One bill would allow Maine to negotiate to purchase drugs from Canada, while others would increase drug pricing transparency.
health insurance
Posted inMaine, News, Politics
Patients ask Legislature to restrict insurers’ control over medications
But an insurance industry representative argues that a bill to regulate ‘step therapy’ would favor ‘costlier, but no more therapeutically effective, brand name drugs.’
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Posted inBusiness, Maine, Nation / World, News
Across Maine, prices for the same medical procedures are often staggeringly different
Low patient volumes and scarce competition among providers help make the state one of the most costly for health care in the U.S.
Posted inBusiness, Maine, Nation / World, News
Maine companies send workers to Boston for health care at ‘fraction of the cost’
Competition among metro-area hospitals pulls prices down, but the outsourcing of patients leads to higher costs in Maine.
Posted inBusiness, News
Patients slow to warm up to telemedicine, prefer in-person visits
Still, 80 percent of mid-size and large U.S. companies offered the virtual service last year.
Posted inBusiness, Politics
Health groups take aim at insurance companies’ medication policies
A pending bill would give doctors and patients more say when insurance companies balk at reimbursement and require them to try less expensive alternatives to prescribed medication or treatment.
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics
Lawmaker proposing MaineCare dental benefit for low-income adults
The proposal by Rep. Drew Gattine would make Maine the 34th state to provide some form of dental coverage, which is now available only to children under the Medicaid program.
Posted inBusiness
ACA enrollment down slightly in Maine and across the nation
More than 71,000 Mainers signed up for the health insurance coverage, about a 5 percent decrease from last year.
Posted inBusiness, Politics
ACA sign-ups in Maine appear to be down as deadline for 2019 nears
Republican moves to undercut the Affordable Care Act may be the cause, but another reason may be that more Mainers are just keeping their current plans.
Posted inLetters, sj-web
Health insurance needs improvements
The candidates for federal and state offices all talk about the cost of medical insurance and health care. All appear in favor of lowering the costs; however, there are two aspects of the Republicans’ claims that are disingenuous. They have proposed outright repeal of the Affordable Care Act and have been slowly gutting it by […]