Latest KFF Health News Stories
Think Tank Releases New Health Care Framework
A new report proposes a fail-safe mechanism to ensure that any health care overhaul wouldn’t add to the federal deficit.
A Painless Way To Hold Down Health Costs?
Some experts think incentives will encourage doctors to deliver quality care with fewer resources.
Is President Obama Fighting The Last War?
You can sum up Obama’s strategy for health reform as “WWCD”: What Wouldn’t the Clintons Do. And it’s working well so far. It seems likely that Obama will have a bill to sign by year’s end. But will it be legislation that people actually like?
Lobbyists Jockey For Position In Health Care Debate
Earlier this month, lobbyists trooped in to watch as the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions began working on a health-care overhaul – the first congressional panel this year to move so far.
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.
The $64,000 Question: Can Health Care Be Paid For Without Breaking the Bank?
Democrats in Congress, surprised by the high cost estimates for their health care proposals, are looking at a wide range of options for raising money and reducing costs. Some of the revenue raisers have been rejected in previous years, but now all ideas are on the table because of the big amounts needed to pay for a health care overhaul.
Boosting Home Care: An Uphill Battle
Once a senior begins receiving long-term care services, she and her family often are in for two shocks. The first is that Medicare won’t pay beyond perhaps a few months after a hospitalization. The second is that while Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, may help, chances are it will only do so for nursing home residents.
House Democrats Release Sweeping Reform Plan
The Democratic members of three House committees today released a plan they said would lower health care costs and improve health care choices. They plan includes individual as well as employer mandates to buy insurance and would provide for a government-run public plan alternative to private insurance.
Is “Public Option” a Practical Fix or Partisan Poison?
The Web site Politics Daily asked two experts to debate perhaps the hottest topic in health reform: Whether to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurance plans. The debaters on the so-called “public option” are Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for Health Care for America Now and James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
T-Word Looms Large In Health Care Cost Debate
Everybody knew that a complete overhaul of the nation’s health care system was going to be an expensive undertaking.
The Federal Government Should Have Limited, But Crucial, Role In Comp Effectiveness
The government shoudn’t be the arbiter that makes final decisions on the value of one treatment over another, but can play an important role in collecting and disseminating information about the most effective treatments.
Health Reform: The Reality Show
The health care reform discussion is beginning-at last!-to get real. On June 9, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee released a draft bill, and the Congressional Budget Office published an estimate that the bill would cost $1 trillion over 10 years and leave 35 million uninsured.
Health Reform Debate Highlights Budget Agency’s Critical Role
The Congressional Budget Office took center stage this week when its assessment of a health overhaul plan fueled criticism of its cost. Little known outside of Washington, the CBO is an arbiter of the cost and impact of legislation — meaning it will continue to play a critical role in the health reform debate. Senate Finance Committee Democrats, meanwhile, vow to re-tool their as-yet-unreleased proposal to make it less costly.
Former Senators Unveil Bipartisan Health Proposal, Would Tax Benefits, Mandate Coverage
Three former Senate leaders unveiled a bipartisan health care reform package Wednesday that includes individual and employer mandates, as well as a tax on health benefits.
Kennedy Absent As His Health Bill Launches
Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday becomes the first panel in Congress to formally start work on a bill to overhaul the nation’s health system. But Kennedy, still undergoing treatment for brain cancer, won’t be there in person to drop the gavel.
Republicans Cite New Analysis In Attacking Senate Health Reform Bill
A new analysis of a major Senate health reform bill reports it would cost the government $1 trillion but reduce the number of uninsured by a net of only 16 million. The estimates by the Congressional Budget Office provided Republican critics with fresh ammunition on a day when President Obama was defending his plan before a national audience of doctors.
MedPAC: Medicare Must Reinvent Its Payment Sytems to Improve Quality, Save Money
A low-profile commission that advises Congress on Medicare recommends, as it has in the past, that the way health providers are paid be revamped. Congress is showing interest in the issue as it grapples with broader health reform.
President Barack Obama urged doctors to support a health care overhaul when he spoke to the annual meeting of the American Medical Association today in Chicago. Video courtesy of C-SPAN.
Transcript: President Obama Speaks To The American Medical Association
President Barack Obama today addressed the annual meeting of the American Medical Association. He discussed the future of the health care system and asked for their help with health reform.
Everybody’s Business: Reform Would Help Corporations
One of the more promising signs for health care reform over the past two years has been the apparent support of the business community.
