The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
To get health reform passed, Democrats could use a process called budget reconciliation, which allows them to advance the bill with a simple majority. Republicans say the process was not designed for such a large bill, but reconciliation has often been used to move major health policy.
For 30 years, major changes to health care laws have passed via the budget reconciliation process. Here are a few examples.
With comprehensive health care legislation foundering, House Democrats are turning to a narrower piece of legislation they hope has populist appeal: repealing the antitrust exemption for health and medical liability insurers. Policy makers disagree on the effect the repeal would have.
A Center for Public Integrity analysis shows that more than 1,750 a diverse list of companies and organizations hired about 4,525 lobbyists to influence health reform bills in 2009.
Three veteran state insurance commissioners said they’d welcome federal advisory help, but draw the line at giving the government authority over rates, a power they say states should retain exclusively.
Just days before a bipartisan White House summit on health care, President Obama unveiled a proposal that closely tracks the Senate-passed health legislation with some modifications.
Just days before a bipartisan White House summit on health care, President Obama unveiled a proposal that closely tracks the Senate-passed health legislation with some modifications.
Read the full text of President Obama’s health care proposal, which he will bring to his Thursday health ‘summit’ with Congressional leaders.
While the recession may be easing, California and other states across the country continue to face eye-popping budget deficits. As a result, states are cutting deep into public health programs, and dental benefits for Medicaid recipients top the list.
Republicans and Democrats should come together on one bipartisan issue at Thursday’s health care ‘summit’: medical malpractice reform.
Nurse practitioners – like Irene Cavall in North Carolina – are gaining support in their drive to play a larger primary care role. But the powerful AMA is waving a yellow caution flag before state regulators and legislators.
Thousands of people are learning that money they squirreled away in health savings accounts is gone. Many thought the money was sitting safely in banks. But now it appears it was stolen.
It is not clear why it’s happening, but some hospice officials blame both a bad economy and Medicare rules that unintentionally discourage doctors from referring all but those who are about to die.
The federal stimulus package that sent nearly $2 billion to community health centers appears to have paid off in economic returns.
President Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit for Feb. 25 to discuss ways to pass health care overhaul legislation this year. On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders in both chambers are trying to resolve differences between House and Senate-passed health care bills and make progress on the issue once lawmakers return from the President’s Day recess.
President Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit for Feb. 25 to discuss ways to pass health care overhaul legislation this year. On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders in both chambers are trying to resolve differences between House and Senate-passed health care bills and make progress on the issue once lawmakers return from the President’s Day recess.
Twenty-seven years ago, President Ronald Reagan and a Congress split between Republican and Democratic control agreed to a radical new payment scheme for Medicare. The resulting legislation trimmed billions of dollars from the federal budget and caused medical inflation to plummet, yet still maintained quality of care.
As health care legislation falters, health groups worry that proposed spending cutbacks might be used to narrow the budget gap, not expand coverage.
The last time Congress debated a health overhaul, when Bill Clinton was president, several senators who now oppose an individual mandate actually supported a bill that would have required it. In fact, says Len Nichols of the New America Foundation, the individual mandate was originally a Republican idea.
