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California Budget Could Force Seniors To Nursing Homes, Drive Up Costs
NPR reports that California"s $26.3 billion budget deficit is marginalizing seniors who rely on California state-provided health care and service to help them manage their lives.
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Obama Open To Using MedPAC To Set Medicare Payment Rates
As the administration searches for ways to pay for health care reform and restrain medical costs, President Obama suggested Wednesday that he would consider transferring the power to set Medicare reimbursement rates from Congress to the independent advisory agency known as MedPAC, MedPage Today reports. The move reflects legislation introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., last month that would move MedPAC into the executive branch as "a regulatory board similar to the Federal Reserve ... The move would transfer the power to set reimbursement rates from Congress -- and perhaps the interest groups that lobby it -- to an agency that critics say is better equipped to make nuanced medical payment decisions" (Walker 3/09).
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Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Discovery Of Novel Gene
Researchers in the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children"s Hospital Medical Center have discovered a novel gene responsible for heart muscle disease and chronic heart failure in some children and adults with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).
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Health Insurance Premiums For Families Topped $12,000 A Year In 2008

The cost of insuring a family of four with an employer-sponsored health plan in the United States averaged $12,298 in 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The federal agency"s new data for private industry further showed that the annual premium for covering an employee and one family member, known as an "employee-plus-one" plan, averaged $8,535, while the annual premium for a plan that only covered the employee averaged $4,386. Almost 20 million of the 62.5 million workers enrolled in employer-based insurance in 2008 had family plans, while about 11 million had employee-plus-one plans. The 31.5 million remaining workers had single-coverage plans. AHRQ"s 2008 private-industry data also showed that: -- Nationally, workers enrolled in family plans last year contributed an average of $3,394 toward the cost of their premiums, compared with $2,303 for an employee-plus-one policy and $882 for a single-coverage plan. -- Across all states, workers in Florida contributed the most for a family plan ($4,412) while Indiana workers contributed the least ($2,472); for employee-plus one plans New Hampshire workers contributed the most and Idaho workers the least ($3,005 and $1,736 respectively); and for single coverage, New Hampshire workers again contributed the most ($1,264), and workers in Hawaii contributed the least ($451). -- For about 22 percent of workers with single-coverage plans, their employers paid the entire premium amount. In contrast, employers paid the entire premiums for just 11 percent of workers with family plans and 9 percent of those with employee-plus-one plans. AHRQ, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, works to enhance the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care in the United States. The data in this AHRQ News and Numbers summary are taken from the Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a of detailed information on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage and costs at the national, state, and metropolitan area levels. For more information, go to MEPS Statistical Brief 251: Employer-Sponsored Single, Employee-Plus-One, and Family Health Insurance AHRQ


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