July 29, 2009
NPR’s New Website
It’s groovy. Very clean, with current multimedia featured on the home page, and a nifty way to search for all your favorite programs, which are now embeddable. Check it out.
Since all this stuff to improve the users’ experience costs money, here’s where you can help.
July 28, 2009
Health Care Costs III
Nate Silver breaks down the math on the yet-to-be-revealed Senate Finance Committee bill, which according to the Associated Press might drop the public health insurance option and the employee coverage mandate.
The so-called “tricommittee” House bill can be downloaded here (pdf).
Health Care Costs II
As the House and Senate flail around on a reform plan, Fresh Air’s Terri Gross today talked with journalist Maggie Mahar about controlling health care costs.
Despite all the uncertainty about what Congress will — or won’t — do on health care before leaving for a five-week- month-long August break, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s July health care tracking poll finds continued support for taking action now. Doubts are registering, but it’s an open question whether misgivings are mounting because people don’t want reform or because they don’t want reform that’s watered down and that largely continues the system of high cost and diminished choice.
July 24, 2009
Science Friday: Moths Outwit Bats
How they do it. If you can’t view the video below, watch it here.
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July 23, 2009
Health Care Costs
The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation that supports health care reform, released a report today finding that many insured people with three or more chronic conditions are shelling out more than they can afford in premiums and other health care costs. From the abstract:
Using data from the 2001–2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, this study shows that nearly 40 percent of nonelderly adults with three or more chronic conditions had out-of-pocket expenses and premiums exceeding 5 percent of income for two consecutive years, compared with 20 percent of people who had a single chronic condition and 14 percent who had no chronic conditions. Prescription drug spending accounts for over half of the out-of-pocket spending by individuals who have multiple chronic conditions and who have had persistently high financial burdens that last two years or more.
Another report issued last week by the Fund finds that including a public insurance option in a health insurance exchange would ring $265 billion in administrative cost savings over 10 years.