All Coverage
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President Courts Fiscal Conservatives In Reform Push
President Obama is promising fiscal conservatives in Congress that health reform won’t be financed by deficit spending. He needs the support of moderate and conservative Democrats who are wary of a vast expansion of government-underwritten health care. Strict new budget rules may help persuade skeptics that a health care system overhaul is affordable.
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New Yorker Article Sparks Strong Reaction
Surgeon and author Atul Gawande’s recent article in The New Yorker is generating intense discussion about the cost of medicine and exerting a powerful influence over the health reform debate.
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HELP Committee Postpones Day Of Reckoning
Senate Democrats release health care bill leaving out–for the moment–two of the most contentious items, while promising more talks with Republicans. Meanwhile, in the House, chairmen of three committees brief fellow Democrats on the contours of their bill.
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KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey Discusses The Latest Developments In Senate, House Reform Bills
Democrats on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions today released their health care reform bill called “Affordable Health Choices Act.” Kaiser Health News Senior Correspondent Mary Agnes Carey discusses the bill.
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War Of Words On Health Reform
A new memo from Democratic pollster Celinda Lake is the latest to give advice for partisans on shaping the health reform legislation messages to the public.
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DeParle, Sebelius: Time To Tackle Health Care Disparities
Officials said Tuesday that the time is now to tackle ethnic, economic and gender disparities in health care as they ready a major overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
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Baucus: Comp Effectiveness Will Be In Health Reform Bill
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus says the bill soon to come out of his committee will include comparative effectiveness requirements.
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Lawmakers Pick Up Pace on Health Legislation
House and Senate Democrats are gearing up for what could be a crucial, month-long drive to craft health care legislation before the July 4 recess.
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Health On The Hill — June 8, 2009
Kaiser Health News’ Mary Agnes Carey discusses recent and upcoming activities on the Hill — part of a weekly series of video reports.
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Health On The Hill — May 29, 2009
Kaiser Health News’ Mary Agnes Carey discusses upcoming and recent activities on Capitol Hill.
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The Risks And Rewards Of Taxing Health Benefits
Taxing employee health benefits might fund a health care overhaul, but could sink its political chances.
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Opinion Column
Health Care Reform or Just Expensive Entitlement Expansion?
While we desperately need a sustainable health care reform in America to cover all of our people, Congress getting ready to send the president little more than a health care entitlement expansion that will give us a health care system even more unsustainable then the one we now have.
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How Congress Might Tax Your Health Benefits
Lawmakers are considering varied approaches to taxing employer-provided health insurance as a means of paying for an overhaul of the health system, Kaiser Health News reports. Proposals include taxing benefits above a certain premium amount, taxing the benefits only of high-income earners, or combining both approaches.
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‘Draft Of A Draft’ Of Kennedy Bill Surfaces
A partial draft of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s HELP committee health reform legislation is circulating in Washington.
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How The Opposition Might Emerge In Health Care Debate
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.
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GOP: Public Plan Option Big Obstacle To Health Reform
Democrats and Republicans moved further apart this afternoon over the possibility of including a public plan in any health care reform legislation.
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Opinion Column
Money, Medicine and Myths
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.
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Insurers Apply Different Methods In Making Coverage Decisions
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.
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Washington State Takes a Hard Look at New Treatments and Tests
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.
