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According to the recent daily health policy report released by Kaiser Health, hospitalists, or physicians who provide general care to patients in hospitals in place of traditional general practitioners and internists, can save patients money, and perhaps save on medical insurance coverage in the long run.

In the study cited in the article, hospitalists "reduce the average inpatient stay by 12% and create modest savings" when it comes to medical bills. Seeing hospitalists also meant a shorter stay than those required by standard physicians, which factors into the lowered medical bills, and impacts medical insurance coverage.

And while some may worry about the quality of care available with hospitalists, incidences of returning illness or death were the same as those experienced with a standard physician, hinting that quality of care is likely comparable.

What does this mean for those who want to save on their medical insurance coverage? If yours is a plan that allows for hospitalists, go ahead and use them. And if your plan doesn't include an option to rely on hospitalists instead of standard physicians, it might be a good idea to find one that does.

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Ending months of disagreement over the breadth and extent of SCHIP, President Bush has signed legislation that would extend the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Unfortunately, as yet nothing has been done to change the nature of family health insurance as a whole.

At the Washington Post, the President's decision to sign this new piece of legislation is based upon the notion that "the program will cover families that currently fall into a coverage gap - earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance." While Democrats are unhappy that more children didn't get coverage, the issue that really needs to be addressed is this:

How can we make family health insurance more affordable, so that "gap" can go away?

There's been much talk from next year's presidential hopefuls about how to make medical coverage more affordable. But for the time being the truth remains that hard-working men and women aren't able to pay for family health insurance and support themselves at the same time. It's great that some children will be covered. It would be great if all children could be covered. But what about their parents?

Hopefully, change is on the way for our health care system. Until then, parents need to take good care of themselves, and get yearly checkups to prevent the kind of sicknesses that can be physically and financially devastating.

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The South Florida Business Journal released a report this week by Families USA that examines the rising costs of Florida health insurance, with some disturbing predictions for 2008.

In the article it states that about 3.9 million Floridians under age 65 will spend 10% or more of their pre-tax family income on health care costs in 2008, and another 1.2 million will spend more than 25% of their pre-tax family income on health care next year.

That's a whopping 70% increase from 2000.

And it's not just the uninsured at stake here. Florida health insurance costs are high, just as they are everywhere else, and the many under-insured are suffering too. The report says nearly 78% of those residents who will spend more than 10% of their pre-tax family income in 2008 already have health insurance, and nearly 73% of those people who will spend more than 25% also have coverage.

What's to blame for the sudden increase? Rising health care costs, and growing out-of-pocket expenses for doctor's visits, medications, and hospital visits.

With all the talk about medical coverage for the upcoming presidential elections, there's some hope that 2009 will offer a new option for Florida health insurance. Until then, the best way to minimize expensive costs like hospital visits and out-of-pocket medications is to make healthy lifestyle decisions, and search for a more affordable insurance plan that includes important yearly checkups.

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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and state Democratic leaders have only two weeks left to reach an agreement on overhauling California health insurance. The issue at hand is whether or not Schwarzenegger will be able to reach his goal of universal coverage for all state citizens.

According to Kaiser's Daily Health Policy Report, the holdup involves negotiations on how much employers would be required to contribute toward workers' health coverage, assurances that California health insurance will really be affordable, and the scope of the individual coverage mandate.

Detractors argue that coverage must be made more affordable for the middle class before universal insurance can be an option. Others also contend that to provide California health insurance for all workers as it is mandated by unions would be far too expensive.

It's not clear whether or not an agreement will be reached in time. If not, expanding children's health coverage will likely be the alternative plan, protecting at least the most vulnerable of California's citizens.

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According to the Kaiser Daily Health Report, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's health insurance plan seems to be the most popular among democratic voters in New Hampshire.

On one level, Clinton's previous approach to medical coverage, one which ended poorly, might actually be helping her now. It's clear that Clinton has been aware of our country's health care problems for years, and her earlier attempt to create an affordable health insurance plan while her husband was in office gives her current claims and promises a ring of truth that the other democratic hopefuls might not have.

In the article it states that "Clinton has a 23% lead over other Democratic candidates as the most trusted to address health care." And about half of respondents cited health care as either their most or second-most important issue in the upcoming presidential election.

Clinton's health insurance plan is universal in nature, meaning that she wants to extend some form of coverage to all Americans. Can she do it without sinking an already struggling U.S. economy? That remains to be seen, but in light of the 43 million uninsured Americans out there, we all hope that some kind of change is on the horizon.

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The democratic presidential hopefuls are getting downright unfriendly these days, with the 3 front runners slinging mud right and left. But with medical coverage topping the list of their things-to-do, smart consumers are starting to ask, can we really afford a new health insurance plan?

According to The Wall Street Journal, Edwards, Obama and Clinton are all offering some type of medical coverage to the public, but none so far can unconditionally cover everyone. Why? The costs are just too high.

Barack Obama doesn't want to make medical coverage mandatory, though his health insurance plan does cover children. Edwards and Clinton both want to make coverage mandatory and more affordable through government subsidies, but it's unclear if such a plan is feasible. "Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee argues that there isn't enough money for subsidies to make health insurance affordable enough for people to buy it."

Clinton and Edwards each offer a health insurance plan that would supposedly make it easier for most Americans to get coverage, but admittedly they just can't cover everyone, leaving some people out in the cold.

Of course, covering more people is certainly better than not doing anything at all, particularly when there are 46 million uninsured people in the United States. But figuring out the details and balancing economic stability with improved health care is going to be a difficult job for whoever ends up in the white house.