The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
The nation’s leaders must slog through the complexities and ideologies of the current political landscape in order to craft solutions that will shore up the American safety net and protect its weakest citizens.
Funding entitlements and a push to tame the budget deficit are fighting for the hearts and minds of lawmakers as the Obama administration readies its 2012 budget.
For most of the past decade, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have competed over who could pour more money into the National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. But the party is over.
In regard to the health law’s CLASS program, too little political space exists to advance midcourse corrections or enact programmatic improvements — that’s a price Democrats paid by achieving their dream of near-universal coverage on a party-line vote; and by Republicans, because of their implacable opposition to just about everything Democrats proposed.
Beginning this year, seniors who hit the coverage gap will get substantial discounts on both brand-name and generic drugs.
Starting this year, affluent Medicare beneficiaries will begin paying more than the standard premium for their Part D coverage.
An Obama administration memo details flexibility to determine which insurers can participate in health insurance exchanges, tailor Medicaid programs and even offer health savings accounts.
On Monday, 21 Republican governors sent a sharply worded letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking for six specific changes that would give states more control over the health law’s insurance exchanges.
While some lawmakers and wonks are busy cooking up alternatives to the controversial federal mandate requiring people to have health insurance starting in 2014, one early backer of the approach insists it remains the best way to get more people covered at the lowest cost.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are at risk of losing access to health services as states prepare to make yet another round of budget cuts.
In a letter to Justice Thomas, 74 House Democratic members write that “the only correct path” is for the judge to recuse himself from deliberations on cases involving the new health care law.
On Wednesday, 28 GOP governors sent a letter to President Obama asking him to foster faster review of the health care overhaul lawsuits so the Supreme Court can rule on their constitutionality “as soon as possible.”
Now that House Republicans, along with a few Democrats, have passed a bill to repeal last year’s health reform law, they are planning to offer some alternatives for replacing it. But how can we tell if their plans are likely to tackle the of high health care spending?
Shumlin’s bill would set up state-run insurance coverage, but many details
Dartmouth researchers argue that ordering screenings for people with no symptoms too often leads to costly treatment for people who would likely never have gotten sick.
HHS is considering a number of options to make sure healthy, less costly people are attracted to the long-term care program and costs are held in check.
House Republicans are holding committee hearings this week on the health law’s provisions governing Medicare, abortion and small business.
House Republicans are holding committee hearings this week on the health law’s provisions governing Medicare, abortion and small business.
HHS is considering a number of options to make sure healthy, less costly people are attracted to the long-term care program and costs are held in check.
When 34 Senate Democrats joined all 47 Republicans last week to repeal ObamaCare’s 1099 reporting requirement, their votes confirmed what their talking points still deny: ObamaCare will increase the deficit.
