The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
As Senate Democrats begin to merge the chamber’s two health care overhaul bills, fundamental questions remain – such as whether to include a public option and individual mandate. This story comes from our partner NPR News.
Prescription drug spending is the third most expensive cost in the U.S. health care system. The average American gets 12 prescriptions a year, and this number only seems to grow larger. We examine what drove the increase in prescription drug consumption in America. This story comes from our partner NPR News
People are worried in towns like Warsaw, Ind., considered the “orthopedic device manufacturing capital” of the world. The industry is fighting the $4 billion-a-year tax included in the Senate Finance Committee bill to help pay for health reform.
With the support of a lone Republican, Olympia Snowe, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill that would assure that most Americans would have access to health insurance, end discriminatory insurance industry practices and impose a tax on high-costhealth care plans. The bill will now be combined with the HELP Committee’s bill before a full Senate vote.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin discuss the Senate Finance Committee’s approval of an $829 billion health care overhaul package.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, joined the Finance Committee’s Democrats in a vote today on the proposed health care overhaul. The committee reported the bill out of committee in a historic, 14-9 vote.
All of the Democratic health proposals would expand children’s dental care – a serious need. Currently about twice as many children are without dental coverage as those without medical coverage. At the same time, some insurance experts worry that the legislation may have unintended consequences, disrupting adult coverage.
A list of some vital statistics about children’s oral health and dental insurance.
Read a transcript of today’s Health On The Hill with Jackie Judd, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Mary Agnes Carey, from Kaiser Health News.
Donna Taylor’s father planned ahead – he had insurance and savings to pay for health coverage when he retired. But when he got sick and couldn’t walk, he found he did not have enough coverage to pay for care for himself and his disabled wife.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and other experts discuss recent and upcoming activities on the Hill — part of a weekly series of video reports.
We are not ready for healthy retirement, and we are desperately unprepared for the costly medical and long-term care we are likely to need in old age.
Even as Congress moves to expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, it’s doing little to ensure there will be enough primary care doctors to meet the expected surge in demand for treatment. One prediction: the shortage of family doctors will reach 40,000 by 2019, as medical schools send about half the needed number of graduates into primary care medicine.
In the mid-1970s, an unconventional researcher named Jack Wennberg discovered an unusually high rate of hysterectomies in Lewiston, Maine. That was just one of a series of studies that led to a very surprising conclusion about health care: a large portion of the medical care Americans get is unnecessary.
Senate Finance Committee health care legislation would cost $829 billion over the next decade according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Wednesday.
Broadening health coverage is a worthy goal, but the Senate Finance Committee proposal comes at a high price
While many states bar carriers from rejecting people who receive treatment for domestic violence, others permit it. Now there’s a move to prohibit the practice as part of a health care overhaul.
Freelance writer Cindy Richards buys insurance on the ‘individual market’ – from a broker – to cover herself and her son and daughter. Her husband had to buy a policy separately. Between them, they pay $500 a month in premium costs and have a yearly deductible of over $10,000. She believes it’s “too difficult” to get health insurance in America.
As a part of our “Are You Covered?” series, KHN and NPR examine how a health overhaul would affect the individual insurance market.
Both the House and Senate health care proposals would expand Medicaid eligibility to about 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Although the measures would help the states cover the costs, governors are worried that the additional federal money simply won’t be enough. KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey offers her insight.
