INSURANCE - The Salt Lake Tribune

Health care profiteers

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Health care profiteers

Updated May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

In “The limits of Medicaid” (Opinion, May 11), M. Royce Van Tassel criticizes Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) for not improving health, though he agrees that it “nearly eliminated catastrophic out of pocket medical expenditures.” But this is a precise description of what an effective health insurance plan should do. Some people believe the propaganda of insurance companies that they make us healthier, but this is nonsense. They provide zero value to health (as the stu...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Susan Powell’s brother-in-law went from affable to suspicious

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:27:17 MDT

Susan Powell’s brother-in-law went from affable to suspicious

By brooke adams and nate carlisle The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 22, 2013 11:27AM MDT

Tacoma, Wash. • Of the Powell men, Michael Powell was the one people liked, and often trusted. Steve Powell wrote of missing his son Michael while he was gone. Josh Powell relied on Michael, his brother, to help him move and later to watch his children. Susan Powell’s father, Chuck Cox, wrote West Valley City police worrying his missing daughter was held prisoner by Steve Powell. But Cox specified that Michael Powell probably wouldn’t go along with it. Kiirsi Hellewell on Monday told reporte...

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Obamacare, Part 2

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Obamacare, Part 2

By XXXXXX The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 21, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The following editorial appeared in Monday’s Washington Post: Thought you had seen the last of the fighting over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare? Since its passage in 2010, after all, it has survived Supreme Court review, innumerable challenges from House Republicans and Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful campaign to evict its author from the White House. Nonetheless, with the heart of the reform set to take effect next year, its most contentious days may lie ahead. The law will affect...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

High-risk Utahns’ health insurance will shift to federal management

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:44:28 MDT

High-risk Utahns’ health insurance will shift to federal management

By Jennifer Dobner The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 18, 2013 11:44PM MDT

Uninsurable Utahns will see their subsidized health insurance coverage plan shifted to federal oversight in July after funding ran short and state officials refused to take on the risk. The federally-funded HIP-Utah program covers individuals who have been rejected by insurers because they are too sick. The program was initially funded with $5 billion, but stopped adding new enrollees in February when the money began to run out. In late April, federal officials gave states just two options for...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Medicaid nonsense

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:01:08 MDT

Medicaid nonsense

Updated May 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

M. Royce Van Tassell’s op-ed, “Medicaid access doesn’t improve health” (Opinion, May 12), makes no sense at all. If that title were the case, why does anyone need insurance, including Van Tassell? He cites studies that say people without health insurance don’t have worse health than those who do. Does a person who has diabetes and doesn’t know it have the same health as a person with insurance who goes to the doctor, discovers the diabetes and sets up a treatment plan? I am 80 years old and hav...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Provo police looking for business robber

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:05:12 MDT

Provo police looking for business robber

By Michael McFall The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 18, 2013 09:05AM MDT

Provo police are looking for the man who allegedly robbed an insurance company. About 5 p.m. Friday, a man walked into Advanced Insurance at 363 N. University Ave. and pointed what a 27-year-old female employee described as a 9-mm handgun at her, according to a police news release. The suspect then demanded money from her. She tried to stand up, but he pushed her to the ground and fled with an undisclosed amount of money, the release adds. Police describe the suspect as a Latino male in his 30s,...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hilman headed to new health insurance cooperative

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:36:56 MDT

Hilman headed to new health insurance cooperative

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 17, 2013 10:36PM MDT

Longtime health care policy advocate Judi Hilman will leave her post as director of the Utah Health Policy Project in July to join a new nonprofit health insurance cooperative. Hilman helped found UHPP nearly eight years ago. Her departure was announced Friday. She is planning to move to Arches Health Plan to serve as vice president of consumer engagement and strategic partnerships. Arches is Utah’s first health insurance cooperative formed under the federal Affordable Care Act. Hilman will ...

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Paying for ACA

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:03:52 MDT

Paying for ACA

By XXXXXX The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 16, 2013 08:03AM MDT

This week’s furor over the Internal Revenue Service’s selective scrutiny of tea party groups and the Justice Department’s secret collection of phone records from the Associated Press has obscured what may prove in the long run to be a more troubling ethical breach. Unable to secure funding from Congress to carry out the Affordable Care Act, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has responded with a bizarre error in judgment. Sebelius has been soliciting donations from the healt...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Insurance ‘providers’

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Insurance ‘providers’

