outcome: yesterday, the Senate voted 47-51 not to repeal health care reform.

But that doesn't mean repeal is dead. Why? Because the Republicans have a bone to pick and seemingly won't rest until they've exhausted all their options to dismantle health care reform.

It's likely they will spend countless hours on what the Hill.com describes as their "multi-pronged strategy to delay implementation of the law and repeal its most controversial provisions."

This means trying to block funding for implementation or repealing certain parts of the legislation, with an aim of ultimately destroying the whole thing. For instance, a measure has been introduced would allow states to opt out of some provisions, like a requirement that they add more people to their Medicaid programs.

Last week, after California's insurance commissioner Dave Jones asked major insurance companies to hold off on their proposed rates hikes, most companies complied. But one -- Blue Shield -- refused. They are moving forward with insurance increases of up to 59 percent for some policyholders.

So today, patients, members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United and consumers advocates came together for a large protest at Blue Shield's San Francisco headquarters. The group presented new data showing that the state's big insurers continue to deny 26 percent of all health claims. That includes Blue Shield's denial of almost 2 million claims from last year alone.

The rally included Blue Shield policyholders whose lives have been upended by the rate hikes. A 49-year-old mother of two, for instance, has seen her Blue Shield premiums go from $979 per month to $1660 per month, according to a press release by the California Nursing Association. Another family in Menlo park saw their rate increase 73 percent in one year. The self-employed father tells CNA, "We jog, eat mostly vegetarian, and don’t smoke … the cost of health insurance is a huge obstacle to being an entrepreneur in America."

According to the data, which was commissioned by the California Nurses Association/National Nursing Association, seven of the largest insurance companies rejected a total of 13.1 million claims last year, accounting for over one-quarter of all claims submitted. Pacificare had the highest percentage of claim denials, with a whopping 44 percent denied.

Responding to a request by California's Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, three insurance companies agreed to delay premium increases for people with individual policies.

But one company refused. That would be Blue Shield, the folks that recently told some of their policyholders they were increasing their premiums by as much as 59 percent.

Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and PacifiCare will all hold off on their planned increases for 60 days until Commissioner Jones can review the increases.  All the policies are for people with individual policies, designed for those that do not get insurance from their employers.

Blue Shield has already caused a furor by hiking rates three times since October; some policyholders received the news of the rate hikes all at once. A petition started by one of the unhappy policyholders has garnered over 100 signatures on Change.org and other consumer groups have spoken out against the large rate hike.

A spokesperson for Blue Shield told the LA Times they are having an independent acturial review to see if the rates are legal, and that they will refund customers if any discrepancies are found.

But that's not likely to reassure some individuals, who may be priced out of their current policies.

During the lead-up to the House GOP's symbolic repeal of health care reform last week, Speaker Boehner insisted that repeal is what a "majority of Americans" want. But is that true? A recent poll shows that although the country is still divided on the health care law, the majority don't want repeal.

The survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health, found that during the GOP's campaign for repeal, more people viewed the law unfavorably in January than in December, up to 50 percent  from 41 percent. This isn't that surprising -- the GOP has launched a massive misinformation campaign, first calling it a "job-killing" bill, then moving on to the more contentious issue of abortion, claiming that health care reform is pro-abortion (nowhere in the bill does it provide federal funding for abortion).

And although Boehner constantly claims that the repeal is what the majority of Americans want, there's not much evidence to back that assertion. Forty-seven percent of those polled want to keep or expand the law, compared with 43 percent that wanted to "repeal and replace" or an entire repeal.

Since a repeal isn't going to pass the Senate, the GOP is moving on to defunding the law, a long and resource-intensive process that basically aims to grind progress to a halt. And guess what? Most people don't like this option. Almost 62 percent of those polled in the survey disapproved of the GOP's plans to defund implementation of the law.