The Great Northern States Health Care Initiative is a group of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin who have come together for the purpose of advocacy for a better health care system in our respective states and the nation. Our main objective is education of ourselves and others in our communities on the imperatives of a single payer health care system.
641-715-3900, Ext. 25790#
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Non-Profit in Name Only
Monday, August 1, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Health Care Plan - LTE
"As I see it, the Paul Ryan Republican Tea Party health care plan is to put us in the basement of our outhouses and make us think we will come out with a new suit on! "
Ryan and his billionaire supporters think we're too dumb to see what they have us wearing. I think it's time for us to uncover what they are trying to hide -- their real motivation and the real outcomes that will adversely affect the vast majority of us.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Report: Systems to catch Medicaid fraud inadequate
It is always interesting to note that this medical vendor fraud issue always comes out relative to Medicare/Medicaid government payments. The majority of such fraud relates to the private insurance companies --the ones we all use and those same ones actually handle/pay the bulk of the Medicare/Medicaid medical bills. Those private insurance company problems with fraud are hidden from us - even when it affects our personal premiums and our tax burden. They hide it for business reasons -- competition. They hide it the same as credit card companies and banks avoid public notice of fraud. If all the medical bills were paid with the same system, monitoring and investigation would be much easier. With literally hundreds of medical bill payers out there (not including all of us individuals paying bills) the complexity just aids the fraudulent vendors.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Specialists Often Turn Away Kids With Public Insurance: Report
"Two-thirds of kids with public insurance were unable to get a doctor's appointment, compared to 11 percent of privately insured children. Kids covered by Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) who did receive appointments also faced far longer average wait times -- 42 days to see a specialist compared to 20 days for kids with private insurance."
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Medica plan may be glimpse of future | StarTribune.com
Excerpt:
"John Naylor, Medica's vice president of sales and account services, said the new plan moves from a "cost shift" to a "cost share" model.
"Employers are making decisions behind the scenes about the level of benefit and the kind of contribution they'll make," he said. "Maybe they'll lower their benefits or find ways to lower cost, or you as an employee take on more. 'My Plan' offers a way for employers to control costs, but to give me as an employee more flexibility and choice."
Simeon Schindelman, Medica's senior vice president of commercial markets, said the company spent about a year working on the program, based on feedback from some of its 200 brokers as well as businesses."
I wonder about getting feedback from "brokers as well as businesses" and not from providers and patients/employees. This seems like just a new twist on the high deductible models.
