Morning Breakouts

Latest KFF Health News Stories

Reviews Mixed For ‘Fixed’ Health Care Website

Morning Briefing

Some said the Monday’s healthcare.gov relaunch — marked by heavy traffic — was “rocky” and “bumpy,” but administration officials maintained the user experience was much smoother as a result of fixes.

White House Readies New Health Law Push After Website Woes

Morning Briefing

President Barack Obama and the White House will launch a new three-week health law offensive to re-sell the law to Americans after woes with the federal online website to buy health coverage hurt public perception of the law. Obama himself plans on buying coverage on the federal exchange website.

Earlier Signs Of Website Problems Weren’t Addressed

Morning Briefing

The Wall Street Journal examines how officials building the federal marketplace failed to alert others to problems they were encountering. Other reports look at the concerns about some functions on the site that still are not working properly.

Supreme Court Turns Down Liberty University’s Challenge To The Health Law’s Employer Mandate

Morning Briefing

The Christian college, located in Virginia, argued that the mandate is unconstitutional, but the high court rejected the petition, marking the second time in two years that it has declined to review the constitutionality of the overhaul’s requirements for most large employers regarding health coverage for workers.

Problem Transferring Medicaid Enrollment Data Could Leave Some Without Coverage

Morning Briefing

The difficulty with sending the completed Medicaid applications from the federal website to states for final processing could leave some of the newly enrolled without coverage early next year. To circumvent the problem, administration officials agreed to let states enroll people without their full applications. But that poses potential risks for states.

Health Law Complicates Democratic Senators’ Reelection Efforts In The South

Morning Briefing

The Wall Street Journal reports that three of the four most vulnerable Senate Democrats are from southern states. The paper also looks at how members of Congress will fare on the new online insurance marketplace.

California’s Small Business Insurance Exchange Opens For Business

Morning Briefing

Even though the federal government announced last week that it would delay the federal small business online marketplace, California’s began operating on Monday for businesses with as many as 50 employees.

Hospital Prices — Biggest Driver Of Medical Inflation — Remain Opaque

Morning Briefing

Nothing is more convoluted than hospital charges, which represent about a third of the nation’s $2.7 trillion annual health care bill, reports The New York Times. Reuters finds that hospitals may quote prices for parking but not for procedures. Meanwhile, Kaiser Health News describes the trend in palliative care programs, designed to relieve pain and distress, regardless of how long a patient has to live.

First Edition: December 3, 2013

Morning Briefing

Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including coverage of the mixed reviews regarding healthcare.gov’s “relaunch” as well as the White House strategy to move past the website’s difficulties.

Administration Gives Thumbs Up To Website Fixes And Upgrades

Morning Briefing

The health law website reportedly now is operating 90 percent of the time, but more work still must be done, according to the Obama administration’s Sunday progress report on their efforts to correct healthcare.gov’s problems.

Insurers Worry About Back End Repairs To Healthcare.gov

Morning Briefing

The system that is supposed to deliver consumers’ information to insurers still needs to be repaired — with only 30 days to go before coverage is supposed to begin for many people. Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reports that because of another software problem insurers will initially estimate what they are owed by the government rather than have the government calculate the bill.

Medicaid Expansion Could Exacerbate Doctor Shortage

Morning Briefing

As more people gain access to coverage as a result of the health law’s expansion of the state-federal insurance program for the poor, finding doctors willing to treat them may be a challenge. Other stories look at how Americans in similar circumstances face vastly different health coverage options because of where they live. That’s because half the states opted against the health law’s expansion of Medicaid.

Oregon Struggles To Clear Health Insurance Exchange’s High-Tech Hurdle

Morning Briefing

Oregon’s state-based health law online insurance exchange is still struggling in its quest to sign people up, and officials there are using paper applications to get the job done — a time-consuming task. Exchanges also make news in Kentucky, California, Mississippi and Washington state.