Olympia lawmakers introduced a set of measures to address one of the biggest problems facing Washingtonians: rising health care costs.
Survey As of November, more than four in five people in the state were found concerned about the ability to afford health care in the future.
Increased costs are affecting the health decisions people make, said Jim Friborg, executive director of the Patient Coalition of Washington.
“It’s the people who can’t afford their medication, and so they skip doses, or they delay care, just because they’re so scared about getting the bill,” Friborg noted. “We only see cases like this all the time.”
The actions presented in this session will address costs on a number of fronts. They include bills to combat the growing number of Health system integrationcheck up Medication prices and strengthening authority Healthcare Cost Transparency Councilwhich was created in 2020.
The rising costs are hurting the business, too, said Bill Kramer, executive director of health care policy for Buyer’s Health Business Group. He noted that employers provide coverage to more than half of Americans and explained that providing coverage is valuable to employees, but is becoming less sustainable.
“High health care costs crowd out jobs, wages, and business investment, and are a real drag on the economy,” Kramer noted.
One can measure in Olympia reduce force Large healthcare systems have to negotiate rates with insurers.
Sen. John Robinson, D-Everett, one of the bill’s sponsors, said health care systems sometimes take an “all or nothing” approach where they say they will only contract with a particular facility if the providers contract with all facilities in a state or region.
“In some places, this may not be the best or least expensive option available,” Robinson noted. “So they are using their market share to drive up the cost of health care.”
Robinson added that the Senate bill would limit anti-competitive practices when negotiating prices. She has a public hearing in Olympia on Friday.
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North Carolina Institute of Medicine New recommendations To improve health care in the state.
Proposals focus on expanding healthcare capacity, strengthening healthy communities, and increasing local collaboration. A task force investigated the health care system’s strengths and challenges, and developed a vision for the future of health care in the state.
One challenge is that per capita public health funding in North Carolina has fallen by 30% in the past decade.
Making the recommendations a reality will hinge on dollars and cents, said Brian Leda-McDonald, project director at the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
“We’re actually relatively low in per capita funding for local public health, when we look at the rest of the country,” Lyda-McDonald noted. “Right now, we’re at $76 per person in North Carolina.”
I compared it to the national average of $116. The group also urged finding ways to make financing sustainable and flexible, depending on the needs of each community. The recommendations also focused on building a stronger network of healthcare providers who can share data about those most in need.
In addition to financing, the group recommended more collaboration between healthcare providers, to make better use of public health data and to build community partnerships. Lyda-McDonald said the most important factor in these partnerships is to include members who trust each other.
Lyda-McDonald emphasized “ensuring that public health represents and serves all the needs of community members, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, and geographic location.”
The report also suggested doing more to recruit and retain a strong public health workforce. The task force shares its findings with state legislators and public health policy experts.
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About 45% of black Americans have it Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, compared to 31% of white Americans. Now, a new program in Southern California is bringing the numbers down.
The American Heart Association is collaborating with Providence Healthcare on a three-year program to narrow the disparities affecting Black and Latino Californians in the Los Angeles area.
Dr. David Pryor, regional vice president and medical director at Anthem California and co-chair of the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Task Force in Los Angeles, calls high blood pressure a “silent killer.”
“A person may have high blood pressure and not even know it,” Pryor explained. “In fact, they can feel completely normal. It is only when blood pressure is very high that a person may start to notice symptoms such as headaches, chest pains, or shortness of breath.”
The program places blood pressure kiosks in the community, provides health resources to barbershops and salons, and trains community health workers. The Heart Association also offers a Lecture series For primary care providers in the treatment of hypertension in black and Latino communities.
It’s very important to “know your numbers,” said Dr. Daniel Lewis, regional medical director for the Facey Medical Group in Tarzana and chair of the group’s Black Doctors Council.
“The way people die is primarily a heart attack,” Lewis noted. “And high blood pressure is one of the major associated factors. Unfortunately, high blood pressure is highest in the black community, and yet it comes with heart attack, stroke, and kidney problems.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that heart attacks are the state The first killerclaimed nearly 700,000 lives in 2020. In the same year, more than 160,000 people suffered fatal strokes.
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Big changes is underway for Medicare participants, after landmark legislation put them into effect this month.
more than 1.8 million Georgians Medicare enrollees will see lower-cost premiums and deductibles, and they can save money on some prescription medications.
Lee Purvis, senior director for health care costs and access at the AARP Public Policy Institute, described some of the changes.
“The first is that the recommended vaccines will now be free for Medicare beneficiaries,” Purvis noted. “The second is that insulin costs will now be limited to $35 per month for people on prescription drug plans. The third is that drug companies will now be penalized for increasing their prices faster than the rate of inflation.”
She explained that Medicare Part B premiums are deducted from her monthly Social Security payments. Since this year’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment increased benefits by 8.7%, she indicated that people who are already enrolled in both programs will see more money in their pockets each month.
More than 100,000 people in Georgia use insulin to manage their diabetes, Purvis added, and lowering the cost will help those who have struggled to afford insulin.
“As long as insulin is included in the prescription drug plan,” Purvis explained. “This is really important because we know that previously, some people were facing, on average, monthly costs of about $50. Some people were paying more than $100.”
This year, Purvis added, Medicare will begin setting annual limits on how much people have to spend out of pocket on their prescriptions. Starting in 2025, the new limit will be $2,000 per year.
“And that’s a real savings, because we know there are people who spend upwards of $10,000 a year on prescription drugs,” Purvis noted. “Now, people on Medicare prescription drug plans will have a relatively low, meaningful out-of-pocket limit for prescription drug costs each year.”
Medicare price negotiations will begin with 10 drugs. People will learn what they are by this fall, and negotiated prices will take effect in 2026. Medicare will add more drugs each year, and patients can see up to 60 prescription drugs at negotiated prices by 2030.
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