News in brief - Feb. 7, 2011

Colorado high court rejects challenge to medical marijuana law

The Colorado Supreme Court will not hear a marijuana dispensary owner's challenge to state regulations requiring more monitoring of medical marijuana patients.

On Jan. 5, Attorney Andrew Reid filed a petition with the high court on behalf of a dispensary owner and several medical marijuana patients who claimed that the legislation violated patient privacy rights.

The two laws contain numerous stipulations, including that marijuana purchases be videotaped, that dispensary owners obtain licenses to operate and that physicians maintain a recordkeeping system listing patients certified to obtain marijuana.

Reid said the Supreme Court decision was disappointing, but he plans to refile the action in district court.

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Insurers contest HHS estimate of reform's impact on premiums

Regulations and subsidies in the national health system reform law will restrain the growth of health insurance premiums by thousands of dollars for businesses, individuals and families, according to a Dept. of Health and Human Services report released Jan. 28.

For example, middle-class families who seek coverage in health insurance exchanges in 2014 will save as much as $2,300 per year on premiums. "For too long, skyrocketing health care costs have made it hard for businesses to provide coverage for employees and have made it difficult for families to afford coverage," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

But America's Health Insurance Plans President and CEO Karen Ignagni said the report ignores provisions in the law that will increase premiums, such as the statute's benefit mandates. "The new law will expand coverage to millions of Americans but fails to address the health care cost crisis."

Republicans are using House committees to continue their campaign against the health reform law. House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R, Wis.), for example, called a hearing on Jan. 26 to focus on the law's costs. One witness, Richard Foster, chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said reform will not fulfill President Obama's promises of both restraining health spending and allowing all Americans to keep their health plans if they like them.

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Children's health care varies widely by state

Health care for children in Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont was more likely to hit certain performance standards than the care for children in many other states. That's according to "Securing a Healthy Future," a study of state health system performance for children released Feb. 2 by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy think tank based in New York.

Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas performed the worst on the study's index, which ranked states by four standards: access to and affordability of health insurance, prevention and treatment, potential to lead healthy lives, and health system equity.

"What is unique about this scorecard is that it looks at what has been achieved by the top states and holds that performance up as an example for other states -- because if it's possible to insure almost all of the kids in Alabama, it should be possible in Texas and Mississippi," said Commonwealth Fund Vice President Edward Schor, MD.

The print version of this content appeared in the Feb. 14 issue of American Medical News.

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