The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Dennis Rivera is spearheading the Service Employees International Union’s political campaign to influence the health care debate. He discusses what the country’s largest health care union, with 1.1 million members, is trying to accomplish.
Opposition from a group of fiscally conservative House Democrats known as the “Blue Dogs” has slowed release of the House Democrats’ health care measure, while members of the Senate Finance Committee continue to work toward a consensus package. Opposition to taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits has caused Senate Finance negotiators to find other options to pay for the bill. Meanwhile, some lawmakers and health care analysts have urged President Obama to take a greater role to keep Capitol Hill focused on passing health care legislation.
Opposition from a group of fiscally conservative House Democrats known as the “Blue Dogs” has slowed release of the House Democrats’ health care measure, while members of the Senate Finance Committee continue to work toward a consensus package. Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin of Kaiser Health News and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the Associated Press discuss the details. Jackie Judd moderates.
In a follow-up to an earlier story about the difficulty of finding health insurance for a rural small businessman, an insurance broker helps Larry Harbour of Broken Bow, Neb., find affordable coverage.
House Democratic leaders are preparing to unveil a sweeping health overhaul plan that will set the stage for a fight over the most contentious issues. The bill embraces liberal principles even as moderates and conservatives in both parties argue for changes in areas such as taxation and the role of the government in providing insurance.
Make no mistake: It’d be a huge disappointment not to make progress on cost and quality. But incremental progress is still progress.
While advocates say insurance exchanges would stimulate price competition and give consumers new choices, there’s also a risk these programs could undermine the employer-based health insurance system. Here are nine questions and answers about exchanges and their role in health reform.
Insurance exchanges are a critical part of proposed health system overhaul legislation. They could transform how insurance is sold. But experts warn that without the right structure and rules, exchanges could undermine the employer-based insurance system.
To encourage people to buy long-term care insurance, more states are starting programs that allow people to keep some assets if they exhaust insurance benefits and need to go on Medicaid. Without such an arrangement, they would have to “spend down” assets to qualify for Medicaid. But, experts warn, the policies need strong inflation protections.
If denying important health services to women is the price of bipartisanship, then perhaps winning those one or two Republican votes in the Senate or holding on to some socially conservative Democrats isn’t worth the price of jeopardizing women’s health and well-being.
The recession has left a growing number of middle-income Americans without health insurance.
President Obama has outsourced the writing of health care reform to Congress. What does that mean for the legislation?
Small business organizations are encouraging members to make their views about health overhaul proposals known through emails, letters, phone calls and personal visits to Capitol Hill. But small business, a powerful constituency in every congressional district, no longer speaks with one voice on health care.
Hospital officials today agreed to federal-payment cuts to help pay for a health care overhaul. They hope their concessions will build good will with the Obama administration and Democratic lawmakers. They’re pressing for action on a host of other issues, including Medicaid reimbursements and funding for graduate medical education.
The Obama administration has endorsed a new government social insurance program that would help people put aside money to pay for the high costs of long-term care.
Alzheimer’s is thought of as a disease of the elderly, but hundreds of thousands of cases are in men and women under 65. Because the disease makes it difficult to work, these people often lose their jobs – and their health insurance.
Donna Smith is a cancer survivor whose personal experience with insurance has driven her to become a full-time advocate for a single-payer health system, which would replace private insurers with a single, tax-funded government program.
Largely ignored by lawmakers and administration officials, advocates of a government-run health system nevertheless are doggedly campaigning for a regime they say would be less expensive and more efficient-as well as morally superior-to the changes being debated in Congress.
The hospital industry is nearing a deal with the White House and congressional Democrats to accept Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Such an agreement, coming on the heels of one with the drug industry, would increase momentum for overhauling the health care system by providing additional funds to finance the effort.
Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News, Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico and Jeffrey Young of The Hill discuss health care reform as Congress returns from its July 4th recess.
