The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
A Florida District Court judge issued a stay of his earlier ruling on the health law that found the law unconstitutional, but he ordered the Obama Administration to file an appeal within seven business days. Meanwhile, two different funding approaches to keep the government operating beyond March 18
Despite the rhetoric about compromise, what President Barack Obama actually did when he announced that states would have some flexibility in implementing the health law was give states the option of replacing his law with a single-payer health system three years earlier than it otherwise could have happened.
Although cynics may claim conservative credentials, their view of government is really nothing more than a quarrel about its cost. It brings to mind Oscar Wilde’s immortal phrase, “The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
The health law directs the FDA this month to issue proposed rules for restaurants and other food vendors to begin providing calorie-count information.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says he will include “aggressive” changes to Medicare in his upcoming budget proposal.
Addressing the current system by which physician payment is determined is a challenge that demands attention beyond the physician community. It will take the influence of businesses and patient advocates who bear the brunt of the nation’s skyrocketing health care costs.
Republican governors are asking Washington for more flexibility regarding how they run their Medicaid programs, saying that Washington puts too many restraints on states.
A raft of studies have come out recently purporting to say how much the health overhaul will cost states. And they reach dramatically different conclusions on the subject.
Republican governors are asking Washington for more flexibility regarding how they run their Medicaid programs, saying that Washington puts too many restraints on states.
Doctors and hospitals raise concerns that reducing eligibility may spur ER crowding and premium increases, but experience in Missouri shows less dire consequences.
What truly undermines the arguments offered by conservative critics is their lack of workable alternative ideas that would achieve the health insurance coverage expansion goals set by the health law.
Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., renewed GOP calls for block grants to states to pay for Medicaid costs.
The recession-fueled state budget crisis has turned Medicaid into the next battleground in the ongoing war over President Obama’s signature health care reform law.
Some insurers are offering consumers a hefty break if they pay more out-of-pocket when they use certain high-cost providers in their network or are cutting the providers from the coverage.
Consumers are increasingly expected to manage their complex regimens but that is especially challenging for those who don’t have the ability to comprehend health information.
President Obama offered governors a smaller concession to health spending flexibility than they expected by endorsing a bipartisan proposal to allow states to opt out of most of last year’s health law’s requirements.
Medicaid is the rope in the current tug of war between the states and the federal government over health reform. So far, the feds think they are winning. But don’t discount the governors.
Supported by the tea party, Renee Ellmers pulled an upset victory over the Democratic incumbent in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District last fall. As a nurse married to a physician, Ellmers says her own experience has convinced her that health care “is a personal responsibility” and the only way to bring down high health insurance costs is for government to step aside and let the private market work better. Rep. Ellmers was interviewed in her office on Capitol Hill by Kaiser Health News reporter Jessica Marcy.
N.C. Republican, with 20 years of health care experience, says Democrats’ health law is “overstepping, unconstitutional and extremely costly.”
A sampling of Medicaid changes some state chief executives would advance if they were given more flexibility from the federal government. This issue is likely to be a hot topic this weekend as the governors convene in Washington, D.C. for their winter meeting.
