The Health Law

Latest KFF Health News Stories

KHN Video: Tax Deadline Meets The Health Law

KFF Health News Original

As April 15 approaches, most of the consumers who didn’t get insurance coverage face penalties while others who used federal subsidies to buy their plans must reconcile their actual earnings with the estimates that they made last year.

To Avoid Extra Payments, Notify Your Marketplace Plan When You Move

KFF Health News Original

KHN’s consumer columnist answers readers’ questions about what happens to your plan when you move out of state, smoking cessation expenses and sending workers to the exchange to buy policies.

Caught In The Middle

KFF Health News Original

Kairis Chiaji from Sacramento, California, says it was difficult to afford health insurance before the Affordable Care Act on her self-employed income as a birth coach. The 43-year-old experienced a mix up with her application through Covered California that delayed her enrollment.

Many People Entitled To Hefty Subsidies Still Opt Against Coverage

KFF Health News Original

A study by health consultant Avalere finds that three-quarters of those eligible for the highest levels of premium help enrolled in marketplace plans, but many others with only slightly higher incomes did not.

Obamacare Cash Helps Pay Texas’ Medicaid Bill

KFF Health News Original

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.

Most N.Y. Marketplace Plans Lack Any Coverage For Out-Of-Network Care

KFF Health News Original

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.

Inviting Patients To Help Decide Their Own Treatment

KFF Health News Original

At UC San Francisco and other hospitals and clinics around the nation, “shared decision making” programs encourage doctors and patients to work together in making tough choices about care. 

Health Coverage In Limbo For Many Small-Business Employees

KFF Health News Original

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.

Republican Lawmakers Sink Montana Governor’s Medicaid Expansion Plan

KFF Health News Original

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.