Latest KFF Health News Stories
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.
Exchanges May Play Key Role In An Overhauled Health System
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.
“Partnership” Policies for Long-Term Care Hold Promise–and Pitfalls
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.
Alzheimer’s Patients Struggle Without Insurance
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.
Co-Op Option Offers Compromise In Health Debate
The idea of insurance co-ops is gaining ground as an alternative to a government-run plan.
Analysis: Why Health Care Reformers Are Wooing Skeptical Seniors
The over-65 crowd, with its outsized political clout, will have a big say in the fate of any health overhaul. And that helps explain a recent agreement on drug discounts involving the pharmaceutical industry, the White House and Congress.
Doctors Say Electronic Data-Sharing Is Saving Lives, Money
Memphis, Tenn., is one of a growing number of areas with a successful high-tech health information exchange, which proponents say saves lives and money. But the system now faces a crucial test: what happens when the initial funding runs out?
Bartering For Health Care Rises
When people in Floyd County, Va., visit Dr. Susan Osborne, they can pay for their medicals exam with vegetables, lessons, carpentry services as well as cash. Bartering is a way of life in the rural area, Dr. Osborne says: “It just gives people another avenue to have health care.”
Recession Drives More People to Barter For Health Care
With many people strapped for cash, barter “exchanges” for health care is providing a temporary safety net of sorts for some workers who have lost their jobs and health coverage. And in some cases, people who have inadequate insurance are using barter to get critical services, such as dental and vision benefits.
A Group of Health CEOs Wants To End Medicare Fee-For-Service Payments
Some CEOs of America’s largest health care providers called Friday for an end to fee-for-service payments under Medicare and incentives to create administrative efficiencies to lower costs to help pay for America’s try at health care reform.
President Courts Fiscal Conservatives In Reform Push
President Obama is promising fiscal conservatives in Congress that health reform won’t be financed by deficit spending. He needs the support of moderate and conservative Democrats who are wary of a vast expansion of government-underwritten health care. Strict new budget rules may help persuade skeptics that a health care system overhaul is affordable.
New Yorker Article Sparks Strong Reaction
Surgeon and author Atul Gawande’s recent article in The New Yorker is generating intense discussion about the cost of medicine and exerting a powerful influence over the health reform debate.
DeParle, Sebelius: Time To Tackle Health Care Disparities
Officials said Tuesday that the time is now to tackle ethnic, economic and gender disparities in health care as they ready a major overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
The Risks And Rewards Of Taxing Health Benefits
Taxing employee health benefits might fund a health care overhaul, but could sink its political chances.
How Congress Might Tax Your Health Benefits
Lawmakers are considering varied approaches to taxing employer-provided health insurance as a means of paying for an overhaul of the health system, Kaiser Health News reports. Proposals include taxing benefits above a certain premium amount, taxing the benefits only of high-income earners, or combining both approaches.
GOP: Public Plan Option Big Obstacle To Health Reform
Democrats and Republicans moved further apart this afternoon over the possibility of including a public plan in any health care reform legislation.
Washington State Takes a Hard Look at New Treatments and Tests
A Washington state program decides whether to cover new treatments and tests by comparing them with the standard alternatives. If there’s no real difference, a panel of medical professionals can pick the least expensive. Decisions are binding for employees insured by the state, workers’ compensation claimants and patients in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor.
Some Doctors Cut Deals With Struggling Patients
Doctors across the country are reducing their charges and offering payment plans to patients who have lost health insurance or income. This helps people stay well, but it also helps doctors maintain their practices at a time when many financially struggling Americans are deferring care. Patients who don’t pay their bills still run the risk of hearing from bill collectors.
This documentary explores the severe challenges cancer patients can face in paying for their health care even when they have private health insurance.
Message From Massachusetts: Insurance Requirement Can Provoke Anger
If Congress wants all Americans to get health insurance, it will have to win over people like Gary Cloutier, owner of Cloots Auto Body Shop in Westfield, Mass. He says he just can’t afford it.
