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Exclusive: The hospital industry is nearing a deal with the White House and congressional Democrats to accept Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Such an agreement, coming on the heels of one with the drug industry, would increase momentum for overhauling the health care system by providing additional funds to finance the effort.
While lawmakers are targeting rising costs and growing numbers of uninsured, a new crop of health care-focused documentaries offer a darker, more conspiratorial view: Powerful vested interests lusting for profits are responsible for the country's medical malaise.
Much of the health care reform debate centers on the Democratic push to create a government-run insurance option for working age Americans and their families. But shouldn't policymakers take a hard look at Medicare--the largest health insurance program in the country--before moving ahead to create something similar for everyone else?
The idea of insurance co-ops is gaining ground as an alternative to a government-run plan.
Medicaid is front and center in the debate on overhauling the U.S health system and expanding coverage to the uninsured. With 60 million enrollees, Medicaid dwarfs other insurance programs, including its cousin, Medicare, which covers 44 million elderly and disabled people. Here's a chance to test your knowledge of Medicaid.
Medicaid's role in health reform is emerging as a flash point, exposing policy and political rifts not only between the two parties but also among Democrats themselves.
Patients who are readmitted to the hospital soon after they're discharged cost the health care system billions of dollars a year in unnecessary spending. These "frequent fliers," as doctors sometimes call them, illustrate the worst aspects of poorly coordinated care. Innovative programs may serve as models for fixing the problems.
A new report proposes a fail-safe mechanism to ensure that any health care overhaul wouldn't add to the federal deficit.
Some experts think incentives will encourage doctors to deliver quality care with fewer resources.
You can sum up Obama's strategy for health reform as "WWCD": What Wouldn't the Clintons Do. And it's working well so far. It seems likely that Obama will have a bill to sign by year's end. But will it be legislation that people actually like?
Advocates say e-prescribing is a key advance toward health care's digital future because of its potential to reduce medical errors, cut drug costs and save doctors and patients time and money. But kinks need to be worked out to spur more rapid acceptance.
Earlier this month, lobbyists trooped in to watch as the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions began working on a health-care overhaul - the first congressional panel this year to move so far.
As President Obama tries to sell the middle class on health reform, Congress is considering proposals that would affect how individuals benefit. Lower-income people would benefit most in the near term from insurance subsidies. But Obama is emphasizing measures he says would help the middle class by reining in the rising cost of health care and insurance over the long term.
Partisan health reform fights have focused on a handful of concerns: the proposed public health insurance plan, individual and employer mandates, financing measures to subsidize low-income Americans and to cover the uninsured. As a combatant in some of these fights, I'm not one to say the partisan conflict is misplaced.
President Obama has repeatedly promised that providing every American affordable access to quality health care won't cost more money than we'll save through reform, but he's recently raised the stakes even further. Health care reform, he has said, would "foster economic growth" and "unleash America's economic potential."
The over-65 crowd, with its outsized political clout, will have a big say in the fate of any health overhaul. And that helps explain a recent agreement on drug discounts involving the pharmaceutical industry, the White House and Congress.
In an afternoon news conference, President Barack Obama pushed hard for a government-run public insurance plan, but indicated it's not a make-or-break requirement for health overhaul legislation. These video excerpts are courtesy of C-SPAN.
Democrats in Congress, surprised by the high cost estimates for their health care proposals, are looking at a wide range of options for raising money and reducing costs. Some of the revenue raisers have been rejected in previous years, but now all ideas are on the table because of the big amounts needed to pay for a health care overhaul.
Kaiser Health News' Mary Agnes Carey discusses recent and upcoming activities on the Hill -- part of a weekly series of video reports.
Once a senior begins receiving long-term care services, she and her family often are in for two shocks. The first is that Medicare won't pay beyond perhaps a few months after a hospitalization. The second is that while Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, may help, chances are it will only do so for nursing home residents.
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