In a recent poll conducted by Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive, sixty percent of adults agree that using electronic health records is beneficial even when taking privacy issues into consideration.  The survey found that 63% of adults believe medical errors could be drastically reduced with the adoption of EHRs.  Additionally, a majority of respondents said health care costs could be significantly reduced and that use of EHRs could improve the quality of care they receive by eliminating duplicative or unnecessary tests.

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In late November, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that changes had been approved to Wisconsin's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  Under the changes, BadgerCare will now be able to enroll children in families of four under 250 percent of the federal poverty level (approximately $51,625).  Wisconsin had intended to expand enrollment to 300 percent of poverty, but an August 2007 guideline issued by CMS prevented this expansion.  In August CMS expressed its concern that significant expansion of the SCHIP program might lead to "crowd out" at higher income levels.  An estimated 7,600 children are expected to benefit from the new changes.

For more information visit www.cms.gov

The results of a nationwide survey were released on November 19th and emphasize the difficulty that many small businesses have when trying to offer health insurance to employees.  Fewer employers offered health insurance coverage in 2007--down from 63% in 2006 to 61%.  The study, conducted by Mercer, included approximately 3,000 private and public companies and found that the cost of offering health insurance rose 6.1% this year.  The average employer pays $7,983 per employee for health coverage and researchers predicted an increase of 5.7% in 2008.  The survey did find that the number of insured workers with lower-cost, high-deductible plans rose from 3% in 2006 to 5% in 2007. 

View Study Highlights

President Bush vetoed the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) appropriations bill on November 13th.  The bill includes a 3.1% increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a 2.7% increase for the National Cancer Institute (NCI).  Under the President's proposal, NIH funding would be cut by $480 million in 2008. 

In order to override the President's veto, two-thirds of the House and Senate must vote in support of the funding increases.  Congress is expected to vote on the override on Thursday, November 15th, so your help is needed! Please call your Members of Congress and urge them to override the President's veto of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill.  This funding is very important because it provides an investment in cancer research that may help in the fight against cancer.

Again, NPAF urges you to contact your Representative and Senators and ask them to vote in favor of this funding increase.  Please visit http://www.house.gov/ and http://www.senate.gov/ if you are unsure how to contact your elected officials.