How Profitable is Medicare Advantage? The United/Humana Deal in Las Vegas Says a Lot

UnitedHealth and Humana have announced that Humana will acquire UnitedHealth's Las Vegas Medicare Advantage business for $185 million.The transaction was important for United in order to get Justice Department approval of UnitedHealth's acquisition of Sierra Health Systems.That $185 million gets Humana only another 25,000 seniors--at a price of $7,400 a customer.

The Argument for Specialty Hospitals

The growth of specialty hospitals has always concerned me. Too often these niche players looked to be siphoning off the most profitable parts of the business leaving the big hospital to charge payers more for their less profitable services--creating higher prices overall.David Whelan recently called my attention to an article he just did at Forbes making a strong argument in favor of

Hillary Clinton Criticizes Barack Obama's Health Care Plan Saying It Would Not Cover Everyone--Is She Right?

This is a repost of an original that addresses Hillary Clinton's claim, repeated in this week's Texas debate, that only her health plan accomplishes universal coverage because it has a individual mandate and Barak Obama's does not. Senator Clinton goes so far as to say she would garnish wages to enforce her mandate that everyone buy health insurance.Hillary Clinton has gone on the attack in