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Health System Touted By Obama Is Not Yet Endorsing Medicaid Expansion

By Phil Galewitz November 9, 2012 KFF Health News Original

Intermountain Healthcare, the Salt Lake City-based hospital system praised by President Barack Obama as being a model for low-cost, high quality care, says it is not convinced Utah should expand Medicaid under the federal health care overhaul. The system wants those who would gain Medicaid coverage from the law to have the choice to obtain private insurance, which generally […]

State Political Shifts Likely To Affect Health Law

By Phil Galewitz November 7, 2012 KFF Health News Original

In a power shift that could affect how the federal health law is carried out, Democrats took complete control of five additional state legislatures on Tuesday, while Republicans added a governorship and control of three additional state legislatures . All told, Republicans will have 30 governors and control 24 state legislatures next year, compared to 19 Democratic governors  and […]

OB/GYNs And ER Docs Excluded From Health Law’s Medicaid Pay Hike

By Phil Galewitz November 2, 2012 KFF Health News Original

Obstetricians, gynecologists and emergency room physicians won’t be eligible for higher Medicaid pay rates for primary care doctors that start in January under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration ruled late Thursday. Instead, the higher Medicaid rates, which will be in effect for two years, are reserved for family doctors, internists and pediatricians, because those specialties are specifically listed in […]

Romney Narrows Gap With Obama On Voters’ Trust To Manage Medicare

By Phil Galewitz October 31, 2012 KFF Health News Original

As the race for the White House has tightened, President Barack Obama has seen his advantage on several key health issues narrow significantly among likely voters, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Wednesday. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation). Most troublesome for Obama is that, among likely voters, GOP candidate Mitt Romney has pulled nearly […]

GOP Plan Would Cut Medicaid By $1.7 Trillion, Study Says

By Phil Galewitz October 23, 2012 KFF Health News Original

The House Republican plan to repeal President Barack Obama’s health law and turn Medicaid into a block grant program would save the federal government $1.7 trillion from 2013 to 2022, a 38-percent spending reduction, according to a report today by the Urban Institute for the Kaiser Family Foundation. It would also result in 31 million […]

Study: Most Seniors’ ER Visits Could Be Avoided

By Phil Galewitz October 5, 2012 KFF Health News Original

Nearly 60 percent of Medicare beneficiary visits to emergency rooms and 25 percent of their hospital admissions were “potentially preventable”–  had patients received better care at home or in outpatient settings —  according to results of a study released Friday by a congressional advisory board. “These are spectacular rates,” said Scott Armstrong, a member of the […]

Berwick: Debate Underscores Challenge Explaining Health Law

By Phil Galewitz October 5, 2012 KFF Health News Original

More than two and a half years after he signed the most far reaching health care legislation into law, President Barack Obama showed in his Wednesday debate with Mitt Romney that explaining the law is still no easy job. “It’s a great law and complex and complicated … but there is a continuing job to […]

Medicaid Stars In New Obama Campaign Ad

By Phil Galewitz October 3, 2012 KFF Health News Original

http://www.youtube.com/v/dzMHhFOdXCc?version=3&hl=en_US At last, Medicaid is getting some respect. Medicaid, not Medicare, is the subject a new television campaign advertisement for President Barack Obama (above). The 30-second ad is being broadcast in five election battleground states — Colorado, Virginia, Nevada, Iowa and Ohio. It accuses GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney of supporting the plan passed by […]

States Requiring Broader Choice Of Drugs Than Skimpy Federal Limit

By Phil Galewitz October 2, 2012 KFF Health News Original

When the Obama administration set initial rules last December to determine what minimum benefits insurers must offer in plans sold to individuals and small groups starting in 2014, one provision stood out: Insurers selling small group and individual policies would have to provide at least one drug per class of drug. In other words, insurers could cover just […]