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“Repeal Obamacare” defines Republican health-care plans in 2012

Candidates’ Views:

Paul would allow the purchase of health insurance across state lines. He would also provide tax credits and deductions for all medical expenses.

Romney would allow states to expand health-care access to low-income citizens through block grants for Medicaid and the uninsured. Romney believes health savings accounts should be used to pay for health-insurance premiums.

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New York officials are moving ahead to lay the foundation of a state health insurance exchange despite the state Senate’s failure to adopt a bill creating the new insurance marketplace in the 2011 legislative session.

The federal Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires states to create their own exchanges to give individuals and small businesses access to affordable health care coverage or be included in a federal exchange. The exchanges are to begin operating by Jan. 1, 2014.

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Equitable Life of Canada announced the launch of its EZClaim app for BlackBerry devices. The mobile app enables users to submit health and dental claims and receipts electronically from their mobile device. An Apple iOS version of the free app is expected to launch soon, according to the company.

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Canada should take some lessons from the largely overlooked health-care systems of Europe and Australia and shift to a “consumer-driven” culture that gives patients more choice in medical services, urges a novel new take on this country’s much-dissected medicare woes.

In a white paper to be released Monday, researchers at the University of Western Ontario analyzed seven other industrialized countries and picked out ideas they say could help governments here fix spiralling health costs and chronic service shortcomings.

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Aetna announced it will collaborate with Banner Health Network on an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiative that offers a new health insurance plan called Aetna Whole Health to small businesses in Arizona’s Maricopa and Pinal counties.

Aetna Whole Health is a commercial health plan for small companies that have between two and 100 employees. Consumers covered under the plan receive incentives in the form of lower co-pays for receiving medical treatment through the Banner Health Network, which comprises more than 2,600 Banner-affiliated physicians working at Banner hospitals and services in Arizona.

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The Democratic National Committee launched an attack on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, dubbed “Mitt v. Mitt” and focusing on charges that Romney flip-flopped on a range of issues.

A 30-second ad from the Democratic National Committee mocks Republican candidate Mitt Romney for changing position.

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A plan by three hospital groups to leverage more federal cash for themselves will also help provide care to more than 19,000 children of the working poor, at least temporarily.

The proposal, unveiled Monday, involves the University of Arizona’s health care network, Maricopa Integrated Health System and Phoenix Children’s Hospital putting up about $60 million a year in each of the next two years to pay for care for those without health insurance. That now includes people who used to qualify for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, before Gov. Jan Brewer ordered cutbacks.

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New Yorkers face an average hike in health insurance premiums exceeding 8 percent next year, more than twice the inflation rate, according to state data, and many policyholders are set to pay double-digit increases.

Rate increases affecting more than 2 million policyholders are now subject to state approval under a 2010 law.

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Chile has the second highest out-of-pocket expenditure when it comes to the health sector, out of the 34 countries that are included in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, (OECD). The report, “Health at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators,” also shows that Chile is placed very low in terms of government spending in the health sector.

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This is the second of two stories about 10 important myths in the Great American Health Care Debate.

There are so many fantastical myths out there in the great debate about reforming the American health care system that Disney Studios appears to be running the show. In my last column I tried to kill five on my list of the top ten biggest myths in health care. Today I will try to kill the other five on that list.

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