Health coverage issues around the country

Aug 24 2009

News from around the country includes a lawsuit over Medicaid in Alaska, a health care mandate in California and the future of a multimillion-dollar contract for uninsured children in Mississippi. 

McClatchy/The Anchorage Daily News reports: "Some disabled, ill and elderly Alaskans are suing over a temporary ban that prevents them from getting help in their home through Medicaid. The class action lawsuit targets a federal moratorium that bars new people from being admitted to certain Medicaid programs that offer help including nursing care in the home. The programs were started so that people don't have to live in nursing homes or be stuck in a hospital, but according to the suit, that's what is happening as a result of the moratorium" (Demer, 8/20).

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: "San Francisco's first-of-its-kind universal health care program and its mandate that employers provide health care has not resulted in feared job losses, according to a new study by a UC Berkeley researcher. Crunching quarterly data from the U.S. Labor Department, the researcher found that since the inception of Healthy San Francisco's employer mandate in 2008, the city's growth rate across all employment sectors was similar to or better than other Bay Area counties. While San Francisco saw its employment rate shrink due to the struggling economy, it actually shrank less than other counties" (Knight, 8/21). 

The Jackson Clarion Ledger reports: "UnitedHealthCare will begin providing coverage for the Children's Health Insurance Program next year if the state continues its negotiations with the group. But attorneys for AmeriHealth, a company that also bid on the contract, alleged Thursday a 'fairly significant conflict of interest' between United HealthCare and a separate group helping the state in the bidding process" (Chandler, 8/21).

http://www.uhc.com/