| Crist propose cheap health insurance
Gov. Charlie Crist announced Tuesday plans to help the uninsured with a new, low-cost health insurance, vastly expanded coverage for children and a pilot program offering low-cost primary care in 14 counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward. Two weeks before the start of the 2008 legislative session, the governor said his top three priorities were healthcare, education and energy/economic development. Healthcare was at the top of the list. His proposal for cheap health insurance would eliminate all of the 50-plus mandates now required, such as including chiropractors and acupuncturists in any plan. The plans would be required to guarantee coverage to all uninsured Floridians age 19 to 64. Crist said the cost would be $150 a month. Insurers disagree.
Weak housing market forces County sawmill closures
Wanda Campbell of Washburn is losing her job of eight months at the Fraser-owned sawmill at Masardis. It's not closing, but a worker from the Ashland mill slated for closure has seniority and will take her job. Her husband, Ron, works at the same mill and may get bumped from his job too. "This affects everything," Wanda Campbell said. "We are still thinking [about] what we will do. Everything is costing more — food, fuel, the possible loss of health insurance. It will be an even tougher winter than we were facing [already]." A total of 72 Fraser workers will lose their jobs in Ashland for up to four months because of low lumber prices caused by the weakened U.S. housing market and lumber imports, according to an announcement made Jan. 16. The duration of the closure will be determined by the market conditions.
DFLers advance health insurance plan
A bold plan to provide health insurance coverage for all Minnesotans through a government run program was advanced today by DFL legislators, who say they expect to wage a three or four year battle for such a system. The proposed Minnesota Health Plan was touted as the most effective way to transfer savings resulting from lower insurance overhead and other costs to provide coverage for an estimated 400,000 uninsured Minnesotans. The effort is being led largely by new House members, who say they are responding to numerous complaints about health insurance while campaigning in 2006. "Health care was either number one or number two as a primary concern," said Rep. David Bly, DFL-Northfield. The single-payer plan will compete with less dramatic proposals for health coverage reform during the upcoming legislative session.
A slippery slope for health?
Most European countries operate an insurance-based health care scheme. Citizens are obliged to pay into state-operated or state-recognised insurance funds. Hospitals and general practitioners (and specialists who offer primary consultations) claim back all or part of the costs of treatment from the relevant insurance providers. There have long been difficulties in citizens getting costs covered by their state-recognised schemes when they seek treatment in a neighbouring country whose facilities are more convenient to travel to (e.g. the German-Dutch border area around Aachen). Regulation 1408/71 was supposed to deal with this but clearly doesn't. That Regulation, insofar as it covers healthcare, is designed essentially to allow the government of one country to get back from other governments the money spent on treating their citizens.
VAP Cholesterol Test Covers 90 Percent Of Arizona Insured
Largest private insurers in Arizona as well as Medicare, Medicaid and the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program now cover the VAP (Vertical Auto Profile) Test, the most comprehensive cholesterol test available. That means almost 90 percent of all insured lives in Arizona now have insurance coverage for the VAP Test, which finds twice as many people at risk than the standard cholesterol test."The state of Arizona is extremely progressive in preventive health," said Atherotech Chief Medical Officer James Ehrlich, M.D. "The highly accurate VAP Test allows the clinician to target high-risk patients for specific therapy that could help prevent millions of future heart attacks and strokes. I am confident that the VAP Test will continue to be regarded as the best and most cost-effective laboratory method to precisely identify vulnerable individuals who may be at risk for the nation's leading killer, cardiovascular disease."People with a family history or an existing condition of diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease -- or who are already taking cholesterol lowering medication -- are candidates for the comprehensive VAP Test.
Chandigarh, February 6
He said that this concept gives banks a single number indicating the impact of a 1 per cent change of interest rate on its capital, captures the interest rate risk, and can thus help them move forward towards assessment of risk based capital. This approach will be a graduation from the earlier approach, which led to a mismatch between the assets and liabilities. The ED said that RBI has been laying emphasis that banks should maintain a more realistic balance sheet by giving a true picture of their non performing assets (NPAs) , and they should not be deleted to show huge profits. Though the banking system in India has a strong risk management architecture, initiatives have to be taken at the bank specific level as well as broader systematic level. He also emphasized on the need for sophisticated credit-scoring models for measuring the credit risks of commercial and industrial portfolios.
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