Drug plan draws overflow crowd.
Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard SPRINGFIELD - Dorothy and Raymond Hemminger soaked in an hour and a half of explanations from a parade of speakers Wednesday morning and then sat together at a table to discuss what they'd learned about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit that...

A cynical strategy.
Byline: The Register-Guard Most people understand that some heavy duty horse trading goes on as a legislative session winds down and lawmakers wheel and deal to line up votes for their pet projects. But Republican leaders in the Oregon House of Representatives ought to be ashamed of...

Parity is good, but not enough.
I was both heartened and disappointed by the recent article about the effort by many organizations to push for mental health parity--as well as other issues ("Groups Join Forces in Fight for Mental Health Reform," September 2005, p. 1). In the article, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was...

Medicare Part D gets an F on first day.
Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard Happy New Year may be a few days off yet for area pharmacists, who found themselves frustrated Tuesday after a new nationwide Medicare prescription program went into effect for elderly customers on Jan. 1. However, many pharmacies weren't open Sunday,...

Parity is not enough.
I was both heartened and disappointed by the recent article about the effort by many organizations to push for mental health parity--as well as other issues ("Coalition Vows to Fight for Mental Health Reform," Nov. 1, 2005, p. 90). In the article, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was...

CMVLI to double to P100,000 but premium rates stay same.
The limit for all Compulsory Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance (CMVLI) coverage will be increased from P50,000 to P100,000, but the premium rates will be the same. Citing the need to provide adequate protection to the insuring public, Insurance Commissioner Evangeline Crisostomo-Escobillo, announced the impending increase in CMVLI...

Making Drug Prescription Coverage Fairer for Women.
"Insurance companies pay for Viagra, but not for birth control. It's not fair. There's nothing right about it," says Missouri Speaker Jim Kreider, who successfully passed legislation last session mandating insurance coverage for contraceptives. Since the male impotence drug Viagra has been covered by many insurers, coverage...

Racial and ethnic disparities in the purchase of nongroup health insurance: the roles of community and family-level factors.
Many current proposals for increasing health insurance coverage of Americans rely on encouraging individuals and families to purchase their health insurance through the nongroup (also called the individual) market. These proposals often feature incentives such as tax credits to subsidize a portion of the purchase price. One...

Government Service Insurance System celebrating its 64th Anniversary.
THE Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) was created in 1937 through Commonwealth Act 186 to ''promote the efficiency and welfare of the employes of the Government of the Philippines.'' The Act created the Life Insurance Fund to provide compulsory insurance coverage to all state employes, and the...

SCHIP Is One Way to Expand Health Coverage.
WASHINGTON -- One path on the road to universal health care coverage is paved with SCHIP. The specialty organizations for internal medicine and pediatrics agree that the ultimate goal is to ensure health insurance for every American. But they also see the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance...