Latest KFF Health News Stories
Physician Recruitment Trends: Demand Continues For Primary Care Docs
Doctors are reacting to changes in the health care system — and their job placements are proof. Merritt Hawkins, a national health care consulting and recruitment firm, shed some light on the situation through the company’s annual look at physician recruitment trends. The 2013 review was based on a survey of 3,097 permanent doctor and […]
Bill Clinton Calls For Obamacare Opponents And Supporters To Work Together
This story comes from our partner Stateline, the daily news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Former President Bill Clinton Wednesday championed the new Affordable Care Act, but urged Congress and the states to fix its worst problems. Speaking to an invitation-only audience at his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., Clinton touted the law’s […]
Washington State Panel OKs 7 Insurers For Exchange
This story was produced in partnership with In the end, it was a calm affair. The Washington Health Benefit Exchange Board met in a special session Wednesday afternoon to vote on the certification of health plans for the state’s new online health insurance marketplace in 2014. In less than an hour, the board voted unanimously […]
Baltimore Ravens To Host Ads for Maryland Health Exchange
Updated 8:15 pm Tuesday. The National Football League backed away from promoting Obamacare insurance marketplaces this summer after a sharp warning from Republicans. But the Baltimore Ravens seem to have stepped — or at least edged — into the gap. By including health insurance ads on their Gameday TV show and other content, the Super […]
Nearly Half Of U.S. Births Are Covered By Medicaid, Study Finds
About half the births in the United States are paid for by Medicaid — a figure higher than previous estimates — and the numbers could increase as the state-federal health insurance program expands under the Affordable Care Act, according to a study released Tuesday. All pregnant women with incomes below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, just […]
Washington Ranks 2nd In Nation In Uninsured Growth
This story was produced in partnership with With about 16 percent of its residents uninsured, Washington state falls solidly in middie of the pack, with Texas having the highest percentage of residents without health insurance: more than 25 percent. Massachusetts, where a state health-insurance mandate has been in place for years, has the smallest percentage […]
Covered California Launches $80 Million Ad Campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP77OktlKGk Officials at Covered California — the Golden State’s health insurance marketplace — are placing a big bet on advertising to lure people to get health insurance. With a campaign boosted by $80 million from the federal government, they’ll tell people about the Affordable Care Act and encourage uninsured citizens to buy health insurance. Officials see the 15-month-long campaign — using […]
IRS Ruling On Same-Sex Couples Has Implications For Health Law
Thursday’s announcement that the federal government will give the same tax treatment to legally married same-sex couples as they do to heterosexual couples may have ripple effects for the 2010 health care law. The decision from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service means that the income of legally married same-sex couples will be […]
Survey: Americans Have Low Health Insurance Literacy
Premium, deductible, copay, all basic health insurance terms many Americans don’t understand, according to a recent poll. More than half could not correctly define at least one of these common financial terms related to health insurance, according to poll results released by the American Institute of CPAs. Ernie Almonte, chair of the AICPA’s National CPA […]
HHS Will Allow ‘Unbanked’ People To Use Prepaid Debit Cards On Exchanges
At the urging of advocates for low-income consumers, the Obama administration said Wednesday that it is moving ahead with a rule requiring health plans accommodate households that do not have traditional bank accounts. One in four of the uninsured eligible for federal insurance subsidies does not have a bank account, according to a report released […]
AMA President Optimistic About A Fix For Medicare’s Doctor Payment Formula
Debated and despised, the Medicare physician payment formula may finally be on the way out — at least that’s what AMA President Ardis Hoven believes. Known as the “sustainable growth rate” or SGR, the formula routinely threatens double-digit payment reduction to doctors until Congress steps in at the last minute to stop the cuts. Currently a […]
ACOs’ Coordinated Care Savings May Be Contagious
Accountable care organizations (ACOs) may actually be the unicorns we’ve been waiting for, spreading their cost-saving magic throughout the health system. An early cost-sharing program in Massachusetts designed to cut costs for private Blue Cross Blue Shield patients also lowered costs for Medicare patients who were seen by the same providers, according to a study published […]
Americans Hear More About Health Law, But Not From Most-Trusted Sources
The public’s awareness of new marketplaces is growing, but potential customers are getting much of their information about the health law from sources they don’t trust very much, according to a poll released Wednesday. Starting Oct. 1, people lacking insurance can begin enrolling in plans through online marketplaces, also called exchanges, which will be run by the […]
Administration Releases New Rules To Implement Health Law’s Individual Mandate
As congressional Republicans push for a delay in the 2010 health law’s individual mandate, the Obama administration Tuesday announced final regulations implementing the requirement that most Americans have health insurance coverage by Jan. 1 or pay a fine. The document from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service is in addition to regulations the Department of […]
Many Breast-Feeding Moms Unaware Of Health Law Help
This story was produced in partnership with New moms crave information, whether it’s car-seat safety ratings, the pros and cons of pacifiers or how best to sooth a colicky infant. So it’s a little surprising that many moms aren’t up to speed on how the Affordable Care Act could benefit them. The law has specific […]
Colorado’s Insurance Commissioner Braces For Bumps In The Road
Colorado, which is preparing for the Oct. 1 launch of its new online insurance marketplace, expects bumps in the road as residents start enrolling in new health coverage options created by the Affordable Care Act. “We’re going to have 500,000 new customers,” said Marguerite Salazar, the state’s new insurance commissioner, during an Aug. 19 interview […]
Washington State Launches Ad Blitz Promoting Health Exchange
With five weeks left until Washington state launches its online health-insurance exchange, many residents may have heard little about the program designed to offer coverage to the uninsured. That’s begun to change. The state began rolling out the first phase of its ad campaign last week to let the public know about the exchange, a central part of the […]
How Will Obamacare Affect Employee Health Coverage?
KHN’s Jay Hancock was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Monday morning taking questions about how the health law will affect employee health coverage offered by employers. Hancock reported recently that UPS has told employees it won’t cover their spouses if they can get coverage from their own employer. Read more: UPS Won’t Insure Spouses Of Some […]
Brokers Associated With More, Cheaper Health Coverage, Study Says
Health insurance agents, feeling threatened by the Affordable Care Act, will welcome research from the University of Minnesota that supports their longstanding argument that agents and brokers make insurance shopping easier and cheaper. A new paper by economist Pinar Karaca-Mandic and colleagues finds that small employers were more likely to offer medical coverage in markets with many brokers […]
Idaho’s GOP Governor Extols Exchange ‘Run By Idahoans For Idahoans’
Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a Republican, said he still hopes the federal health law gets repealed. But with some of the law’s biggest changes taking effect in less than six weeks, he sounded like a proud papa Tuesday in announcing the name of his state’s new online health insurance marketplace: Your Health Idaho. Idaho is the only state under […]
