Latest KFF Health News Stories
Today’s Headlines – Sept. 21, 2011
Good morning! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including additional anaylsis of President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction plan and how it could impact patients. The New York Times: In Cuts To Health Programs, Experts See Difficult Task In Protecting Patients President Obama and some members of Congress assert that, in cutting Medicare and Medicaid, […]
In Pennsylvania, It May Really Pay To Be On Medicaid
Pennsylvania is considering paying Medicaid recipients – in some cases as much as $200 – as an incentive to visit higher quality and lower cost hospitals and doctors. Experts say the strategy has never been tried by other states. Gary Alexander, the state’s Medicaid director, said his agency hopes to launch the plan by early […]
A Special Kind Of Health Care Fantasy Fulfilled?
As health policy researchers gathered at the Brookings Institution today to learn about a new trove of data from some of the nations’ biggest health plans, the panel’s moderator, John Carey, noted that he had met his wife in the auditorium years before. There was a different kind of lust in the air again as […]
Today’s Headlines – Sept. 20, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including details and analysis of President Barack Obama’s debt-reduction plan, which would trim health programs by $320 billion and links such entitlement trims to new taxes. The New York Times: Obama Proposes $320 Billion In Medicare And Medicaid Cuts Over 10 Years Mr. Obama proposed higher […]
Today’s Headlines – Sept. 19, 2011
Good Monday morning! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about how Medicare and Medicaid will fare in President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction plan. The Washington Post: Obama’s Debt-Reduction Plan: $3 Trillion In Savings, Half From New Tax Revenue But the president won’t call for any changes in Social Security, officials say, and […]
A Health Care Arms Race Video; The HPV Debate
Every week, reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reading from around the Web. The Atlantic: Resistance Is Futile We won’t stop the rising tide of infections until we develop a new business model to fight them. We are not quite on the brink of some dystopian Victorian future. But every year, the prognosis for infectious-disease patients […]
Today’s Headlines – Sept. 16, 2011
Happy Friday! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that, despite dire predictions by health law opponents about the Medicare Advantage program, its premiums are falling and its enrollment is rising. The Washington Post: Boehner Says No New Taxes For Debt Panel House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday reaffirmed GOP […]
Blue Cross Plans Push HHS To Release Regs By Early 2012
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans are particularly unhappy with recent regulations governing insurance exchanges. Insurers want time to build benefit structures and create complex health information technology systems so they can be ready for government testing by the end of 2012.
MedPAC Preparing Doc Fix Plan – With Offsets
Even before MedPAC finalizes a long-term doc fix proposal, the complicated – and expensive – task is proving difficult. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare payment policy, is drafting a plan to permanently replace the program’s current method for paying physicians. It intends to get a proposal to Capitol Hill in October, […]
Texas And Feds Agree ‘In Principle’ On Medicaid Overhaul
Texas officials received a long awaited thumbs up from the federal government on a proposed overhaul of the Texas Medicaid program this week, according to a letter obtained by Kaiser Health News. The letter, dated Sept. 14 from federal Medicaid director Cindy Mann, said her agency has “reached agreement in principle” on the Texas plan […]
Medicare Advantage Premiums Falling 4% In 2012
For some Medicare beneficiaries, the good times seem to keep rolling along. For seniors enrolled in private Medicare plans, premiums will drop by an average of 4 percent in 2012 while benefits remain stable, Obama administration officials said today. Last year CMS projected an average 1 percent drop in 2011 premiums, but the actual drop was 7 […]
Different Takes: How To Set The Health Law’s Essential Benefits Package
KHN asked the National Partnership for Women and Families’ Debra Ness, Republican Utah State Rep. James Dunnigan and Dr. A. Mark Fendrick from the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design what they think should steer the development of the health law’s essential benefits package. Read their perspectives.
Today’s Headlines – Sept. 15, 2011
Good morning! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about what might be included in President Obama’s detailed plan to tame the federal federal budget. Here’s a hint: Social Security changes are unlikely, but what about Medicare? The Washington Post: Obama Unlikely To Put Social Security Cuts Back On The Table, […]
Medicaid Advocates Seek Recognition Of Safety Net’s Value
It’s good news for Medicaid advocates that the program will be spared from cuts if the deficit reduction “super committee” is unsuccessful in its effort to squeeze about $1.5 trillion in savings from the federal budget. But failure to reach consensus on cuts is hardly an ideal scenario, according to an advocate for cancer patients. […]
Writing The History Of Health Care Reform
You’ve read the Affordable Care Act (OK, maybe not all of it, but you’ve talked to someone who read it, or maybe even someone who helped write it). Now come two new books on the law’s making and place in health care policy history. The first, “Inside National Health Reform,” is written by John McDonough, […]
Today’s Headlines – Sept. 14, 2011
Good morning! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including lots of talk about the ‘super committe’ and about the new census numbers regarding the uninsured as well as the second-day analysis regarding some of the controversial comments made during Monday night’s GOP presidential primary debate. The New York Times: Democrats See Perils […]
Squeezed States Embrace Even More Medicaid Managed Care
Medicaid managed care is blanketing the nation as states look to private health plans for help closing budget gaps, and state officials expect the trend to continue in the state-federal program for the poor, according to a survey released today by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Officials in 27 states (of 45 […]
Recount: Census Changes How It Estimates The Uninsured
Oops. Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated there were 50.7 million uninsured Americans in 2009. Today, it revised the figure for 2009 down to 49 million after adjusting the way it counts. What gives? For years, researchers have complained that the Census Bureau overestimates the number of uninsured because of the way it accounts […]
Health On The Hill: CBO Chief Testifies At ‘Super Committee’ Hearing
Jackie Judd talks to KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey about the “getting down to business” atmosphere at the joint debt panel’s Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday.
Today’s Headlines – Sept. 13, 2011
In today’s headlines, a report that new Census data is expected to show that working-age people are losing ground in terms of their health insurance coverage. The Associated Press/Washington Post: Census Data Expected To Show Working-Age People Losing Ground In Terms Of Poverty, Insurance Hurt by high unemployment, working-age Americans are expected to lose ground when […]
