Latest KFF Health News Stories
HHS Official: Healthcare.gov Updates Will Be ‘Improvement But Not Perfection’
Testifying before a House subcommittee, a key Obama administration official lays out the updates that HHS is making to the online marketplaces before enrollment begins in November. Mary Agnes Carey and Politico Pro’s Jennifer Haberkorn discuss.
Women’s Groups Challenge GOP Candidates On OTC Birth Control
Women’s health groups are launching a counterattack against suggestions by several Republican Senate candidates that making birth control pills available without a prescription is the answer to the dispute over contraceptive coverage rules in the health law. At least four Republicans running for the U.S. Senate have proposed over-the-counter pills in recent weeks, including Ed […]
Family Insurance Premiums Rise Modestly For 3rd Year, Survey Finds
Employer-sponsored insurance was largely stable in 2014, with no significant change in the percentage of firms offering health benefits.
Open Payments Database: Despite Criticism, Still On Track To Let The Sunshine In
Despite technical glitches, the federal “Open Payments” database – which tracks pharmaceutical company contributions to doctors and teaching hospitals – remains on track for its scheduled Sept. 30 launch, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirmed. It was mandated by a sunshine act included in the federal health law seeking to ease concerns that […]
Health Law Not The Reason For Republican Election Enthusiasm, Poll Finds
This KHN story can be republished for free. (details) Heading into the 2014 mid-term congressional elections, health care is not shaping up as a make-or-break issue, according to a new poll. Health care trails jobs and the economy as a top issue on voters’ minds this fall, 21 percent to 13 percent. Only 3 percent […]
Can I Buy Coverage After Accident Injuries? Who Pays The Cadillac Tax?
Kaiser Health News consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers readers’ questions.
$60 Million For 34 States To Boost Obamacare Enrollment
Two Planned Parenthood chapters, two United Way organizations, a food bank association and a Catholic hospital system are among 90 nonprofit groups that will receive a total of $60 million to help people sign up for health insurance, the Department of Health and Human Services announced today. The money will help people in 34 states that rely on […]
Rural Enrollment Presents Continuing Health Law Challenges
State Obamacare decisions are key factors in how outreach strategies are taking shape for the next open enrollment period.
Osteopathic Medicine Meshes With New Health Care Needs
The number of osteopathic doctors is increasing sharply, helping to meet the demand for primary care.
Early Results: Average 2015 Exchange Premiums Decline Slightly
This KHN story can be republished for free. (details) In preliminary but encouraging news for consumers and taxpayers, insurance filings show that average premiums will decline slightly next year in 16 major cities for a benchmark Obamacare plan. Prices for a benchmark “silver” or mid-priced plan sold through the health law’s online marketplaces aren’t all moving […]
Replacing An Ambulance With A Station Wagon
There’s nothing like an ambulance when you really need one, but they’re expensive, and a lot of people who call an ambulance could be better served with a different, cheaper kind of care.
Consumers To Hear Soon If Plans Are Canceled
Although the Obama administration has given insurers extra time to bring their plans into compliance with the health law, some may opt to drop substandard coverage this fall.
DC Appeals Court Agrees To Rehear Case That Could Cripple Health Law
The controversial federal court decision that threatened the future of the Affordable Care Act is no more. The full District of Columbia Court of Appeals Thursday agreed to rehear Halbig v. Burwell, a case charging that the federal government lacks the authority to provide consumers tax credits in health insurance exchanges not run by states. […]
Rural Doctor Shortage Worsens As Newly Insured Washington Residents Seek Care
In one Olympic Peninsula community, a clinic turns away 250 callers a week.
Maine Rolls Back Health Coverage Even As Many States Expand It
Gov. LePage’s decision to shrink, rather than expand, Medicaid has put strains on health providers as well as the poor.
Five States To Get Early Access To Small Business Health Insurance Marketplace
This copyrighted story comes from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , produced in partnership with KHN. All rights reserved. Businesses in five states will get an early look at the federal health insurance marketplace for small businesses, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid announced Wednesday. The states are Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and Delaware. Businesses […]
Health Care Spending Forecast To Increase Modestly In Next Decade
Federal actuaries say the economic rebound and increasing number of people with insurance will push up spending.
North Carolina’s $10B Medicaid Challenge: Pay For Other States Or Take Federal Money?
State taxpayers could spend more than $10 billion by 2022 to provide medical coverage for low-income residents of other states while getting nothing in return.
Missouri’s Medicaid Applicants Get Put On Hold
Call center wait times climb even as the application backlog mounts and the state reports the single largest monthly drop in Medicaid enrollment in June.
Enrolling People In Obamacare Who Have No ‘Concept Of Insurance’
An agency that ministers to immigrant and Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan, faces challenges enrolling some people in health coverage.