health insurance news

The Lund Report–The public comment process of Oregon’s state health insurance exchange is different than usual–rather than asking for broad input, it is asking for targeted answers to specific questions.

The Lund Report–Oregon governor John Kitzhaber signed a bill into law allowing Oregon’s health insurance exchange to move forward. It will be one of the organizations involved with creating the state’s essential benefits package.

The Lund Report – Oregon’s Individual and Employer Consumer Advisory Committee hopes Oregonians will see a state health insurance exchange is not a typical government program and end up believing, “it works.”

Oregonian – State official explains details about how consumers will use health insurance exchange, now in development and scheduled for 2013 launch.

LegalNewsline.com – A total of 20 states have moved to sue the federal government in an attempt to stop implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, arguing that the individual mandate provision is unconstitutional. Another nince states have indicated they support the reform legislation.

OregenLive – If you want to be healthy in Oregon, live in a city.  That lesson is the most visible conclusion of a new study that ranked the health of every county in Oregon and the 49 other states. The study combined 28 different statistics that track or affect health, from education levels to smoking habits, into a few overall measures of how healthy an area is. The results are meant to draw attention to how local issues affect health and help county leaders decide which health and safety issues to tackle, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the project.

Ezra Klein (The Washington Post) – I don’t want to overstate my case. I am not suggesting that Sen. Ron Wyden’s Free Choice Act is the difference between a health-care reform bill passing the Senate and dying in committee. But I am arguing that it might be the difference between a bill that delivers on its promise of reforming the health-care system and a bill that merely expands health insurance coverage.