Sunday Health Policy UpDate February 5, 2006 E-Mail Sign-Up Current Issue Daschle Interview Medicare Part D Out-of-Pocket Costs Cost-Shifting Subscribe E-mail Alerts Current Issue Theme Issues Contact Us Search  Health Affairs Current Issue on Hospitals Subscribe Now To Health Affairs "the bible of health policy" --The Washington Post Get the full picture with Health Affairs' Theme Issues New postings and analysis from Health Affairs, the leading journal of health policy. Health Affairspublishes new research each week online at www.healthaffairs.org. For more information, contact Chris Fleming at 301-347-3944. Daschle Sees Time Becoming Right For Fundamental Health Care Reform http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.25.w26 In an interview published Jan. 31 on the Health Affairs Web site, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) predicts the passage of comprehensive health care reform and expresses skepticism about high-deductible, "consumer-driven" plans. Daschle tells Robert Galvin, M.D., General Electric Corp.'s director of global health, that the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process, with its bare majority, fifty-one-vote threshold for passage, could be the vehicle that delivers fundamental health care change. Vulnerable Populations To Face Higher Costs Under Medicare Rx Benefit http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/1/248 The new Medicare drug benefit is likely to result in modest to moderate declines in out-of-pocket spending for seniors who do not receive low-income subsidies, but vulnerable populations will not share equitably in those savings, a team led by Walid Gellad reports in the January/February Health Affairs. Using data from the 1996-2000 Medicare Expenditure Panel survey, the researchers estimate that many racial and ethnic minorities, near-poor people, and people with severe chronic conditions will face higher costs than others eligible for the standard Medicare benefit. Study: $210 million Over Four Years in Cost-Shifting At CA Hospitals http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/1/197 To what extent do hospitals shift costs to private insurers to compensate for reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments? In the January/February Health Affairs, Jack Zwanziger and Anil Bamezai say California hospitals shifted $210 million to private payers from 1997 to 2001 as a result of public payment reductions. The authors found that cost shifting from Medicare and Medicaid to private payers accounted for 12.3 percent of the total increase in private payers' prices from 1997 to 2001, slightly more than $33 per day or an additional $632,000 per year in private payments to the average hospital. ABOUT HEALTH AFFAIRS: Health Affairs, published by Project HOPE, is the leading journal of health policy. The peer-reviewed journal appears bimonthly in print with additional online-only papers published weekly as Health Affairs Web Exclusives at www.healthaffairs.org. The full text of each Health Affairs Web Exclusive is available free of charge to all Web site visitors for a two-week period following posting, after which it switches to pay-per-view for nonsubscribers. The abstracts of all articles are free in perpetuity. Web Exclusives are supported in part by a grant from the Commonwealth Fund. SUBSCRIBE Subscribe today for full online access to Health Affairs--"the bible of health policy" (Washington Post, January 12, 2005). FREE FROM HEALTH AFFAIRS Be the first to see what's new in health policy. Sign up for Web Exclusive e-mail alerts from Health Affairs NEW! Receive Health Affairs' headlines via RSS feed. FOR E-MAIL ADDRESS CHANGE, ADD OR DELETE REQUESTS: For changes or additions, please email your request to: listmgr@PharmaUpdateNewsService.com. For removal of your e-mail address, please click the link below for "SafeUnsubscribe" to automatically remove your address from the list. Health Affairs gratefully acknowledges the support of Pharma Update News Service in the dissemination of this e-alert.

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