Medical Costs

The genius of modern marketing is pouring old material into new packaging. Over the years this has given us yogurt in tubes, prechopped salad greens in cellophane bags and, most recently, the health insurance industry's new image as a friend of reform.

Winding up in the emergency room is bad enough. But the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that patients no longer have to worry about getting billed for emergency treatment charges that their HMOs fail to pay. Health maintenance organizations and patient advocates hailed the decision as an important protection against gouging by hospitals and physicians. But doctors said it would encourage greedy HMOs to underpay them and that that could put emergency rooms in jeopardy.

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner plans to unveil proposed regulations today to combat the health insurance industry practice of dropping members with costly illnesses. Poizner's draft regulations would require insurers to write applications for coverage in plain English and allow applicants a "not sure" answer to questions about their preexisting medical conditions.

In an effort to maintain control of the healthcare debate, President Obama on Tuesday ridiculed critics of his government-run insurance proposal, saying private insurers have nothing to fear if they are efficient and consumer-friendly. "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best-quality healthcare -- if they tell us that they're offering a good deal -- then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business?"

In the current tough economy, some people are trying to save money by forgoing prescription medicines. A survey of just over 1,200 people conducted and released in February by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53% had cut back on healthcare spending during the last 12 months because of cost concerns. Of those surveyed, 21% had not filled a drug prescription and 15% had skipped drug doses or split pills.

Timothy Brodt is among more than 2,000 bike riders who left Sunday on a 545-mile trek from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of the AIDS/LifeCycle benefit. He carried with him a small black-and-white photo of his Uncle Richard, who died of AIDS more than 20 years ago. For the last two years, Brodt has participated in the annual bike ride to raise money for HIV and AIDS-related services at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

The nation's healthcare bill climbed above $2 trillion in 2006, averaging a record $7,026 per person, according to a government report released today. The report is likely to intensify the presidential campaign debate over curbing costs and covering the nation's 47 million uninsured. Costs increased 6.7%, the report by Medicare's actuaries said -- only slightly more than the 6.5% rate in 2005. But it was still well above the overall rate of inflation.

For busy people, time is money. And when you've got more money than time, the cost of an executive physical examination is kind of like the price of a yacht. If you have to ask, you can't afford it. Tom Gilmore arrived at L.A.'s Good Samaritan Hospital on a bright Friday morning, sporting a dark blue Nike warmup suit the hospital had sent.

One piece of the puzzle is missing from the aging in place trend -- healthcare. The nation's healthcare system is simply not designed to help seniors remain living independently, says Laura Gitlin, director of the Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "We know what helps people," she says. "What helps them age in place is not covered by insurers at this point."

With the presidential campaign going full tilt, a new government report on a big national problem is usually followed by volleys of rhetoric from the candidates. But on Tuesday, when the annual report on the precarious state of Medicare and Social Security came out, the reaction was not exactly deafening.