WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) – The U.S. mental health system
has huge gaps that prevent millions of people with psychological
problems, including children and teens, from receiving effective
treatment that could prevent tragic consequences, experts told
U.S. lawmakers on Thursday.

Just over a month after the shooting rampage in Newtown,
Connecticut, experts told a Senate hearing that three-quarters
of mental illnesses emerge by age 24, but fewer than one in five
youths with diagnosable problems receive treatment that could
avoid later problems including violence and suicide.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. mental health system has huge gaps that prevent many children with psychological problems from receiving effective treatment that could prevent tragic consequences later in life, experts told U.S. lawmakers on Thursday.

Just over a month after the shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut, mental health experts said psychological disorders usually emerge before people enter high school but that only one-quarter of children with problems see trained professionals and often the care is not enough.

WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – U.S. adults who qualify for
Medicaid often must have incomes well below the federal poverty
line, while adults who have no dependent children are allowed to
receive benefits in only nine of the 50 states, according to a
survey released on Wednesday.

The survey by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation
provides a snapshot of widespread coverage gaps in national
healthcare program for the poor, less than a year before
Medicaid is scheduled to undergo a dramatic expansion under
President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – At least 22 U.S. governors,
including four Republicans, support an expansion of Medicaid
under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, while
others are expected to decide in the coming weeks, experts said
on Wednesday.

An analysis published by the New England Journal of Medicine
said the headcount, which includes 13 Republican governors who
staunchly oppose Medicaid expansion, portends an uneven start
for “Obamacare” when its most sweeping reform provisions begin
on Jan. 1, 2014.

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – A business group of top
executives on Wednesday proposed reforms to Social Security and
Medicare that would raise the enrollment age for both programs
to 70 but not raise Social Security taxes paid by upper-income
Americans.

The Business Roundtable, which represents more than 200
chief executives from some of the largest U.S. corporations,
also urged Congress to add a “premium support” mechanism to
Medicare, peg Social Security cost-of-living adjustments to a
lower inflation gauge and raise Medicare charges for wealthier
beneficiaries.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, urged political leaders on Tuesday to pursue so-called entitlement reform as part of a wide-ranging discussion about healthcare costs and retirement security rather than as a narrower deal on deficit reduction.

Laying out their agenda in the run-up to an intensive new fiscal debate on Capitol Hill, AARP executives portrayed the leading U.S. social spending programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – as necessary supports for what the group described as a declining middle class.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Chamber of Commerce on Thursday declared federal deficit reduction its top goal for 2013 and questioned whether Washington politicians were brave enough to take the steps necessary to rein in a fast-growing national debt.

“Do we have leaders with the courage to put the country first – ahead of their own careers, politics, ideologies and egos?” asked Thomas Donohue, president of the country’s largest business group.

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – The United States could save
$2 trillion in healthcare spending over the next decade, if the
U.S. government used its influence in the public and private
sectors to nudge soaring costs into line with economic growth, a
study released on Thursday said.

Compiled by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, the study
recommends holding the $2.8 trillion U.S. healthcare system to
an annual spending target by having Medicare, Medicaid, other
government programs and private insurers encourage providers to
accelerate adoption of more cost-effective care.

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) – U.S. healthcare spending rose
at a historically low rate of 3.9 percent for the third
consecutive year in 2011, but showed underlying signs of
acceleration as the economy recovered from recession, the Obama
administration said on Monday.

The report, released by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services and published in the journal Health Affairs,
said the sprawling national healthcare system totaled $2.7
trillion, or $8,680 per person. It accounted for 17.9 percent of
gross domestic product, a level that has been steady since 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama could seek common ground with Republicans in the looming battle over Medicare spending by broadening the debate over entitlement reform to encompass the spiraling healthcare costs that confront a wide range of Americans.

In recent public remarks the president has identified the U.S. healthcare system’s sky-high price tag – by far the highest in the world – as a driving force for Medicare reform.