Los Angeles Times: Starbucks Serving Up Less Healthcare
By David Lazarus
Starbucks offered US workers a raise that will boost compensation by 5-15 percent. However, they also announced giving out a health insurance plan that was more affordable but less comprehensive. This is a part of a greater trend of tiered healthcare in the US. Those who have the money get strong coverage, while everyone else ends up with high-deductibles and spotty coverage. Healthy workers and shareholders will fare just fine, but the sicker workers will pay the price. Throughout the country, costs rise for the sick as healthier people choose cheaper, high-deductible plans.
The doctors are in–the homeless encampments (Contra Costa Times)
By Mark Emmons
A program in which doctors go out to treat the homeless is a smart use of resources since the homeless tend to be a “drain on social services such as emergency room visits and ambulance calls. One doctor said the chronicaly homeless have an average life expectancy of just 47. Even simple illnesses and infections become serious quickly. Many have diabetes without knowing it, which complicates infections.
They demand action-stat! Flushing nurses march for better hours & more money
By Lisa L. Colangelo
Claiming to be overworked and underpaid, Flushing Hospital Medical Center nurses protested on the streets. This is the lowest paying hospital in Brooklyn and Queens, paying them a salary of $63,000. The union wants to increase staffing and offer more 12 hour shifts rather than 7.5 hour shifts which would allow nurses to work fewer days. Some are also concerned about health plans as they receive $750 a year for health insurance when it costs more like $3,000 a year.
7% jump in healthcare costs
By Jay Greene
While single coverage through healthcare has dropped in price by 4%, from $116 to $95, health costs for family have increased. In addition, fewer companies are now offering wellness programs. To gain company healthcare benefits, employees must also now meet criteria: body weight, smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol, for lower copayments.
Few with insurance grasp medical care’s costs
By Bobby Caina Calvan, McClatchy Newspapers
Healthcare spending is estimated to hit $2.5 trillion this year, but those who have good insurance often care little. Though policy makers argue what plan will lower healthcare costs, studies show that this carelessness and ignorance to cost by the consumer are the real drivers of extreme prices. There are more and more Americans uninsured–$46 billion currently, and to cover costs, healthcare providers have shifted to bill to the insured. At the same time, doctors order more tests just to make sure they won’t be sued.