Updated May 15, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The letter “Pay to live” (Forum, May 8) talked how “health care providers” are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Not to put too fine a point on it, but “providers” — doctors, nurses and others who actually provide health care — are not the ones benefiting. The fiscal “good fortune” from the ACA is going to health insurance companies. In no sense can they be called “providers.” They don’t provide any care at all. They delay care. They deny care. They penuriously distribute our premium mone...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Tooele County approves changes to retirement benefits

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:38:23 MDT

Tooele County approves changes to retirement benefits

By Cathy McKitrick The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 11:38PM MDT

Tooele • With cash flow evaporating in this sprawling county’s budget, Tooele County commissioners voted Tuesday to change the structure of retiree medical benefits. Speaking to a packed house, Commissioner Shawn Milne said they heard constituent concerns expressed two weeks ago and adjusted accordingly. “What we were proposing at that time was that all retirees be obligated to pay for 25 percent of their medical coverage, [and] ceasing coverage on dental and life insurance,” Milne said, “and ...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Utah’s largest medical malpractice insurer being sold

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:57:28 MDT

Utah’s largest medical malpractice insurer being sold

By kirsten stewart The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 08:57PM MDT

Utah’s largest medical malpractice insurer is being sold to a company in Minnesota in an estimated $142 million deal that will mean a windfall for its policyholders, thousands of doctors in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. The acquisition of Utah Medical Insurance Association (UMIA) by Midwest Medical Insurance Company (MMIC) was cleared by regulators last week. The merger, announced in February, now needs only the approval of policyholders and it is expected to close at the end of June. UMIA w...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The limits of Medicaid

Sat, 11 May 2013 01:01:05 MDT

The limits of Medicaid

By m. royce van tassell

Updated May 11, 2013 01:01AM MDT

By m. royce van tassell In promoting Obamacare to Congress and the American public, President Barack Obama and other backers of universal insurance coverage frequently said that people lacking health insurance have worse health than those who have health insurance. As it turns out, the first meaningful study of that claim says there’s little difference. The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study by a group of Harvard and MIT researchers evaluating the physical and mental healt...

Obama declares health care law ‘is here to stay’

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:35:04 MDT

Obama declares health care law ‘is here to stay’

The Associated Press

Updated May 10, 2013 10:35PM MDT

Washington • Caught between nervous Democrats and emboldened Republicans, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped up the sales pitch on his health care overhaul as the final elements of his top domestic achievement go into effect. With his legacy and the law’s success at stake, Obama said: “The law is here to stay.” Behind the scenes, the White House readied a campaign-style effort to get healthy young people to sign up for the insurance “exchanges” in order to keep premium costs from skyrocke...

Pretend insurance

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:17:02 MDT

Pretend insurance

Updated May 10, 2013 05:17PM MDT

For Mother’s Day weekend, a maternal analogy for an important policy question: Picture U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the mom, a very busy woman with thousands of things to deal with. Picture Utah Gov. Gary Herbert as one of her children, a basically good kid who, like many young people, wants his own way with a lot of things, even if it really isn’t good for him, or anybody else. In order to keep little Gary occupied and out of her hair, mom places him in a child...

Utah’s Herbert thanks feds for health exchange split

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:56:04 MDT

Utah’s Herbert thanks feds for health exchange split

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 10, 2013 10:56PM MDT

Washington • Utah Gov. Gary Herbert expressed his gratitude Friday to federal officials who agreed to split the responsibilities for offering insurance through health care exchanges, and he suggested other states may want to follow this new Utah model. The deal, which the Department of Health and Human Services agreed to Friday, allows the state to operate its small-business exchange, known as Avenue H, while avoiding some of the more politically contentious portions of the Affordable Care Act....

Deal with feds reached: Utah slated for two online health exchanges

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:04:19 MDT

Deal with feds reached: Utah slated for two online health exchanges

By Jennifer Dobner The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 10, 2013 12:04PM MDT

Utah will have two online marketplaces for health insurance — one run by the federal government for individuals and the state’s existing Avenue H for the employees of small businesses, a new agreement says. The details of the deal are outlined in a letter sent Thursday from Gov. Gary Herbert to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is expected to approve the agreement for Utah’s insurance exchanges on Friday, the governor’s office said. A two-page overview shows Herbe...

Granite employees

Fri, 10 May 2013 01:01:05 MDT

Granite employees

Updated May 10, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “How’s your Utah school district’s budget for next year?” (Tribune, May 2): Granite School District plans once again to punish its employees. This time, it is going after the hard-working, less-paid, staff, such as teacher’s aides and bus drivers. Here’s the problem: For employees working 30 or more hours a week, the Affordable Care Act will require the district to pay for their health insurance. Therefore, the district plans to have them work 29 hours a week instead. I find this mind-boggl...