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KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin talk about new optimism among liberal Democrats that a public option will be included in the final health overhaul bill. They also discuss Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s determination to have a bill soon.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin talk about new optimism among liberal Democrats that a public option will be included in the final health overhaul bill. They also discuss Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s determination to have a bill soon.
When Congress tried to fix a glitch in Medicare that threatens to cut payments to doctors, senators refused to take up the bill because it didn’t include a way to offset the estimated $245 billion, 10-year cost. Both Democrats and Republicans are claiming that previous “fixes” for the Medicare doctor fee problem were paid for, but actually they weren’t.
We’ll never keep everyone at home. But if we work at it, we can postpone the transition for months or even years.
Seventy-six year old Frank Morrow is not only having his knee replaced at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He’s also helping to test a Medicare payment system.
At Hillcrest Medical Center, which is testing a “bundled” Medicare payment system, some seniors get paid up to $1,157 for having surgery. The pilot program aims to save money and improve care by paying doctors and hospitals a lump sum and rewards the patients with part of the savings.
Advocates for women are fighting to end gender rating in larger businesses as health overhaul legislation moves through Congress. But insurers say it’s necessary to use gender as a means of setting rates for this market.
The relationship between the Democrats and health insurers has turned ugly since the industry began to spurn the health care makeover it once supported. Now, some members of Congress Democrats want to strip the industry’s exemption from federal antitrust laws.
This brief explainer examines the number of uninsured illegal immigrants, where they go for health services and how they would fare if current health reform proposals pass.
While top members of the House and Senate are struggling to put together health care overhaul bills on Capitol Hill, elsewhere in Washington, patient advocates and other groups are trying to take apart some of the deals already cut with top health care industry groups.
The Senate Finance Committee calls for cuts in private Medicare plans to help pay for health reform. Some senators on the panel, worried about the 10.5 million seniors in the plans
Trying to discredit the Dartmouth data is a distraction from the real work that’s needed to understand and remedy the extraordinary amount of money spent on care that does not appear to make a difference in health.
It’s not clear how many Democrats would back a public option – a government insurance program that competes with private insurers – in the final health overhaul bill.
Pharmaceutical companies have found a way around higher insurance copays for brand-name drugs. They offer coupon cards so patients don’t have to pay more. But insurance companies say that if everyone uses the cards to get pricier name-brand drugs, premiums will rise. This story comes from our partner NPR News
Legislation to ‘fix’ Medicare’s formula for physician payments is stalled in the Senate with opposition mounting to the fact that the bill comes with a hefty cost, but no plan to pay its price tag.
Medicare payments to doctors are scheduled to be cut more than 20 percent on Jan. 1, which could lead many doctors to stop seeing Medicare patients altogether. To stop the cuts, Congress must find a way to offset the estimated $245 billion cost over 10 years. This story comes from our partner NPR News
Although negotiators are considering various forms of a public option as they try to meld health overhaul bills approved by two Senate panels, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., says it’s unlikely the Senate would approve major legislation this year that includes a pure form of the controversial government-operated insurance program.
KHN’s Eric Pianin and NPR’s Julie Rovner discuss recent and upcoming activities on the Hill — part of a weekly series of video reports.
KHN’s Eric Pianin and NPR’s Julie Rovner discuss recent and upcoming activities on the Hill — part of a weekly series of video reports.
Buried inside the insurers’ new piece of propaganda were two perfectly valid arguments–arguments that advocates of reform would be foolish to ignore.
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