Health Insurance An D Pare Rate

First Edition: September 14, 2011 | Medicare Resource Center

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jordan Rau reports: “Nearly 50 million Americans lacking health insurance was the best economic news to come out of the bleak U.S. Census figures released today. While poverty increased, household earnings dropped and more families doubled up in living quarters, the nation’s rate of people without health insurance in 2010 stayed flat at 16.3 percent of the population, statistically the same as the year before” (Rau, 9/13).

Kaiser Health News : Capsules: Census Changes How It Estimates The Uninsured; States Embrace Medicaid Managed Care As Congress opens a politically charged exploration of ways to pare the deficit, President Obama is expected to seek hundreds of billions of dollars in savings in Medicare and Medicaid, delighting Republicans and dismaying many Democrats who fear that his proposals will become a starting point for bigger cuts in the popular health programs (Pear, 9/13).

The Associated Press/Washington Post : Debt ‘Supercommittee’ Members Emphasize Opposing Spending, Tax Plans Aiming For Less Red Ink Digging in for a bruising struggle, Republicans on Congress’ powerful deficit-fighting “supercommittee” targeted Social Security and government health care spending Tuesday while Democrats pressed for higher tax revenue as part of any deal to reduce red ink by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade (9/13).

The New York Times :  Debt Panel Opens With Bleak Economic Picture As the 12-member panel began its race against a November deadline to recommend substantial federal savings, Mr. Elmendorf said its task had become more difficult because the outlook for the economy had worsened in the last month. … Republican members of the panel said growth in federal spending — for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, in particular — was the main factor in the nation’s fiscal problems. Mr. Elmendorf said spending for the big three benefit programs would account for 12.2 percent of the gross domestic product in 2021, compared with an average of 7.2 percent in the last 40 years. The difference, 5 percent of the economy, “is a very big number,” Mr. Elmendorf said. Democrats said higher revenues were essential (Pear and Steinhauer, 9/13).

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