The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
New state officials could slow the pace of implementation, seek waivers from some provisions, veto state legislation and appoint like-minded people to important positions, such as insurance commissioner slots.
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s ideas
With their House majority, Republicans plan to use all available legislative tools to challenge and change the health reform law.
Though it seems like an idea that can be easily attacked as a way to ration care, so-called value-based insurance design couples GOP principles of market-based incentives and consumer choice with the Democratic reformers’ goal of eliminating costly and unnecessary care.
In late September, led by Minority Leader John Boehner, some House Republicans released “A Pledge to America” — an outline of their plan should they gain control of Congress. Here is the excerpt that deals with health care.
Open season begins Nov. 15 and beneficiaries need to check their options to make sure they are signed up for the plan that best meets their needs.
Voters don’t give much thought to who runs their state department of insurance. And in many places no one can name the person holding this office. But as key provisions of the new federal health law begin to take effect, insurance commissioners will become paramount.
No matter what the outcome of the midterm elections, the American Medical Association is hard at work on a new proposal to fix the Medicare physician payment system. The AMA wants to stave off cuts of up to 30 percent, slated to begin taking effect Dec. 1. AMA chief Cecil B. Wilson talks with Kaiser Health News to talk about the looming cuts, why it’s increasingly difficult for doctors to see Medicare patients in America and how the AMA will soon try to lobby lawmakers for a permanent fix to the system.
Voters in Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma will decide whether to accept constitutional amendments prohibiting the federal health law’s keystone individual mandate – the provision to require everyone have health insurance beginning in 2014.
After five years, 10 Medicare pilot projects showed mixed results. Leading group physician practices were measured on quality, patient satisfaction, and cost savings. They all scored well on quality, but only half made the cut on savings.
When health insurance companies delivered the bad news this fall about next year’s premium increases, many blamed the new health overhaul law. But industry experts say that the health law accounts for only a small part of the increases.
With the elections less than one week away, ads making claims about the health law are flooding the airwaves. Many Democrats continue to not mention health reform, while Republicans criticize the law as too large, too expensive and intrusive into Americans’ lives.
Many politicos say the current political landscape would be very different if President Obama would have shifted his legislative priorities to put the economy in front of health reform. But would it really?
Nationwide, new physician-owned hospitals are scrambling to open by the end of the year. Beginning Jan. 1, the health law bans them from taking part in Medicare, making it hard for the facilities to survive.
With the elections less than one week away, ads making claims about the health law are flooding the airwaves. Many Democrats, concerned that voters view the measure in a negative light, continue to not mention health reform. Republicans, predicted to take control of the House and increase their ranks in the Senate, continue to criticize the law as too large, too expensive and intrusive into Americans’ lives. But President Barack Obama and some Democrats are promoting the law’s immediate consumer benefits and say it will improve the quality of health care for all Americans.
Three top pollsters – two Democrats and a Republican – have very different takes on what impact the health law will have on the election.
Since 1991, a committee of doctors has submitted more than 7,000 recommendations to CMS on the value of physician work. The group is unknown to much of the medical profession. Yet the committee has had a powerful influence on Medicare payment rates.
Former Kennedy staffer says GOP will back off talk of repeal after the election.
Response has been modest and reviews are mixed for insurance plans set up by the federal health law for people with medical problems.
As emotions run high over the new health law, older voters’ concerns about Medicare cuts could be a deciding factor in Florida’s 2nd Congressional District. Reporter Marilyn Werber Serafini travelled to north Florida to talk with seniors and discovered some angry voters, including one woman who changed political parties because she doesn’t like the Democrats’ health law.
