Latest KFF Health News Stories
Obamacare Cash Helps Pay Texas’ Medicaid Bill
A provision of the Affordable Care Act that covers some Medicaid administrative costs will help close a $338 million gap in the state’s Medicaid budget, even though Texas has declined to expand the health program for the poor.
Texas Bill Would Prohibit Doctors From Asking About Guns
A Texas lawmaker, also a surgeon, wants to ensure doctors ‘have the right not to ask’ about gun ownership and is pushing a bill to do just that.
Errors Can Turn Affordable Care Benefits To Customer Torment
Pairing federal payments with private insurance brings benefits to many but creates dueling bureaucracies for some customers caught between them.
Is Arkansas’ ‘Private Option’ Medicaid Expansion A Solution For Other Red States?
Several GOP-led states are taking note of Arkansas’ market-based approach to Medicaid expansion, but questions remain about its long-term costs and effectiveness.
Advocates And Experts Debate Need For More Regulation Of Fertility Services
A new Utah law allowing children conceived via sperm donation to see the medical histories of their fathers is seen as an exception to otherwise light regulation of assisted reproductive technology in states.
Many Along Texas Border Still Live Without Clean, Safe Water
Roughly 90,000 Texans living along the Texas-Mexico border in unincorporated ‘colonias’ don’t have running water in their homes.
Missouri Medicaid Turns To Wellness Incentives
Incentives designed to spur enrollees to exercise, eat healthier and make regular doctor visits are built into Medicaid managed care contracts that Missouri officials recently awarded to three insurers.
Most N.Y. Marketplace Plans Lack Any Coverage For Out-Of-Network Care
Except for a few insurers in Albany and the western part of the state, all the policies sold in the individual market are HMOs that will not pay anything toward routine expenses from doctors or hospitals not in their networks.
Rural Hospitals, One Of The Cornerstones Of Small Town Life, Face Increasing Pressure
For people in Mount Vernon, Texas, the loss of their hospital means longer trips for treatment and uncertainty when a medical crisis hits.
PHOTOS: Shared Decision Making
Shared decision making programs encourage doctors and patients to work together in making tough choices about care at UC San Francisco.
In Texas Funding Fight, Cancer Care For Poor Women Could Be Collateral Damage
GOP lawmakers eager to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood are weighing changes to a cancer screening program for poor women. But private clinics unaffiliated with Planned Parenthood say they’d take a hit, too.
Advocates Say California Counties Need To Shore Up Care For Remaining Uninsured
Report by Health Access California says 3 million uninsured in California have uneven access to care, depending on which county they live in.
Health Coverage In Limbo For Many Small-Business Employees
About a half-million Washingtonians get health insurance through associations or trusts. But the future of such plans is under review by state regulators, and so far many of the plans have been rejected.
Retail Health Care Spurs Innovation In South Florida
In September, Florida Blue will debut three “integrated care” facilities designed to cater to South and Central American populations by offering primary care, specialty services, labs and diagnostics under one roof — a model common in Latin America.
In Florida, 93 Percent Of Enrollees Get Financial Help For Obamacare
Florida and Mississippi had the highest percentage of enrollees receiving a tax credit to help them pay premiums.
Republican Lawmakers Sink Montana Governor’s Medicaid Expansion Plan
A House committee gives the bill a “do not pass” recommendation, which effectively kills Democrats’ efforts to get it on the House floor. A Republican counter-proposal that includes premiums and co-payments for Medicaid enrollees may come out of the state Senate.
Pa. Medicaid Expansion Switch To Be Done By September
The switch from the previous governor’s privatized Medicaid expansion alternative to Gov. Tom Wolf’s traditional plan will take several months because of IT issues.
Slightly More Latinos and African Americans Sign Up On California Exchange
About 37 percent of subsidized Covered California enrollees are Latino, up six points compared with last year, and about 4 percent are African American, up one point.
No Medicaid Expansion? No Problem For Many Safety-Net Hospital Profits
In some of the largest states that did not expand Medicaid, many safety-net hospitals turned in strong performances in 2014, according to financial documents.
Texas GOP Leaders Say They Won’t Expand Medicaid
Republican lawmakers asked the Obama administration for greater flexibility to administer the state-federal insurance program and reiterated their lack of interest in expanding eligibility under the federal health law.
