Latest KFF Health News Stories
Health Care Accounts For 1 in 6 New Jobs Added In May
Meanwhile, an Accenture survey of patients reveals that health insurance customers are willing to accept narrower networks of providers for better control over their medical information.
$49B Federal Price Tag For 10 ‘Breakthrough’ Drugs
The drugs include several to treat hepatitis C and breast cancer. Elsewhere, the Food and Drug Administration is speeding new cholesterol drugs to trial, a closer look at kids drugs in the “Cures” bill and painkiller abuse still worries some officials, despite efforts to stem their abuse.
The High Stakes In Supreme Court’s King V. Burwell Decision
News outlets examine the central issues involved in the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in this health law challenge. The decision will determine whether millions of Americans who use the federal online insurance marketplace are eligible to use federal subsidies for their coverage.
Insurers Propose Double-Digit Obamacare Rate Increases In Pa. And Ariz.
Meanwhile, Hawaii announces it will shut down its state-based health insurance exchange and transition enrollees to healthcare.gov, the federal exchange.
Fla. House Rejects Bill To Expand Medicaid
The measure, which had passed the Republican Senate by a wide margin, was designed to help low-income residents without insurance and hospitals in the state, which face high costs from uninsured patients and an expected cut in federal funding.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Viewpoints: Doctors And Electronic Health Records; Consequences Of Refusing Medicaid
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Research Roundup: Medicare Benefits And Glaucoma; Weekend Hospital Discharges; Insurers’ Health
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
News outlets report on health issues from California, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts.
Planned Parenthood Sues Arizona Over Abortion Law
A provision of the law requires doctors to tell patients that drug-induced abortions are reversible, which the group says “writes junk science into law.” In Texas, state lawmakers adjourn after delivering mixed results for anti-abortion advocates. Elsewhere, GOP presidential-hopeful Scott Walker’s comments on abortion and ultrasounds are scrutinized, and Iowa lawmakers pass a bill that requires providers to offer women seeking abortions an ultrasound image of their fetus.
Mass. Hospital Cutting Jobs After $22M Budget Gap
In other hospital news: A N.C. hospital closes down. In Ohio, a children’s hospital gets $10 million to study genomics, which examines tailored genetic treatments for diseases. And protesters are arrested at a Chicago trauma center.
VA Workers Could Lose Due Process Protections Under Proposal
A Florida Republican’s attempts to reform the VA might have repercussions for other federal workers. Meanwhile, a Massachusetts congressman and former Marine Corps officer is using his own experience with the VA as a guide.
Drug Companies Trying To Press Monopoly Pricing Power Into Trade Deal
The drugs in question include costly and revolutionary drugs to treat cancer and other intractable diseases, Politico reports. In other pharmaceutical news, CMS allows drug and medical device companies access to Medicare data, and a new HPV-vaccine shows greater cancer protection.
Medicare Gives ACOs More Options, Greater Flexibility In Bid To Keep Them
A final rule published Thursday attempts to strike a balance between maintaining the program’s demands on participating health providers while making sure they continue to participate.
House GOP Group Offers Its Obamacare Replacement Plan, But Intraparty Divisions Persist
The Republican Study Group plan would repeal the existing health law and replace its subsidies for low- and middle-income Americans with tax breaks, among other changes. However, GOP lawmakers are divided about how to proceed if the Supreme Court strikes down the health law’s subsidies, which are a target of the pending challenge in King V. Burwell.
Status Check: How Are State-Run Health Exchanges Holding Up?
KHN examines the growing pains being experienced in certain states that are running their own online insurance marketplaces. Meanwhile, the Seattle Times offers an update in action from Washington.
Still No Plan B From White House If Supreme Court Strikes Down Obamacare Subsidies
With a decision expected in just a few days from the high court, many wonder why the Obama administration has not offered a backup plan, even as HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell warns that the number of uninsured could spike if the subsidies are struck down. Delaware joins Pennsylvania, however, in moving to save the health coverage subsidies if they are ruled out.
HHS Head: Final Obamacare Premium Increases Will Be Lower
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell says state regulators can lower the proposed increases. Insurers, in the meantime, are defending their requested premium cost increases in Minnesota, Ohio and New Hampshire. In Washington state, however, health coverage prices are dropping for some.
States Are The Audience For White House Analysis About Medicaid Expansion
While the new report provides individual state statistics about the benefits of expansion, politics is likely to keep many of those states from accepting the option.
White House Report Notes Financial Effects When States Don’t Expand Medicaid
The analysis by the Council of Economic Advisers finds that hospitals in states that have not expanded the program would have $4.5 billion less uncompensated care if they accepted the health law provision to offer coverage to more low-income residents. Also, federal officials release new figures about the growth in Medicaid and a related program for children.
