The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
It’s almost crunch time: Influential senators involved in drafting health care legislation say they will begin unveiling bills within days. That means the real debate is about to begin. The big question: Where will the opposition come from and how intense will it be? We consulted policy and political experts to find out what they think will happen next.
Democrats and Republicans moved further apart this afternoon over the possibility of including a public plan in any health care reform legislation.
I was on a phone call with fellow health policy types back during the presidential primary season when the conversation turned to pay-for-performance.
Public and private insurance plans say they evaluate medical services for coverage by looking at published scientific research, rating the evidence and making comparisons based on effectiveness and safety. But their approaches vary widely in terms of transparency, comprehensiveness in reviewing evidence, openness to outside suggestions and explicit consideration of cost.
A Washington state program decides whether to cover new treatments and tests by comparing them with the standard alternatives. If there’s no real difference, a panel of medical professionals can pick the least expensive. Decisions are binding for employees insured by the state, workers’ compensation claimants and patients in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor.
President Obama sent this letter to Senators Edward Kennedy and Max Baucus regarding health reform.
Sen. Max Baucus told single-payer advocates Wednesday that he regrets not allowing more discussion of the single-payer plan in attempts at health care reform, but that it’s too far along in the process to consider it now.
How Congress decides several important issues could affect how millions of Americans get and pay for insurance and medical care.
The man originally designated to run President Obama’s health reform effort debated President Bush’s HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt about possible overhaul legislation.
President Barack Obama urges reform of the U.S. health care system in a meeting at the White House with Senate Democrats.
Doctors across the country are reducing their charges and offering payment plans to patients who have lost health insurance or income. This helps people stay well, but it also helps doctors maintain their practices at a time when many financially struggling Americans are deferring care. Patients who don’t pay their bills still run the risk of hearing from bill collectors.
Already, you can hear the opponents of health care reform making a familiar argument: It will mean huge new taxes. Although they’re exaggerating–the tax hikes wouldn’t be “huge”–you should be willing to pay these new taxes. Happily.
Sixty-year-old Ron Gaston was a shipping and receiving clerk in Wichita, Kansas, who earned about $30,000 a year.
This documentary explores the severe challenges cancer patients can face in paying for their health care even when they have private health insurance.
A battle over whether to build a new hospital in northeastern New Jersey illustrates the formidable obstacles confronting President Obama and Congress as they try to mine savings from the $2.5 trillion health care system.
With the health care debate about to erupt on Capitol Hill, a look at three ways it could turn out.
Sen. Ted Kennedy is vowing to make long-term care insurance part of health reform. But even he has an uphill struggle to make sure it’s included in any broad-based bill.
As congressional Democrats prepare to deliver on President Barack Obama’s goal of “expanding coverage to all Americans” an important question remains unanswered: is universal coverage worth the money? Not only is there “no evidence” to show that universal coverage is the most cost-effective use of our $2 trillion, the benefits may not exceed the costs at all.
If Congress wants all Americans to get health insurance, it will have to win over people like Gary Cloutier, owner of Cloots Auto Body Shop in Westfield, Mass. He says he just can’t afford it.
This webcast features Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., at a Health Care Reform Newsmaker media briefing sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business.
