Avalere Health Report Raises Important Questions About Implementation of Government-Run Health Plan talking points
WASHINGTON – A new report issued by the Avalere Health public policy analysis firm raises important questions about how a government-run health insurance plan would curb healthcare costs and how it would compete on a level playing field with private insurers, the president of the Healthcare Leadership Council said today. “Those who advocate creating a government-run health insurance plan have said that  doing so will help bring healthcare costs down, but it also won’t deprive people of the private health coverage they currently have,” said HLC President Mary R. Grealy.  “The Avalere report makes it clear how difficult it is to achieve both of those objectives.”   More details

Medicare Rx Grows as a Hit with Seniors
A new survey of seniors gives the latest affirmation of the success of the Medicare drug benefit.  Medicare Today, a coalition involved in making sure Medicare Part D works for seniors, sponsored a poll by KRC Research.  The results have just been released. The results of this research show overwhelming satisfaction with the Medicare drug benefit. Some 89 percent of seniors have prescription drug coverage today, while only 11 percent don’t. The bottom line: “In the eyes of most Medicare Rx beneficiaries, the Medicare Rx program is a success story.  The benefit is delivering what it promised and many are saving money.” More details

HLC President Mary R. Grealy Named One of Top 25 Women in Healthcare
Modern Healthcare magazine has named Healthcare Leadership Council president Mary R. Grealy to its list of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare.  The senior editors of the magazine made the selections of female executives who are making a difference through their leadership roles in the various sectors of the healthcare industry. The story accompanying the Top 25 list cites the HLCs diverse membership, quoting HLC member and Mayo Clinic CEO Denis Cortese, M.D., who said, Finding a way for these disparate companies, organizations and industries to speak with one voice is a considerable achievement in itself,” More details

Canada Gravitating Toward More Private Sector Healthcare
Observers are noticing a backlash against Canada’s government-run healthcare system, with an increasing number of patients seeking private sector care.  The Wall Street Journal recently ran an essay pointing out how Canada and other nations with government-run healthcare are embracing private medicine. A Canadian doctor, David Gratzer, authored the piece. “Americans need to ask a basic question: Why are they rushing into a system of government-dominated healthcare when the very countries that have experienced it for so long are backing away?”  More details

Key Groups Oppose Government Health Insurance Plan
The American Medical Association has told Congress that the nation’s leading doctors’ organization opposes a health plan run by the government.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also come out against a government insurance plan.  The New York Times recently reported the AMA’s opposition.  The Times story said a so-called “public option” has been central to proposals floating around Capitol Hill.  Opponents emphasize the government’s unfair advantage against private insurers.  More details

American Healthcare Leads to Fewer Cancer Deaths
About 650,000 Americans today survive or avoid cancer who would have died from this disease just a few years ago.  The American Cancer Society has unveiled its annual cancer report. It shows clear progress in the fight against cancer. America’s private sector-based health system has found new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer. The latest cancer statistics evidence how our market-based health system creates more success stories where it counts than do government-run health systems. More details

Medicare Trustees Project Sooner Fiscal Problems
The new annual report on Medicare’s financial health has painted a worsening picture for this program’s future. It highlights the need for smart health reforms. This program is expected to run out of money in 2017.  That’s two years sooner than trustees estimated just last year. While the economic recession factors into this situation, it points to the need for covering more, younger people with quality healthcare and following a new course of prevention.  Health leaders have called for just that kind of approach to health reform.  More details

Leaders of Major National Organizations Collaborate on Approaches to Health Reform -
Diverse groups work together to identify options for congressional action
Washington, D.C. – Leaders from widely diverse national organizations today stressed their mutual commitment to reform of the nation’s health care system, calling it an “urgent, national necessity” that requires different stakeholders to cooperate in ways that they did not in previous reform efforts. The organizations, in identifying a number of policy approaches where they have reached consensus, pledged to work with lawmakers and each other to support the enactment of comprehensive reform this Congress.  More details
 _{The full Health Reform Dialogue consensus document can be found here}