Medicare know-how erases age brackets.
Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard JUNCTION CITY - Mona Skinner, 79, needed help weeding through the insurance plans for her Medicare Part D enrollment forms, so she turned to the experts: two twentysomethings serving in the AmeriCorps service organization. "I've been procrastinating," said Skinner, a...

Parity for mental health.
Byline: The Register-Guard= Oregon hasn't been a trailblazer in mental health reform, but "better late than never" sounds pretty good right now to Oregonians with group insurance who need treatment for mental illness. On Jan. 1, the new mental health insurance parity law took effect,...

One-month pension to regular pensioners; GSIS allots P741 M in cash gifts.
The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has allotted P741 million from its Social Insurance Fund to cover the granting of cash gifts to regular pensioners equivalent to their one-month pension, which will be released together with the January 2006 pension checks. Entitled to the cash gift are...

GMA vows to protect environment through strong mining safeguards.
Byline: GENALYN D. KABILING and ELLALYN B. DE VERA President Arroyo yesterday vowed a more rigid enforcement of environmental safeguards while promoting sustainable mining development as the countryas way out of poverty. The President issued the pledge a day after the government reportedly conceded to...

PITC to refund PhilHealth medicines.
Byline: BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT Medicine purchases at accredited drugstores by PhilHealth members will now be refunded, the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) yesterday announced. PITC chairman and president Roberto M. Pagdanganan and Health Secretary and PhilHealth chairman Francisco Duque signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to...

The never-ending dilemma over Medicare and Social Security: this pair of political hot potatoes has generated lots of debate, but no viable solutions, as a basic question continues to remain unanswered: How long will the working population agree that a rising share of its taxes should go to the people no longer working?
THERE IS A BASIC mismatch in the national debate on health care. On one hand, the actuaries tell us that the Medicare program will mn into very serious financial problems in the years ahead. On the other, the public concern is focusing on the inadequacy of benefits and the...

A system in crisis.
HEALTH CARE concerns consistently rank near the top of surveys of Americans pertaining to issues that are important to them. There is good reason for concern. Compared to other industrialized nations, health care in the U.S. is much more expensive. The average spending of the 30-member nations...

Around The Nation.
PNP filing drug raps vs 168 in shabu mart The Philippine National Police (PNP) will file today, Monday, Feb. 13, before the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) charges of illegal use of prohibited drugs against 168 persons who were arrested during a raid in a "shabu...

Demographics of uninsured.
Although they make up only 15% of the U.S. population, Hispanics comprise nearly 29% of the uninsured in that population, according to the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) findings from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. More than one in three Hispanics is uninsured, and 25% are...

Health policy roundtable: how are Medicaid and SCHIP weathering the storm?
Chair: Alan Weil, Executive Director and President, National Academy for State Health Policy. Panelists: Teresa Coughlin, Principal Research Associate, Health Policy Project, Urban Institute. Deborah Florio, Administrator, Family and Children's Services, Rhode Island Department of Human Services. Jeanene Smith, Deputy Administrator, Office for...