John J. Donahue's job is to grow Brentwood-based Cogent HMG.

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Q&A with John J. Donahue: Cogent CEO is on quest to optimize health care

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - It sounds like a silver lining. Even if the Supreme Court overturns President Barack Obama's health care law, employers can keep offering popular coverage for the young adult children of their workers.

But here's the catch: The parents' taxes would go up.

That's only one of the messy potential ripple effects when the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the Affordable Care Act this month. The law affects most major components of the U.S. health care system in its effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured people.

Because the legislation is so complicated, an orderly unwinding would prove difficult if it were overturned entirely or in part.

Better Medicare prescription benefits, currently saving hundreds of dollars for older people with high drug costs, would be suspended. Ditto for preventive care with no co-payments, now available to retirees and working families alike.

Partially overturning the law could leave hospitals, insurers and other service providers on the hook for tax increases and spending cuts without the law's promise of more paying customers to offset losses.

If the law is upheld, other kinds of complications could result.

The nation is so divided that states led by Republicans are largely unprepared to carry out critical requirements such as creating insurance markets. Things may not settle down.

"At the end of the day, I don't think any of the major players in the health insurance industry or the provider community really wants to see the whole thing overturned," said Christine Ferguson, a health policy expert who was commissioner of public health in Massachusetts when Mitt Romney was governor.

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Undoing health law could have messy ripple effects

WHEELING - The strength and fitness of a new health care reform law in America is on the examining table this month as the U.S. Supreme Court reviews its overall constitutionality.

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. The measure mandates comprehensive health insurance reforms that roll out through the end of 2014.

The high court is expected to rule on its constitutionality later this month. At issue is one provision of the new law requiring all Americans to obtain health insurance - or face a penalty. The provision goes into effect at the start of 2014.

The court's ruling should result in one of three scenarios, according to Jim Forbes, spokesman for Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va.

First, the court could rule the entire bill unconstitutional. Second, the court could deem only the "insurance mandate" clause illegal, and keep the rest as it is. Lastly, justices could rule the entire measure is constitutional.

The law in its current form would decrease the federal deficit by $210 billion by 2021, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The new system is expected to cost $604 billion over the next decade, while also generating $813 billion in additional revenues attributed to new taxes and fees, according to the CBO.

And health care reform already is providing very real benefits to West Virginians, according to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

"In the last year alone, seniors have saved about $23 million on their prescription drug costs and 4,200 small businesses got a 75 percent discount on their premiums last December as a direct result of health reform," he said. "Consumers are better protected, seniors have more support and there are new tools to put the brakes on runaway health spending. Yes, controlling our spending is important, but we cannot shift that burden onto seniors and low-income West Virginians."

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, believes medical malpractice reform should be part of any health care system overhaul.

"Such common-sense reform would lessen the wasteful practice of defensive medicine, save the federal government billions of dollars and reduce health care costs passed on to employers," he noted.

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Health Reform Weighed; Lawmakers Speak On Controversy

By MARYSHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 10, 2012

TAMPA - Revamping of a Hillsborough County health plan for poor people remains in limbo as local leaders wait for a U.S. Supreme Court decision on national health care reform.

More than 13,000 Hillsborough residents participate in the 20-year-old health insurance of last resort. But those numbers likely will rise or fall once the high court decides whether President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act is constitutional.

For months, the Hillsborough County Health Care Plan Advisory Board has hesitated in making changes to the local plan, with meetings focusing on a lot of "what ifs" about who qualifies for its primary care, specialists, out-patient treatment and prescription coverage.

Once the national debate about "Obamacare" is clarified, local leaders say, they will know how many people will need help from the local plan. To prepare, the advisory board already has identified which aspects of the plan it needs to evaluate for cost effectiveness and impact.

"We'll be ready for either pass or fail," said county Department of Family and Aging Services Director Gene Earley, who serves as the staff administrator for the advisory board.

The urgency to streamline and improve health services for residents was behind last week's request by Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman to re-evaluate the local plan. Murman said she didn't know the advisory board was making plans to do the same.

She pulled the request after speaking with Earley.

"This is the best time to be doing this and be ahead of the curve," Murman said.

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Local health care plan awaits high court ruling

On June 18, Paulsboro resident Sharon Byrne will embark on a health outreach mission to Haiti with her family nurse practitioner students from Drexel University.

Im the track director for the family nurse practitioner program at Drexel in addition to my clinical practice at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, said Byrne. Theres been a major push for our students to get involved in the community and do health outreach, and I was approached by someone in the Philadelphia-based organization Explorers Sans Frontieres. Basically, theyre a very reputable non-profit organization that has been doing outreach for a number of years in Haiti, Senegal and more. Theyve done 18 missions to Haiti thus far.

Byrne said she was approved by Drexels international studies office for the experience for her students in their final semester.

This is our first outreach program for the masters nursing department, she said. We will be there for five days running a one-day well child clinic at a school near Port-au-Prince, coordinating a full-day womens health clinic and spending three days in Port-au-Prince addressing chronic and acute health care needs of anyone from infant to older adult.

Five nurse practitioner students will accompany Byrne, as well as Drexels director of international studies, a representative from ESF and several other medical professionals and volunteers. The group has received donations from pharmacies and medical supply companies for the mission.

Basically, Haiti is still very lacking in routine health care, and thats one of the major things we want to address, she said. Many of their health needs revolve around issues that we also face here like diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. A lot of what well be doing is addressing those needs and doing preventative health education with patients and some of the providers there.

Byrne said she and her students are looking forward to the trip because they feel there are still a lot of under-served people in Haiti who have health needs that have not been recognized since the earthquake.

The students are not only getting some clinical practice, but theyre getting the chance to go on a humanitarian type of mission, said Byrne. Just to work with people from other cultures and learn sensitivity is a great opportunity. They can become liaisons for health care and the United States. We hope to let people in Haiti know that we are still genuinely interested in their health and well-being.

Contact reporter Jessica Driscoll at jdriscoll@southjerseymedia.com.

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Paulsboro resident leads health care mission to Haiti

Both candidates for the U.S. House in the 13th Congressional District have faced the fear associated with having a spouse with cancer. But they still have radically different views on how the nation should mold healthcare policy.

David Gill, an emergency room physician from Bloomington, the Democratic candidate, lost his first wife of nearly 20 years Polly -- to cancer in 2007.

Rodney Davis of Taylorville, the Republican candidate, is thankful that surgery following discovery of colon cancer in his wife, Shannon, in 1999, has left her cancer-free.

The new 13th includes part of Springfield. Davis was recently appointed to replace U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, who won the primary, but dropped out of the Nov. 6 election.

Davis and Gill both have mentioned their families when discussing health care during the campaign.

With the extensive bureaucracy of Obamacare, Im not too sure wed have that same result today, Davis told Sangamon County Republicans when he appeared before committeemen last month.

He thinks the health care plan signed into law by President Barack Obama, officially the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, should be replaced with what Davis calls a market-based healthcare safety net. Included would be greater use of government-backed clinics to avoid the high cost of emergency rooms for minor ailments.

Gill advocates a national healthcare system he calls improved Medicare for all, which would cut insurance companies out of the health-care process. Gill has been a member of Physicians for National Health Care since long before Polly became ill.

Her illness didnt impact where Im at on the issue, Gill said in an interview. That said, she was another example of the types of difficulties that Americans face because of the way we finance our health care here.

Gill and his daughter Tally, 19, who just finished her freshman year at the University of Illinois, appeared in a campaign video about Polly and her illness.

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Health care divides U.S. House candidates Gill, Davis