Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web.

Iowa News

Look out for Iowans, not just insurers
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield raised premiums an average of 18 percent this year for Iowans who buy health insurance on their own. People are wondering how the company can justify this when it’s spending $250 million on a new headquarters and $2.4 million on its chief executive’s pay. Iowans have a lot of questions. So do state lawmakers. But getting satisfactory answers isn’t easy. (Des Moines Register)

Health premiums depend on cultural changes
The current health care crisis of double-digit rate increases by insurance companies, including Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Iowa, was predictable. In fact, a statewide study warned six years ago that rising medical costs were on the brink of creating a financial crisis for Iowa employers. But little was done, and things got worse. (Des Moines Register)

Legislators split over how to handle the Iowa Power Fund
Democrats at the Statehouse are divided over a key component of the budget. They’re wrangling over how much money to invest in the Iowa Power Fund. The $25-million-a-year grant program was created in 2007 to support renewable energy projects across the state. The top two Democratic leaders in the senate say they want to protect it from the 10 percent budget cut applied to the rest of state government. (Radio Iowa)

This won’t hurt a bit
A physician talks about his experience as a hospital patient and how it changed the way he perceives patients and practices medicine. (Alegent Health Blog)

U.S. News

Healthcare overhaul comes down to Pelosi and Obama
The bill’s fate depends on whether the House speaker can land enough votes – and whether the president can take control of the debate, which Democrats say he has not done. (Los Angeles Times)

Under health reform, Medicaid would cover many childless adults
While Medicaid is the main government health insurance plan for the poor, the joint state-federal program has excluded Matthews and millions of other adults with no dependent children since the 1960s. Medicaid has been limited mainly to children in poor families, the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled. Some states have tried to fill the gap, but childless adults now comprise a majority of uninsured Americans. (Kaiser Health News)

How would health care overhaul help young people?
Critics warn that low-cost policies would leave young people financially vulnerable and reluctant to seek care. Supporters counter that the plans would help young people who otherwise might be uninsured. “Any coverage is always better than no coverage,” says Leslie Norwalk, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the George W. Bush administration. (USA Today)

How Blue Cross became part of a dysfunctional health care system
The only solution is to prohibit all insurers from discriminating against the sick and to make sure that everybody is part of large, financially sound insurance groups in which there are enough healthy people to subsidize the cost of the sick. (Kaiser Health News)

Medical care vanishing in rural Wisconsin
Since 2001, several rural hospitals have cut services that typically lose money, according to an analysis of a Wisconsin Hospital Association database by the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative and the Wisconsin State Journal. (Wisconsin State Journal)

Costs of insuring the poor shift to Minnesota hospitals
About 30,000 poor Minnesotans will continue to receive health insurance coverage under a deal reached Friday by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFL legislative leaders. General Assistance Medical Care was scheduled to run out at the end of the month and supporters of the program were worried the state’s poorest would have no health coverage at all. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Lawmakers consider banning hospital advertising
After year upon year of struggling to rein in the ballooning cost of health care, a Vermont state legislator is unsure whether hospitals should be spending their money — or ratepayers’ money — that way. He has proposed legislation that would prohibit them from using money for advertising and marketing. (Burlington Free Press)

Miami’s Jackson Health System puts 2 hospitals on chopping block
With cash set to run out in May, Jackson Health System has announced plans to lay off 4,487 employees — more than a third of the work force — and close the system’s two satellite hospitals. (Miami Herald)

‘Speed-dating’ doctors woo patients
New in town, Brandy Preston reasoned that it was only lunch. She liked the fact that there were no strings attached. If she didn’t like the person, she could just say, “It was nice to meet you,” and leave. “I was surprised because it felt so comfortable and I wasn’t afraid to ask questions,” the 29-year-old said. “I mean, I’d finally met the right match. This gynecologist was exactly who I wanted.” (CNN)