Health Insurance

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said that the U.S. health care system is unfair to millions of Americans, and he called for the appointment of a presidential commission to draft a plan for change. In a commencement address to graduates of the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Koop catalogued the ills of the medical delivery and insurance system, laying particular emphasis on inequities. "Our current system of health care is not fair, it's not just and it's not the morally strong system this country deserves," he said.

Emergency room patients often must wait hours -- or sometimes days -- for treatment from specialists, largely because many doctors resist coming in unless they are assured adequate payment, according to a state report. The report released Wednesday by the California Senate Office of Research concluded that the crisis affects patients with and without health insurance. In some cases, patients are shuffled from hospital to hospital until an appropriate specialist is found, the report stated.

For people who've assumed they'll take the option of continuing their employer-based health insurance -- at their own expense -- if they lose their jobs during 2009, it was sobering news. For those who have lost their jobs, it was painfully unsurprising.

If you're self-employed, unemployed or work for a company that doesn't offer medical coverage, you may have to find your own insurance. Some tips to get you started: • U.S. Uninsured Help Line: This service by the nonprofit Foundation for Health Coverage Education helps people determine their insurance options. Be prepared to answer questions about how many family members need coverage, household income and preexisting medical conditions. Call (800) 234-1317 or go to coverageforall.org . • COBRA: If you recently left a job where you had health insurance, you can continue your coverage, at your expense, under the federal COBRA program for 18 months.

Here are some suggestions from experts for small businesses deciding whether to offer employee health insurance in 2014: 1. Consider the nature of your business. Small companies made up primarily of owners - such as physician and dentist offices and architectural and CPA firms - are likely to find that it makes financial sense to provide employee insurance, healthcare consultant Robert Laszewski says. "I expect they'll continue to offer insurance through the group model because that's the way to get tax-deductible health insurance.

WASHINGTON - Trauma surgeons at MedStar Washington Hospital Center didn't know the name of the young man wheeled into the trauma center, unconscious and bleeding from his face and head after being hit by a car. Nor did they know he lacked insurance. But as they worked to save his life, doctors and nurses at the capital's largest hospital ran a dizzying battery of lab tests and high-tech scans. Surgeons operated repeatedly, at one point removing a portion of his skull to relieve pressure on the brain.

If in the past you tried to buy health insurance for a child with a preexisting health condition and were turned down, it's time to give it another shot. A provision of the federal health reform law and a new California law punish insurers that refuse to sell policies to children. As a result, those younger than 19 will have access to insurance and cannot be denied coverage, regardless of health condition. Jan. 1 marked the start of California's initial open enrollment period, which runs through March 1. During this time, parents can purchase health benefits for their children on the individual insurance market without fear of being denied or of significant increases to monthly premiums for kids with preexisting conditions.

Amy Reiley had resigned herself to joining the ranks of the uninsured. The part-time L.A. resident and owner of a boutique cookbook publishing company had a group insurance plan that for three years covered her and another full-time employee. But when Reiley's employee became eligible for Medicare, she lost the group policy and was left to search for insurance on her own. Reiley, in her 30s, has a history of headaches resulting from neck spasms, which she manages with a muscle relaxant.

You might not know it from the near-incessant fighting over the 2010 federal healthcare law, but its main provisions -- the ones designed to bring coverage to millions of the uninsured -- won't go into effect until next year. State officials gave Californians their first look Wednesday at some of those changes, revealing what the out-of-pocket costs would be for a new, standardized set of insurance policies. The chart comes from the Covered California insurance exchange, one of the new state marketplaces for individual insurance policies created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a.