Latest KFF Health News Stories
Ad Audit: Club For Growth’s Anti-Government Message
An anti-tax group goes after Democratic health reform proposals, alleging they would lead to rationing and crushing government deficits. But the campaign includes some dubious comparisons with the British health system, and the group’s recommended solutions are open to question.
Transcript: President Obama’s Colorado Town Hall Meeting On Health Reform
President Barack Obama spoke about health insurance, a pressed for a need to overhaul the health care system at town hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado on Saturday.
President Obama’s Weekly Saturday Address – Prepared Remarks
The White House released these prepared remarks in advance of the President’s weekly Saturday address.
Excerpts of President Obama’s Montana Town Hall Meeting
At President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in Belgrade, Montana, he was asked a number of questions about his push for health reform, including two pointed ones on paying for a health overhaul and on small business and insurance coverage.
Transcript: President Obama’s Montana Health Care Town Hall Meeting
The White House released a transcript of President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in Belgrade, Montana. He begins with prepared remarks and then answers questions from the audience.
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.
Amid Stimulus Money, Community Health Centers Look For Their Post-Reform Role
Maisha Challenger never thought she’d have to set foot in a community health center. “I have been working my whole life so I usually am used to going to a doctor’s office,” she said. But after she lost her job as an education lobbyist – and the health insurance that came with it – she […]
Kill Grandma? Debunking A Health Bill Scare Tactic
Some analysts say false claims that the health bill encourages seniors to end their lives early were purposely spread to undermine the bill. In fact, the bill would pay health care providers to discuss a patient’s health care wishes. This story comes from our partner NPR News.
Transcript: President Obama Town Hall Meeting In New Hampshire
President Barack Obama continued his press for public support of health reform initiatives Tuesday at what The White House called a “Health Insurance Reform Town Hall” meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
’80s Tax Bill Has Lessons For Health Care Overhaul
In negotiating health care legislation, lawmakers might want to look back to 1986. That was the year that a Democratic House and a Republican Senate worked together to pass a tax simplification bill. A full-court press by lobbyists is usually enough to stop a bill – but it wasn’t in 1986. This story comes from our partner NPR News.
Transcript: Health on the Hill
Today’s Health on the Hill is mostly about health off the Hill. Jackie Judd talks with Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown about the contentious town hall meetings and how the lawmakers are preparing themselves for questions. The White House has launched a Web site to try to correct false rumors and to push the President’s agenda on health reform.
Health On The Hill – August 10, 2009
Today’s Health on the Hill is mostly about health off the Hill. Jackie Judd talks with Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown about the contentious town hall meetings and how the lawmakers are preparing themselves for questions. The White House has launched a Web site to try to correct false rumors and to push the President’s agenda on health reform.
Bending the Curve Requires Health Care Reform, Not Just Sick Care Reform: A History Lesson
As President Obama and Congress struggle to bend the rising cost curve in order to make health care available to all Americans, the history of the first great expansion of health care coverage when Lyndon Johnson drove Medicare and Medicaid through Congress in 1965 offers some critical lessons.
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.
Community Health Centers Fill Big Need During Recession
As the economy has worsened, community health centers – which provide free and reduced-cost care to millions of Americans – have felt the pinch . Facilities, such as the Walker-Jones Health Center in Washington D.C., will have even more patients if Congress passes a health overhaul that expands coverage.
Reform is Still Worth Fighting For
If the possibility of lesser reform doesn’t motivate liberals, then maybe something else will: the possibility of no reform.
In Massachusetts, A Radical Idea For Changing How Doctors Are Paid
Some Massachusetts policymakers want to end the tradition of paying health care providers a separate fee for every service they provide. They say paying fees for every visit, test and procedure ordered is the main reason Massachusetts’ health care costs are the highest in the nation. This story comes from our partner NPR News
