Latest KFF Health News Stories
Retirees Can Find Insuring Young Adult Children Difficult
Medicare doesn’t cover dependents, and many private retiree health plans are not affected by the new health law so they can kick young adults out after school ends.
Health On The Hill Transcript: Medical Loss Ratio, Doc Fix
HHS released regulations on the medical loss ratio, a provision in the health law that requires insurers spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars of health care. Meanwhile, before the Senate adjourned for Thanksgiving it passed a one-month ‘patch’ to prevent physicians who see Medicare patients from having their payments reduced.
New Law’s Health Insurance Regulations Could Mean Rebates For Consumers
Millions of Americans might be eligible for rebates starting in 2012 under regulations released Monday detailing the health care law’s requirement that insurers spend at least 80 percent of their revenue on direct medical care.
Insurers’ Payments To Hospitals Vary Significantly By Region
A study of four major insurers’ payments to hospitals finds great differences among different parts of the country. San Francisco is the most expensive city among the eight areas in the study.
Compared To Other Countries, U.S. Patients Have More Access To Specialists, Less To Primary Care
A new study finds that U.S. consumers report greater access to specialty health care but also have a tougher time seeing a doctor on the day they need help than consumers in many of other Western countries.
Vulnerable Democrat Looks For Alternatives To Health Insurance Mandate
Facing what could be a tough reelection fight in 2012, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., is looking for politically safer alternatives to the individual insurance mandate that takes effect in 2014.
Many Individual Health Policies Do Not Cover Pregnancy
Families buying insurance on their own often find that the plans do not cover any of the usual expenses associated with having a baby.
Health On The Hill – November 15, 2010
As Congress returns for its lame-duck session, lawmakers will debate legislation to stop an impending cut in Medicare physician payments.
Health Law Expected To Boost Medicaid Enrollees In Managed Care
But states’ increasing use of the private plans is raising questions about whether low-income residents are getting adequate care.
Health Insurance Open Season Questions? Here Are Some Answers
Readers of The Washington Post posed questions about potential taxes on insurance, how to pick a plan and the increase in costs and KHN’s Michelle Andrews provided answers.
Health Law Or No, Most Businesses Likely To Keep Offering Insurance
A new survey of more than 2,800 employers found no big reason for workers to worry.
Attacking The Health Law: The GOP’s Confusing And Incompatible Arguments
The Republicans and their allies spent a lot of time – and a lot of money – attacking the new health law and promising to undo it. And they did so with such a fury that almost nobody seemed to notice they were making a pair of arguments that were fundamentally incompatible.
HHS Cuts Premiums For Some High Risk Pools
Trying to spur enrollment in a new health insurance program for uninsured people with pre-existing medical conditions, the federal government is doing something private insurers almost never do: slashing rates.
Health On The Hill – November 3, 2010
With major gains in Congress, in governors’ races and in statehouses across the country, Republicans will continue to push for repeal or significant changes to the health care law. President Obama says while he is open to making some modifications, he and Democrats will resist major changes to the measure.
Bending The Health Care Cost Curve: Pay-For-Results Insurance
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.
Text: The Republican ‘Pledge’ On Health 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.
Seniors Should Consider Changes in Medicare Part D Plans
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.
Insurance Commissioners Loom Large In Health Law
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.
3 States To Vote On Health Insurance Mandate
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.
Health On The Hill – October 27, 2010
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.
