Latest KFF Health News Stories
Text: Berwick’s Prepared Testimony – ‘I Pledge To Be Open And Transparent’
Tomorrow, Dr. Donald Berwick, the adminstrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on Finance. Here is an advance copy of his prepared statement.
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 Care — Tell Us The Truth Before You Tell Us Why You Are Right
We need more proposals like those being made by the President’s deficit reduction commission, and the Medicare reform proposal authored by Republican House members Ryan, Cantor, and McCarthy. Irrespective of whether they are the best proposals, their authors started from a place where they told the truth.
Transcript: 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.
2014 Question Looms: Could Medicaid Recipients Buy Insurance On Exchanges?
As budget-weary state officials contemplate dropping out of the Medicaid program, a potentially game-changing question has arisen in Washington: Would poor people who lose coverage get subsidies to buy private coverage?
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.
For Health Overhaul, Implementation Is Now Job One
Despite the outcomes of the mid-term elections, the health overhaul is the law, and it’s up to HHS to make the “vital protections” it put into a place a reality.
Pawlenty Seeks To Stop Health Law As He Eyes Presidency
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a likely GOP contender for the White House in 2012, publicly opposed the law again this week, this time with a preliminary filing supporting a challenge to the overhaul in a Florida court.
Advocates Prepare To Challenge GOP On Health Law
In the aftermath of Republicans’ election victories, defenders of the health care law are huddling to thwart GOP efforts to eviscerate the sweeping measure. Groups that back the law aren’t likely to coalesce around a single message to increase public support.
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.
Poll: Economy-Not Health Law-Topped Voters’ Concerns
Health care ranked fourth among factors that influenced how people voted last week, according to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
OTC Medicines Cut From 2011 Flexible Spending Accounts
Beginning in 2011, the new health law bars payments for over items such as aspirin, vitamins and cough medicine from the popular accounts set up with pretax dollars. Consumers can still get the coverage with a prescription.
Video: Obama, Rand Paul On Health Law
On CBS’ “60 Minutes” President Barack Obama acknowledged that taking on “something as big as health care” probably “wasn’t great politics.” Senator-elect Rand Paul, R-Ky., a favorite of the tea party, told ABC’s “This Week” why he believes the law should be repealed.
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.
Conservatives’ Conflict: Try For Health Law Repeal – Or Revision?
Conservatives are already debating whether it’s better for Republicans to chip away at part of the health law or just lay the groundwork for 2012.
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.
Transcript: Boehner And Obama On Election Results And Health Law
In the wake of the GOP victories on election night, incoming House Speaker Boehner and President Obama responded to questions about the impact of health reform on the vote.
Video: Obama On Election Results And Health Law
In the wake of the GOP victories on election night, President Barack Obama held a news conference to talk about the “shellacking” he and his party took. He was asked about the impact of the health law on the vote. Here is an excerpt of that part of the event.
Riding An Elevator With Boehner: What Would You Say?
Less than 24 hours after Republicans won control of the House, soon-to-be-speaker John Boehner denounced the new health care law, saying it would “kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country” — and renewed his vow to try to repeal it. Kaiser Health News asked people around the country to answer the following question: “If you ended up in an elevator with Rep. Boehner, what single thing would you urge him to do about health care in this country?”
