The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
State health officials, searching for solutions to Texas’ budget shortfall, are eying neonatal intensive care units, which they fear are being overbuilt and overused by hospitals eager to profit from the high-cost care.
Health insurance companies respond to new regulations by expanding into related
Support levels have changed little since the landmark bill was signed last March as the partisan divide on the issue continues, new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds.
The president has offered states some flexibility in their efforts to implement parts of the new health law. He should also insist that they show progress toward eliminating the health inequities that exist between rich and poor Americans, and whites relative to most non-whites.
In an interview with KHN, the former adviser to President George W. Bush and presidential candidate John McCain says the health law is standing in the way of reining in Medicare and Medicaid spending and that he always believed that the law “was a dead man walking.”
Congress is unlikely to tackle major changes in Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security before the 2012 election because of few signs that Republicans and Democrats are willing to assume the political risk, according to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Study suggests that areas with low rates of primary care physicians, such as the South and Mountain West, could struggle as they see a surge in Medicaid enrollments and federal incentives for doctors may not be much help.
The Healthy Indiana Plan is the Hoosier state’s alternative to traditional Medicaid. It’s boosters also consider it a viable alternative to the dreaded Affordable Care Act. But do they really have a case?
A health policy analyst and physician says doctors are under pressure to ration care.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing titled “Health Reform: Lessons Learned During the First Year,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius praised the health law and faced questions from critical Republican members on the panel. Watch excerpts from the hearing.
Insurance agents fear the health reform law threatens their livelihood and want changes in rules to protect their commissions and guarantee them a role in the new health exchanges.
The recession and rising health costs create financial hardships or cause consumers to forgo care, according to a survey by the Commonwealth Fund.
Is it realistic to leverage the success of accountable care organizations on physician incentives alone? In other words, what about patients? Might they be that mysterious point that determines the effectiveness of ACO evolution?
A bill introduced by House Democrats would require members of Congress to declare whether they are taking health benefits subsidized by taxpayers. The bill has next to no chance of passing because Republicans control the House. But its introduction puts some heat on the GOP.
Health On The Hill: Some House and Senate Republicans have said they will vote against a three-week funding measure for the federal government because it does not take steps to stop funding for implementation of the health care law. Watch the video.
The Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein joins KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey talk about developments on the Hill. This week: Some House and Senate Republicans have said they will vote against a three-week funding measure for the federal government because it does not take steps to stop funding for implementation of the health care law. Separately, health care is surfacing as a key issue among potential GOP presidential candidates.
Consumers often find it easier to get time with a pharmacist than a doctor, so drug stores are offering more outreach programs about chronic health problems.
If Republicans are successful in repealing last year’s health law, they want to replace it with legislation that would give states far more discretion about how to cover people, according to a top Senate Republican.
Mississippi Gov. Barbour’s ways to control the rising costs of Medicaid are sometimes controversial, but he maintains that states need more freedom to run the program.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has issued nearly 40 pages of new health spending and cuts it says would reduce the federal deficit by billions of dollars including changes to the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
