| Court awards $69M to health insurers in Mylan antitrust suit
A federal court in Washington has awarded damages of $69 million to four health insurers nearly three years after a jury found that Mylan Laboratories Inc. violated antitrust laws by overcharging for two generic versions of popular anti-anxiety drugs. In June 2005, a federal jury in the District of Columbia ordered Mylan to pay at least $12 million to Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Massachusetts and Minnesota, as well as Owatonna, Minn.-based Federated Mutual Insurance Co. and Health Care Service Corp. The awards stemmed from allegations that Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Mylan increased prices by up to 2,000 percent for lorazepam and clorazepate, generic versions of the drugs Ativan and Tranxene, after exclusive agreements that kept other generic competitors from obtaining needed raw materials.
Cabinet rejects health scheme award to LOJ
Cabinet has rejected the proposal for the award of the public sector health insurance scheme to Life of Jamaica (LOJ and has instead instructed that the contract be again put to tender. In the interim, Blue Cross of Jamaica, the long-standing service provider, will continue providing the service. The decision to award the service contract for the Government Employees Administrative Staff Only (GEASO) group to LOJ had been shrouded in controversy from the time of the announcement earlier this year. Strong objections GEASO's monitoring committee (made up of a wide cross section of public sector workers) voiced strong objections to the award on the basis that it was not involved in the decision to make the recommendation. GEASO highlighted the fact that the actuary who evaluated the competing bids had assigned the highest number of points to Blue Cross, in keeping with the evaluation process set out in the request for proposals.
USA Today Examines Future Of Medicare
USA Today on Thursday examined how a "projected long-term explosion of health care costs could force sweeping changes" in Medicare, private health insurance and Social Security, as part of a series on the effects of the retirement of baby boomers. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that combined spending on Medicare and Medicaid likely will account for 19% of gross domestic product by 2082, compared with 4% today, without changes to the programs. According to the American Academy of Actuaries, elimination of the expected Medicare deficit over 75 years would require a 122% increase in the Medicare payroll tax, a 51% reduction in benefits or a combination of the two. CBO Director Peter Orszag said of the long-term financial problems with Medicare, "I'm an optimist," adding, "There are opportunities to remove costs from the system without harming health care," such as targeted reimbursements for the most effective treatments.
Free-Market Wall Protects Insurers, Not Your Health
Their only potential competition is a Medicare-like single-payer system that takes out the profit motive at the insurer's end, which is why the private-insurance industry peddles all sorts of lies about single-payer systems eliminating choice or imposing inefficient socialized medicine. There is no medical system more inefficient than the American one — certainly not in the West, and many Asian and Latin American countries care for their citizens better as well — or more socialized, although perversely so: The medical-industrial complex is primarily designed to keep the insurance industry healthy. People's health is more of a collateral. The proof is in the tax credits. They would supposedly help individuals and families buy health insurance by making it more affordable.
X-ray overdoses alleged in Ontario
TORONTO � In addition to criticizing the accuracy of Ontario�s reported wait-time data for diagnostic imaging, Ontario�s auditor general also claimed there are dosing problems when patients are given CT exams.
Auditor general Jim McCarter pointed to CT scans for children, saying that in many instances they were being conducted using adult settings, resulting in high doses of X-ray radiation.
�We found that the medical practitioners, quite frankly, were not as aware as they should be. And we found that in half the scans we looked at ... the radiation levels were much too high for the children,� McCarter said.
�It�s really important that you dial down the radiation level when you�re doing a CT scan of a child.� The auditor general added that his staff has spoken with the �hospital sector� to say this is something �to be more aware of.
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