Latest KFF Health News Stories
It’s Hot Springs Vs. Ski Slopes In Colorado Insurance Battle
The county with the highest health insurance premiums in the country is drafting a lawsuit against Colorado, saying the state’s approval of the rates violates anti-discrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act. Garfield County Attorney Frank Hutfless says county commissioners told him “to prepare a lawsuit to be filed against the state, and particularly the department of […]
Report: Latinos Could Be Big Winners From Obamacare
Latinos make up a disproportionate share of the nation’s uninsured and most could get coverage from the Affordable Care Act or existing programs if every state expanded Medicaid, according to a federal report released Tuesday. The report said that if all states expanded Medicaid, as many as 95 percent of eligible, uninsured Latinos might qualify for […]
Rocky Mountain High Insurance Prices Rankle Ski Towns
Colorado Insurance Commissioner Margeurite Salazar has been getting an earful about high health insurance premiums in pockets of the state since prices she approved were unveiled Oct. 1. She is under increasing pressure to do something about them now that part of Colorado has been identified as having the most expensive premiums in the country. […]
Humana ACA Enrollees Younger Than Expected
Here’s more fodder for the debate over whether older, sicker members will swamp insurance plans created by the Affordable Care Act. Insurers have wondered whether enough younger, healthier “invincibles” would sign up through online exchanges to subsidize folks with poorer health. The worry was that, without their premiums, expenses for older folks would drive up average […]
CBO Reports That Health Law Provision Called ‘Bailout’ By GOP Will Raise $8B
New findings from the Congressional Budget Office may make it harder for Republicans to portray a provision in the health law designed to limit insurers’ losses and gains as a “bailout” for the industry. The House Oversight and Government Reform panel is scheduled to have a hearing Wednesday examining the law’s “risk corridors,” which limit […]
New Rule Gives Patients Direct Access To Their Lab Reports
Calling your doctor to get lab results might be a thing of the past: a new federal rule will allow patients to have direct access to their completed laboratory reports. The regulation was announced Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services. It amends privacy rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act […]
ACOs Saving Some Money, But Medicare Is Short On Details
Accountable care organizations are saving some money, though what exactly that means is still unclear. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday that overall, provider groups involved in Medicare ACO programs saved a total of $380 million in the first year. Sounds like a lot of money, but CMS declined to explain which […]
California Marketplace Among First to Post Customer Health Plan Ratings
Californians shopping for insurance policies through the state’s online marketplace can now compare plans based on customer quality ratings as well as cost. Covered California assigned star ratings to the health plans based on member survey responses. The surveys were taken before the insurance marketplace opened, so they only compare plans that had a track […]
Health Law Is A Tough Sell To Uninsured
Uninsured Americans — the people that the Affordable Care Act was designed to most aid — are increasingly critical of the law as its key provisions kick in, a poll released Thursday finds. This month’s tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 47 percent of the uninsured said they hold unfavorable views of […]
Expensive Hospitals: Strong Reputations But Little Evidence Of Better Care, Study Finds
A study of autoworker claims found that hospitals with the highest prices tended to have the strongest reputations and tight holds on their local markets yet showed little evidence of providing better quality care. The actual prices insurers pay hospitals are closely guarded secrets in health care. That has made it hard for health researchers […]
WellPoint Discloses Big Sign-Ups Through Health Exchanges
The biggest player in the Affordable Care Act’s online insurance marketplaces delivered encouraging news to Obamacare supporters Wednesday. After weeks of uncertainty about how many people have been applying for coverage that started Jan. 1, their age spread and whether or not they’re paying premiums, WellPoint disclosed higher-than-expected early membership growth and said it expects to make […]
Parsing The President’s 9 Million Enrollees
Nine million. That’s the number President Barack Obama touted last night as having signed up for health insurance. That total is important to supporters as a sign that the law is working — and as an indication of the difficulties Republicans would face to rescind the law or roll back certain provisions. Critics have pointed out […]
To Schedule A Doc Visit, Get In Line
Need to see a doctor? You may have to wait. A survey of physician practices in 15 metropolitan areas across the country, which was taken before the health law expanded coverage, found that the average wait time for a new patient to see a physician in five medical specialties was 18.5 days. The longest waits were […]
We’ve had a lot of response from readers and listeners to our story on NPR’s Morning Edition on Monday, The Clubfoot Correction: How Parents Pushed For Better Treatment. Readers wrote that they or their children had received casting and boots-and-bars treatment for clubfoot. Some happened many decades ago—some fairly recently. We thought some more explanation […]
GOP Senators’ New Health Overhaul Plan Would Tax Some Workers’ Benefits
A health care overhaul plan released Monday by three Senate Republicans may reveal how the party will handle the issue for the 2014 elections and beyond. Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Richard Burr of North Carolina unveiled a legislative framework that would scrap much of the 2010 health law, replacing those provisions […]
HHS Releases Poverty Guidelines For 2014
The federal government has released slightly higher poverty level guidelines for 2014, but those won’t alter the income thresholds that are being used now to determine what kind of financial assistance is available to buy insurance under the health law. The guidelines will be relevant in the fall, when people look to buy coverage for […]
Minnesota’s MNsure Exchange Weighs What To Do Next
Officials with Minnesota’s troubled online insurance marketplace heard from the authors of a scathing independent report and began weighing the crucial question of what do do next. “Is it irreparably broke?” MNsure‘s chairman of the board Brian Beutner asked during the insurance marketplace’s board meeting on Thursday. Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, prepared the […]
KHN’s Jenny Gold was on Boston’s WBUR’s On Point Thursday to talk about the latest developments with the health law — how many people have signed up and what they’re encountering in the process. Listen to audio of the conversation below or download it here.
Solo Coverage For $430 A Month? For This Enrollee, It’s A Deal
This post is Randy Dotinga’s latest update on his efforts to secure health insurance as a single, freelance writer with pre-existing conditions. You can also read his earlier installments, Taking A Risk To Secure Health Insurance and My Other Pre-Existing Condition: Unstable Insurance. After 13 years of being an insurer’s worst nightmare, I just heard some wonderful words: The insurance company will […]
Wyden Plan May Be Vision For Future Medicare Reforms
Key members of both parties and both chambers of Congress stand before the podium to introduce their bipartisan Medicare proposal. Insurers and health care providers welcome it. Seniors’ groups are on board, too. If Congress is ever going to overhaul Medicare, it will almost certainly have to happen this way. Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat widely […]
