6B
Thursday, December 1, 1994
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
States want to regulate health insurance
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In a precursor to next year's scaled-down debate about health reform, the governor-elect of Oregon and other state officials asked Congress yesterday to modify a federal law barring them from regulating much of the private health insurance market.
The House hearing in the closing days of a lame-duck Congress drew a standing-room-only crowd of business and government lobbyists, reflecting the pressure the new Congress will be under to give states more flexibility to carry out their own reforms.
Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers sympathize with the states' pleas for more flexibility. But Congress is also under pressure from big businesses not to erode the exemption that companies that self-insure now enjoy from state regulation.
ERISA — the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — is the 1974 law passed to protect workers' pensions. It vested their pension rights, but it also gave companies that self-insure freedom from state regulation.
Two decades ago fewer than a third of employees worked for companies that self-insured, but today more than
"ERISA effectively blocks the states from being laboratories of change." John Kitzhaber, the Democratic governor-elect of Oregon told the joint hearing by a House Education and Labor and the Small Business subcommittees.
half do. And courts have struck down state attempts to tax self-insured health plans to pay for charity care and other health reforms.
Kitzhaber, a physician and former state senator who was the author of Oregon's Medicaid rationing experiment, said he wasn't asking for carte blanche.
But he warned of a growing risk of
large scale insolvencies that could leave millions of more Americans without coverage unless self-insured companies are forced to meet new standards.
Mary Jo O'Brien, Minnesota's health commissioner, urged Congress to standardize benefits for both insured and self-insured plans, limit exclusions for pre-existing conditions and allow only employers with 100 or more workers to self-insure.
New Jersey Commissioner of Health Len Fishman said Congress needed to clarify what state laws ERISA pre-empts.
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"This class is designed as a condensed version of the class I teach in the Fall semester, Human Sexuality In Everyday Life. This is a special opportunity for students to examine issues of sexuality and relationship as a part of their University experience. I appreciate the willingness of ECM, canterbury, and other groups to sponsor this opportunity for any KU student who might be interested and have not taken my regular class because they are leaving the University this May or just haven't been able to fit it into their regular schedules." Dennis Dailey
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WASHINGTON — Coors is on tap at the Supreme Court bar as the justices consider whether beer makers have the right to tell consumers how much alcohol is in their brew.
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The Clinton administration is asking the court to reinstate a 1937 federal law that prohibits brewers from putting alcohol content on beer labels unless it is required by state law.
The law aims to head off strength wars among beer makers, government lawyers say.
Coors goes to court in label dispute
He and others will look to see if mutations in the human gene are associated with obesity. Though mutations in the mouse gene produce extreme fatness, more subtle flaws in the human gene may contribute to more common degrees of obesity in people, he said.
Friedman, an associate investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Rockefeller University in New York, and colleagues report the discoveries in today's issue of the journal Nature.
The Associated Press
The work is of great significance, and scientists will move quickly to see if it can shed light on human obesity, said Claude Bouchard of Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, an expert on genetics of obesity.
Many genes help control weight in humans and other animals, he said.
But the Coors Brewing Co. convinced a lower court that the law violates its right to commercial free speech. There's no evidence that the law prevents strength wars, say company officials, adding that most consumers prefer lower-alcohol beers because they taste better and have fewer calories.
Ten states require beer bottles and cans to show whether they contain alcohol above or below a certain level, usually 3.2 percent. Those states are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and Oregon.
Although researchers had known since 1950 that a mutation in the newfound gene made mice extremely fat, nobody had been able to isolate the gene until now, Friedman said. It took his team 8 years.
After today's argument, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case by July.
He and colleagues also found a human gene that strongly resembles the mouse obesity gene, and it may play a similar role in people, Friedman said.
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A federal judge ruled that the law was an unconstitutional restraint on commercial speech, and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. Government lawyers did not prove that lifting the labeling ban would lead beer makers to compete by boosting their products' alcohol content, the appeals court said.
Outside those areas, federal law aims to keep beer from being sold based on its alcohol content. Most beer contains 3 to 5 percent alcohol.
If so, the finding could open the door to a better understanding of how people control their weight, which in turn may lead to new treatments for obesity, he said.
Attention KU Students
Those hospitalized longer than that in 1995 will have to pay coinurance of $179 a day for days 61-90. That is a $5 increase.
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Coors challenged the law in a Colorado federal court in 1987, saying the government should not be allowed to bar it from putting truthful information on beer labels.
And for those who use up some of their 60 lifetime reserve hospital days, the coinsurance will be $358 per day, a $10 increase. The reserve days are a bank of time that can be drawn on if a Medicare recipient must stay in the hospital longer than 90 days in a year.
In appealing to the Supreme Court, Justice Department lawyers said the law is a valid regulation of commercial speech.
In addition, they said that because labeling of beer containers is related to a "socially harmful activity" - drinking alcohol - such labels deserve less protection than other forms of commercial speech.
The Medicare hospital deductible will climb to $716 from $696 on New Year's Day. It is a one-time charge. Medicare pays all other approved charges for the first 60 days in the hospital.
The researchers suggest that in its normal form, the gene lets fat cells produce a protein that acts on the brain.
WASHINGTON — The nation's 36 million Medicare beneficiaries will pay $2.7 billion in higher premiums, deductibles and copayments in 1995, including $716 for the first day they spend in the hospital.
The Associated Press
For Information, call 864-8141
Medicare premiums set to increase
NEW YORK — After a 40-year search, scientists have found a gene for obesity in mice and a likely counterpart in humans — discoveries that could someday help people control their weight.
But that system goes awry when the gene is flawed. Mice lacking a normal version of the gene get so fat they weigh three times more than their siblings, said researcher Dr. Jeffrey Friedman.
It is the first gene ever isolated that clearly participates in the normal process of regulating weight, scientists said.
The government revealed the new deductibles and copayments yesterday.
Those premiums will climb to $46.10 a month on Jan. 1. The elderly and disabled generally have that amount deducted directly from their
In its normal form, the mouse gene appears to let fat cells tell the brain how obcec the animal is, so the mouse will adjust its feeding and activity to keep its weight steady.
The Associated Press
The $5-a-month increase in Medicare Part B premiums for physicians' bills and other out-of-hospital expenses, was already known — that 12.2 percent boost was set by law.
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Flu shots $7.50
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that you get a flu shot for the best protection from the prevalent viruses. The flu immunization is available at Watkins Health Center for KU students, staff, and faculty. The cost is $7.50.
No appointment is necessary. Waik-ins are accepted 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. You should not get a flu shot if you are allergic to eggs.
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