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Even as Congress moves to expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, it's doing little to ensure there will be enough primary care doctors to meet the expected surge in demand for treatment. One prediction: the shortage of family doctors will reach 40,000 by 2019, as medical schools send about half the needed number of graduates into primary care medicine.
In the mid-1970s, an unconventional researcher named Jack Wennberg discovered an unusually high rate of hysterectomies in Lewiston, Maine. That was just one of a series of studies that led to a very surprising conclusion about health care: a large portion of the medical care Americans get is unnecessary.
This week, Consumers Union, the nonprofit organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, started airing a 30-second television ad supporting a health care overhaul. KFF Health News's Jaclyn Schiff spoke with Jim Guest, the group's president and CEO, who says change is needed to ease the burden of rising health care costs.
Senate Finance Committee health care legislation would cost $829 billion over the next decade according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Wednesday.
Broadening health coverage is a worthy goal, but the Senate Finance Committee proposal comes at a high price
While many states bar carriers from rejecting people who receive treatment for domestic violence, others permit it. Now there's a move to prohibit the practice as part of a health care overhaul.
Facility fees, charged to patients who get treatment in hospital-owned outpatient clinics, are used defray to hospital overhead, pay salaries and meet stringent standards, hospital officials say. Critics say the fees are a way to increase the cost of care when patients can least afford it.
Cindy Richards and her husband Scott Fisher at their home in Oak Park, Ill. Richards is a freelance writer and editor who buys health insurance to cover herself and her family.
Both the House and Senate health care proposals would expand Medicaid eligibility to about 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Although the measures would help the states cover the costs, governors are worried that the additional federal money simply won't be enough. KHN's Mary Agnes Carey offers her insight.
As a part of our "Are You Covered?" series, KHN and NPR examine how a health overhaul would affect the individual insurance market.
Freelance writer Cindy Richards buys insurance on the 'individual market' - from a broker - to cover herself and her son and daughter. Her husband had to buy a policy separately. Between them, they pay $500 a month in premium costs and have a yearly deductible of over $10,000. She believes it's "too difficult" to get health insurance in America.
When Gracie Scarrow, 94, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure she didn't have the money to pay for the care she needed. With her daughter Lela's help, Gracie turned to Medicaid. The program pays for her nursing home, and they couldn't be happier with the care.
As a part of our "Are You Covered?" series, KHN and NPR examine how a health overhaul would affect Medicaid recipients.
KHN's Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin discuss what might happen in the Senate Finance Committee this week and how its health overhaul bill might be combined with the more liberal bill from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
KHN's Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin discuss the Senate Finance Committee's vote later this week on a health overhaul bill and how that bill might be melded with the more liberal bill from the Senate health committee.
Exchange design doesn't get the attention of controversies like the public option, abortion, or supposed death panels. In the long run, though, it could be far more decisive in whether reform works.
Lyn Robinson owns Zenith Holland Gardens, a wholesale plant nursery. She chooses not to buy insurance and says she likes deciding where and when to spend her medical dollars. Part of our series "Are You Covered?" co-produced with NPR.
Fifty-two year old Lyn Robinson says she works out, takes good care of herself and doesn't think she needs to buy health insurance.
The Senate Finance Committee Thursday agreed to delay the penalties for people who don't comply with a requirement to have health insurance. Some lawmakers want no penalties at all. But insurers worry that weakening the mandate will mean people will delay getting coverage, it would be more difficult to keep costs down.
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