"In Case You Missed It" Healthcare Daily Digest for Monday, 17 December

In the most perfectly crafted news story to contain all the important buzzwords of the day — fiscal cliff! social security! medicare! spending! — Marcella S. Kreiter of United Press International has hit a home run: Senior citizens are increasingly worried that they’ll be forced to carry a disproportionately greater financial burden if everything falls off of that fiscal cliff everyone’s been talking about. What appears to be bipartisan in this instance are the apologies: both Republicans and Democrats feel really bad but it’s looking more and more like cuts to Medicare are among the necessaries needed to Save Us All. “Progressives created Social Security and Medicare and we have fought to protect them because we know that they are the cornerstone of financial security for middle class families,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recently said in a speech at the Center for American Progress. “But it is not protection to pretend that Social Security and Medicare can continue forever without any changes.” One of the options on the table: raising the age of Medicare from 65 to 67. However, as AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond warned, that would “force 65- and 66-year-olds into the private market, costing them an estimated $2,000 a year or more.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, is University of Missouri economics Professor Randall Wray: “There is no deficit and debt crisis now or looming in the distant future.” It’s all just a bunch of sound and fury, signifying nothing except for politicians’ desires to tamper with social security while lathering everyone up. More likely, however, is an answer somewhere in the middle.

Other headlines you may have missed:

Because Most of Us Have Been Treating it Like a Joke: Over on the DailyCamera.com, Dr Daniel A. Kinderlehrer wants you to know that he’s tired of the light-hearted way y’all’ve been treating the cost of healthcare in this country, what with all the unnecessary testing and x-rays going on. Maybe someone should get Dr Kinderlehrer some back DVDs of “House” because while it may present as lupus, it’s never lupus.

Conversations Around Affordable Healthcare Are Almost Never Solely About Affordable Healthcare: What starts as a medical mystery story — why are Armando Hernandez’s legs swelling? — becomes a sticky morass of healthcare and immigration: “In its efforts to pass the Affordable Care Act, the administration excluded immigrants who were not ‘lawfully present’ in the country from the insurance mandate, avoiding the bear trap of an immigration debate sinking its teeth into health care reform.”

An ICD-10 Regulations FAQ: The folks at OptumInsight.com have come up with this handy five-page PDF that’ll answer some of what they think are the most frequently asked questions regarding ICD-10 implementation. Gey gezunt!

Nothing’s Like it Used to Be: In a lengthy paper from Karen A. Zurlow of Rutgers University, she argues that since the implementation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974, “the economy has shifted to a more globalized, non-unionized, service-based environment, where defined contribution (DC) plans replaced DB plans as the dominant type of private pension plan.” With that in mind, individuals need to consider what their expanded role in this process will mean to them and their bottom lines.

Consider Poor Jan Brewer: The complicated governor of Arizona finds herself in a bit of a quandary.  What with the elimination of a middle option that many thought would be right up Brewer’s alley, “the state’s policymakers are now faced with what could be an all-or-nothing decision with big ramifications for the state treasury and people lacking health care coverage.” Brewer can provide expanded Medicaid eligibility as envisioned under an expansion included in President Barack Obama’s health care law. Or she can keep the state’s Medicaid program — the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System — and would have the state reject all optional increases and add only 130,000 people, most of whom are already eligible but not enrolled. Brewer’s terrific at these kinds of human decisions, so I’m sure it’ll work out great.

As Ohioan’s Waistbands Expand…: Bariatric surgery is now on the table for Medicaid discussion in the state of Ohio. (Sidenote: Did you know Ohio’s state song is “Hang on Sloopy”? Discuss.) The pro argument: two birds with one stone as bariatric surgery is seen as a way to cut-down on obesity and diabetes. The con argument: bariatric surgery isn’t a magic bullet to thinness.

Domino’s Pizza Would Not Like to Pay for Contraception, Please: “The founder of Domino’s Pizza is suing the federal government over mandatory contraception coverage in the healthcare law.” Domino’s founder, Tom Monaghan, is a devout Roman Catholic and believes contraception isn’t healthcare but a “gravely immoral” practice. They’ll still deliver pizza in 30 minutes or less to drunk college students, though.

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