Maasachusetts Legislature Passes Bill to Rein in Health Care Costs

The Legislature in MA yesterday passed a bill that limits the cost of health care to the rate of economic growth in the state. This will be a challenge for providers and insurers as medical costs increased 6-7% in 2010 while the state economy grew by only 3.6%. More details in this Boston Globe article:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2012/07/30/legislative-leaders-reach-compromise-plan-control-health-care-spending/nVM0gPAYznIo4Vc9YYlgyH/story.html?

Will this work? Hard to say but MA s the first state in the country to set such a target. More details to follow.

HCCI Report: Rising HC Costs Due to Children

According to a report from the Health Care Cost Institute, a Washington, DC-based research group, spending on healthcare costs for commercially insured children under age 18 grew faster than spending for adults from 2007 to 2010. HCCI had access to three billion health insurance claims from Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare.

Insurers and consumers spent nearly $88 billion on healthcare for children in 2010, up by 12% percent from 2007, according to the HCCI. Spending increased even though the number of children covered by employer-sponsored insurance dropped from 44 million in 2007 to 41.4 million in 2010.

By comparison, healthcare costs for adults increased by 8%. For  the full report please clink on the link below.
http://www.healthcostinstitute.org/childrensreport