Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medicare Makes Patients Happy, But Can It Last?
As part of the series, “Are You Covered?” KHN and NPR profile Audrey Bernfield, 71, a two-time breast cancer survivor. When her cancer returned, her Medicare coverage enabled her to choose her own doctors, move closer to her family and get the best treatments for her situation. She says she prefers Medicare over a private insurer. Medicare Coverage Explained | Video Profile
The Evolution Of Medicare Advantage Plans
The roots of Medicare Advantage plans go back to the late 1970s, when health planners believed they could improve care while saving money. Now, health care reformers say the plans are too costly.
Democrats Target Federal Subsidies for Medicare’s Private Plans
Part of the effort to cut health spending aims at Medicare Advantage programs, which often offer benefits that go beyond traditional Medicare. But Obama says they are unfair and inefficient.
Democrats Are Not The Real Threat To Medicare
A look at Republican efforts to drastically change Medicare in the 1990’s shows that the Democratic health reforms plans aren’t the real threat to the program.
Why Seniors are Health Reform Winners, Not Losers
In truth, seniors are likely to big winners if responsible health reform passes and prime victims if it fails.
We live in a time when seemingly no subject is taboo. Yet, there remains one subject Americans seem unable to talk about in an honest and rational way: the inevitable decline of old age.
What The House Health Bill Says About End-Of-Life Care
Section 1233 of the health overhaul bill approved by three House committees has been the subject of great debate. We present the language as written in the bill itself.
Doctors Providing End of Life Counseling See Benefit in Current Controversy
Physicians, while disputing the charges of plans for euthanasia, say the debate on what is in the House health bill on end-of-life care could help focus attention on an underfunded service.
Medicare Advisers Raised Rates but Complained of Flawed System
Elevating the commission, known as MedPAC, isn’t about greasing the path for unpopular payment reductions, an obvious way to save money. It’s about rethinking payment altogether. Even as MedPAC advised upping payments, commissioners quietly insisted for years that Congress should scrap its abstruse, fragmented rules for paying providers.
Sebelius: Protesters Trying To ‘Silence Debate’
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday in a conference call with members of the Service Employees Internation Union that some people protesting at town hall meetings around America are trying to silence the health care debate.
Get Medicaid Out Of The Long-Term Care Business
While states and the federal government struggle to update Medicaid though a maze of waiver programs and patches to an increasingly outdated law, their efforts are a little like trying to add disc breaks and electronic ignition to a 1965 Plymouth. It is, in the end, still a 1965 Plymouth.
Medicare data tell a different story about a public plan option.
Transitional Care Cuts Hospital Re-Entry Rates, Costs
A study published earlier this year finds 1 out of 5 older patients who are discharged from a hospital will return within a month, costing Medicare about $17 billion a year. A program in Philadelphia assigns nurses to follow up with discharged patients in order to prevent readmission. This story comes from our partner NPR News.
Health Commission Plan Wins Some, Angers Others
The problem with putting together a big proposal – like overhauling the nation’s entire health care system – with lots of moving parts and many different interests to please, is that every time you satisfy one important constituency, you upset another.
Hospitals Divided Over Proposal For Medicare Payment Czar
Powerful hospital trade associations are opposing President Obama’s plan for an independent commission to determine how much Medicare pays doctors and hospitals. But certain “model” hospital systems – such as CHRISTUS Health – are breaking ranks and supporting the idea.
President Obama’s News Conference On Health Reform
Excerpts from President Obama’s news conference, held on July 22, 2009.
‘Model’ Health Systems Press Case For Medicare Fix In Reform
When talking about his vision for the U.S. health care system, President Barack Obama points to places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, which are known for providing high-quality, low-cost care.
When the Government Runs Health Insurance
Much of the health care reform debate centers on the Democratic push to create a government-run insurance option for working age Americans and their families. But shouldn’t policymakers take a hard look at Medicare–the largest health insurance program in the country–before moving ahead to create something similar for everyone else?
Revolving-Door Patients Illustrate Health System Flaws
Patients who are readmitted to the hospital soon after they’re discharged cost the health care system billions of dollars a year in unnecessary spending. These “frequent fliers,” as doctors sometimes call them, illustrate the worst aspects of poorly coordinated care. Innovative programs may serve as models for fixing the problems.
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.
