The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll finds 30 percent of seniors support the effort to switch Medicare to a voucher-type program. Among all adults, opinion is more evenly divided, but confusion is rampant.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey talks with Jackie Judd about varied reaction by Americans and lawmakers to the GOP plan to reduce the deficit by making changes to Medicare. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows most seniors oppose some GOP-proposed changes at a greater rate than the general public, which views it more favorably.
Michael T. McRaith, who is taking a new job shortly with the Treasury Department, says state or regional health insurers are having trouble remaining viable.
A short walk down memory lane — to a retired auto worker’s 1959 congressional testimony — offers a stark reminder that Republican plans to change Medicare could turn back time and leave many seniors unable to pay their medical bills.
Many states are trying to restrain Medicaid spending by putting more people into managed care plans, but with billions of dollars at stake, insurers and health providers are lobbying hard for their interests.
This year, seniors enrolled in Medicare no longer have to pay for more than a dozen tests and services to prevent disease thanks to the health law. Many, however, aren’t lining up for mammograms or colonoscopies though free wellness checks are luring many.
The groups are financed through a monthly fee, and those revenues are divvied up and sent to members when they have health care expenses.
The billing can get complicated if doctors find a polyp during a screening: Some insurers
In her search for a health plan, Lisa Drew discovered that her ZIP code was a black hole for individual coverage.
Michelle Andrews, author of KHN’s “Insuring Your Health” weekly feature, talks with Jackie Judd about clinics that charge a patient a monthly fee
This country is in such a hole that it is senseless to deny that some new taxes will be needed to pay for all of the nation’s accumulated debts. But folks, we can’t just tax our way out of this mess.
As more brand-name drugs lose patent protection, use of inexpensive generic medicines continues to rise. Later this year cholesterol-fighter Lipitor will become available as a generic in the U.S., a change that will add more fuel to the trend.
Wright Lassiter is doing the seemingly impossible as CEO of the Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, Calif.: He’s turned a mismanaged urban safety-net hospital system in one of America’s most violent cities into a model for other public hospitals by trimming costs — and did it while expanding services.
Too few resources are available to handle the predicted explosion in the number of elderly, says Mark Parkinson, head of the largest nursing home lobby.
When writing the final ACO rules, CMS has the chance to spin the dross of the current regulations into something of genuine value to providers, even if it’s not quite Rumpelstiltskin-quality gold. If the feds fail, it is all of us, not just those on Medicare program, who could live unhappily ever after.
Live organ donors – who can offer kidneys or part of their liver, lung or pancreas
Dr. Garth N. Graham, HHS deputy assistant secretary for minority health, says comprehensive HHS approach aims to improve workforce diversity and data collection for minority populations.
Republicans on Friday passes a controversial budget plan championed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, and though it stands nearly no chance in the Senate, it is likely a starting point for negotiations among lawmakers.
The medical device industry took a hit during legislative deal-making over health care last year, an excise tax that’s expected to yield $20 billion over 10 years, but the industry is using all its Capitol Hill muscle in a drive to kill the tax.
Seventeen governors sent a letter to congressional leaders in opposition to a plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to convert Medicaid into a block grant program. But their criticisms fall flat.
