Latest KFF Health News Stories
Survey Finds Rate For Young Adult Coverage Improves While Others Decline
While the number of medically uninsured young adults dropped over the past two years, coverage of the overall working age population failed to improve, according to the findings of the Commonwealth Fund’s 2012 biennial health insurance survey released Friday. The survey shows that 11.7 million young adults – ages 19 to 25 – were uninsured […]
Senate President Lays Blame With Sebelius If Florida Fails To Expand Medicaid
Kaiser Health News sat down with Florida Senate President Don Gaetz in his office in Tallahassee last week to discuss the debate over expanding Medicare in the Sunshine State.
With Time Running Out, Florida Medicaid Expansion Is In Doubt
House GOP leaders question whether feds can deliver on $50B promise to cover poor residents.
Bid To Cover Abortion After Rape For Peace Corps Volunteers
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced a bill Thursday that would provide health insurance coverage for abortions to Peace Corps volunteers in the case of rape or incest. The Peace Corps Equity Act of 2013 echoes the Shaheen Amendment, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2012. That law provides military women coverage for abortions […]
New Guidelines May Drop Birth Control Training Rule
This story comes from our partner ‘s Shots blog. One of the more popular provisions of the federal health law requires that women be given much freer access to prescription methods of birth control. That includes not only the pill, but implants and IUDs as well. But what happens if there are not enough doctors to […]
New Health Exchanges Unlikely to End Insurance Monopolies in Some States
In states with a dominant insurance carrier, competition and lower prices envisioned by the health insurance exchanges that open in 2014 may be slow to arrive.
States Spend $28M, Then Leave Exchanges To The Feds
Late last year, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced that her state would not build its own online insurance marketplace, a pillar of the Affordable Care Act, because there were too many unknowns. What Brewer didn’t say was that her state had spent $9 million in federal money to reach that conclusion. Arizona was one of 10 […]
Nurses Fighting State By State For Minimum Staffing Laws
Nurses say understaffing at hospitals should be illegal; hospitals say the laws tie their hands.
Maryland Offers Glimpse At Obamacare Insurance Math
Maryland’s CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield pitches a 25 percent average hike in premiums for individuals, down from 50 percent.
Baucus Vows To Keep Watch On Health Law Rollout Before Leaving Senate
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus stunned his colleagues Tuesday when he announced he would not seek a seventh term next year. But don’t expect him to go quietly. Implementation of the 2010 health care law is a top priority for the Montana Democrat, as is overhauling the tax code, tackling the nation’s debt and pushing […]
Insurer Centene: We Can Do Arkansas-Style Medicaid
Arkansas is the latest and perhaps best hope for those who want states resistant to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion to reconsider. Last week the Arkansas legislature approved a plan to give Medicaid beneficiaries money to buy individual policies from private insurers on the state’s health insurance exchange — the subsidized, online markeplaces due to […]
Lack Of Competition Might Hamper Health Exchanges
Some supporters of the health law fear that in states dominated by a single insurer, consumers won’t have much choice when health insurance exchanges — a key tenet of the health law — open in October.
New Website Will Disclose Health Industry Payments To Doctors
For the first time, the government will make information about financial relationships between doctors, teaching hospitals and drug manufacturers publicly available. To comply with a provision in the Affordable Care Act, drug and device manufacturers, along with group purchasing organizations, will have to disclose all of their payments and other compensation to physicians and teaching hospitals. Those who […]
Questions Arise About Robotic Surgery’s Cost, Effectiveness
Health plans generally pay for robotic surgery just as they would any other surgical procedure, but that could change, some say, as research helps make clear when robotic-assisted surgery helps improve patient outcomes-and when it doesn’t.
Video: What Insurance Exchanges Mean For Consumers
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/assets/swf/CSPANPlayer.swf?pid=312284-5 KHN’s Jenny Gold appeared on the C-SPAN program, Washington Journal, to discuss the insurance exchanges where consumers will be able to purchase coverage beginning Oct. 1. Watch the above video to learn more about these new marketplaces, or read KHN’s FAQ on exchanges and Jenny’s recent story on marketing of the exchanges to consumers.
Boston Couple Faces Amputation Rehab, Together
Only the most seriously injured of the 188 marathon bombing patients remain hospitalized. Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky Downes are among them. The couple was cheering runners near the finish line of the Boston Marathon when the explosions threw them apart. Patrick and Jessica each lost the lower part of their left legs. Friends are having […]
Seniors Get Hung Up In Health Care Scams
Law enforcement agencies report an increase in phone scams by fraudsters who prey on the public’s confusion over the massive changes taking place in the nation’s health care system — and the thieves often target senior citizens.
Despite Win, UnitedHealth Criticizes Medicare Rates, Eyes Pruning Business
If the Obama administration expected the biggest health insurance company to give thanks for this month’s decision to reverse cuts to private Medicare plans, it was wrong. UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley said Thursday that Medicare Advantage rates are still far too low and that the company may shrink its business of managing care for […]
Beginning End Of Life Care At The Dinner Table
Michael Hebb wants you to pass the butter, and then talk about passing on. As the founder of “Let’s Have Dinner and Talk About Death,” he urged Americans to engage in a conversation about how they want to die, a conversation that could change the high cost of caring for the terminally ill and grant patients […]
Bipartisan Center Offers Plan To Reduce Health Spending
Medicare beneficiaries would have access to better coordinated medical care and the current Medicare physician payment formula would be scrapped as part of a health care cost containment plan the Bipartisan Policy Center unveiled Thursday. The plan offers more than 50 recommendations that would cut the federal deficit by about $560 billion over the next […]