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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.
In an interview with KFF Health News's Jenny Gold, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's senior manager of health policy, James P. Gelfand, says that an employer mandate would hurt employers and employees: "It makes people who don't make a lot of money worth less to their employers." The Chamber also vehemently opposes a "public plan" but endorses many other ideas to reform the U.S. health care system.
Wal-Mart made big news when it announced Tuesday that it was joining forces with the Service Employees Internation Union and a liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, to support a requirement that employers make some financial contribution toward their workers' health care. KFF Health News's Jordan Rau talked with Wal-Mart's David Tovar about the decision.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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."
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.
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