A tale of two health insurance extremes
United States (KaiserHealth) – The U.S. spent $2.6 trillion on health care in 2010 — more than the entire economy of France or Britain. But the amount spent and how it’s used varies from state to state.
And, at the opposite ends of the spectrum: Texas and Massachusetts. At 25 percent, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation. Massachusetts, where a 2006 law made coverage mandatory, has the lowest rate — less than 2 percent of people are uninsured. Here’s a look at two Americans who are living the reality of that difference:
Walking A Health Care ‘Tightrope’
For six million uninsured Texans, having health problems can mean an anxious scramble for care at overcrowded charity clinics or the local emergency room. Melinda Maarouf knows that experience all too well. She’s a teacher’s aide at the Faith Christian Academy, a private school just outside of Houston.
“Unfortunately, we’re a small school and the budget doesn’t allow for insurance for the employees,” she says.
Catholic Colleges Upset by HHS Rule Requiring Student Health Plans to Comply ...
Under the mandate, he explained, a college freshman girl will be able to arrange for a free “tubal ligation or an IUD or the abortion-causing drug Ella, covered without co-pay by the insurance plan offered by her Catholic institution.”On March 16, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule on student health plans under the health-care reform law. The regulation will require colleges to treat student health plans like employee plans, making them subject to the mandate.
Catholic colleges and universities do not qualify for the narrow religious exemption to the mandate. Rather, they will likely fall under a second set of guidelines that the Obama administration describes as its “accommodation” for religious freedom.
The implementation of that accommodation has not yet been finalized and is currently the subject of a 90-day public comment period.
However, initial statements by the administration have suggested that religious organizations will be required to contract with an insurance provider, or third-party administrator, in the case of self-insured organizations, that will offer the coverage that the organizations find objectionable.
There's barely an inch of space at the Lower Lights Christian Health Center that's not being used to provide services to the 100 patients who go to the Franklinton clinic each day. In two years, the annual number of patients has
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