Latest KFF Health News Stories
Washington State Launches Ad Blitz Promoting Health Exchange
With five weeks left until Washington state launches its online health-insurance exchange, many residents may have heard little about the program designed to offer coverage to the uninsured. That’s begun to change. The state began rolling out the first phase of its ad campaign last week to let the public know about the exchange, a central part of the […]
How Will Obamacare Affect Employee Health Coverage?
KHN’s Jay Hancock was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Monday morning taking questions about how the health law will affect employee health coverage offered by employers. Hancock reported recently that UPS has told employees it won’t cover their spouses if they can get coverage from their own employer. Read more: UPS Won’t Insure Spouses Of Some […]
Brokers Associated With More, Cheaper Health Coverage, Study Says
Health insurance agents, feeling threatened by the Affordable Care Act, will welcome research from the University of Minnesota that supports their longstanding argument that agents and brokers make insurance shopping easier and cheaper. A new paper by economist Pinar Karaca-Mandic and colleagues finds that small employers were more likely to offer medical coverage in markets with many brokers […]
Idaho’s GOP Governor Extols Exchange ‘Run By Idahoans For Idahoans’
Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a Republican, said he still hopes the federal health law gets repealed. But with some of the law’s biggest changes taking effect in less than six weeks, he sounded like a proud papa Tuesday in announcing the name of his state’s new online health insurance marketplace: Your Health Idaho. Idaho is the only state under […]
With A Nod To Billy Joel, N.Y. Brands Obamacare Marketplace
Some folks like to get away, Take a holiday from the neighborhood. Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood. But I’m takin’ a Greyhound on the Hudson River line. I’m in a New York state of mind … er … make that “New York State of Health.” Playing off the title of Billy […]
HHS Offering Prizes For Videos Promoting Obamacare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lBw9YTx4Lo The “young invincibles” are what health policy wonks call healthy young adults (18-30) who don’t see being uninsured as a problem. But it is a problem, at least for the success of the Affordable Care Act. That’s why the Department of Health and Human Services is spending $30,000 on prizes for a national video […]
Answering Your Questions About The Latest Obamacare Delays
KHN’s Julie Appleby was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Monday morning taking questions about the latest Obamacare implementation delay — this one delaying a provision of the law that limits some consumers’ out-of-pocket expenses for one year. Read more: Consumer Groups Fear Patients Could Be Hit With Large Out-Of-Pocket Costs and Federal Rule Allows Higher Out-Of-Pocket Spending […]
Pa., N.J. Insurers Gearing Up For Obamacare Business
This story was produced in partnership with With new federal rules and mandates, you’d think that health insurers would be beating the loudest drum in the repeal-the-Affordable Care Act band. But they’re not, and there are a couple of reasons why. The first is pretty obvious. Millions of uninsured people will be flooding the online […]
Colorado Exchange Releases Health Insurance Rates
Colorado released its Obamacare insurance rates on Friday, joining 13 states and the District of Columbia in making rates public. The state earlier made the call to be a clearinghouse exchange, rather than an active purchaser, and so, it has approved all 242 health plans submitted for sale on its marketplace, Connect for Health Colorado. Thirteen carriers will […]
HHS Watchdog Says Rural Hospital Program Needs A Trim
The federal government’s program to help rural hospitals has grown bloated and unwieldy, according to a report released Thursday by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. The program costs the government and Medicare beneficiaries up to a billion dollars a year more than the original parameters of the […]
Report: Mass. Residents Paying More, Getting Less From Health Insurance
If Massachusetts residents have the feeling they’re getting less coverage from their health insurance even though it’s costing more, there’s now evidence that they’re right. A state report says Bay State premiums rose 9.7 percent between 2009 and 2011, while the value of that coverage shrank 5.1 percent. “What we’ve seen over the last couple of years […]
What You Should Know About The Obamacare Delay On Some Out-Of-Pocket Caps
The federal health law brings many big changes to the nation’s health system; in some ways the changes are spelled out in detail in the law, and in other ways we learn about them only as implementation proceeds. As KHN’s Julie Appleby reported in April, and the New York Times reported yesterday, the law’s cap […]
How Much Of A Subsidy Will You Get In Obamacare? Here’s An Estimate
If you buy your own health insurance, you’ve no doubt heard that subsidies will be available next year to help pay the premiums. But will you get a subsidy and how much? Researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation have a report out Wednesday that provides some insight. Based on their analysis, about 48 percent of adults […]
Poll: Majority Favors Charging Smokers Higher Insurance Rates, But Not Overweight People
Fifty-eight percent of Americans surveyed favor charging smokers higher insurance rates, but only 41 percent would charge overweight people more, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. Under the Affordable Care Act, states have the option of allowing health plans participating in online insurance marketplaces to charge smokers up to 50 percent higher premiums than non-smokers. […]
As Lawmakers Roam Their Home Territory, Health Law Arguments Simmer
The battle over the Affordable Care Act shows absolutely no signs of abating, so it’s no surprise that the packets distributed by both parties on Capitol Hill for members heading home for the August recess paint the 2010 health care law in starkly different ways. Before leaving town for the five-week-long break, House Republicans held […]
Talking The Health Law’s Impact On Hospitals Serving Medicare Patients
KHN Reporter Jordan Rau was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Monday where he talked about the latest round of readmissions penalties in Medicare. Read more: Armed With Bigger Fines, Medicare To Punish 2,225 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions KHN reporters will be returning to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal each Monday throughout the summer. Tune in each week to stay […]
More High-Deductible Plan Members Can’t Pay Hospital Bills
As employers and insurance companies shift more health costs into workers’ pockets, hospitals are making a discovery. The pockets aren’t bottomless. “The number of accounts that we’re seeing that relate to these high-deductible plans has been building, and it has been putting pressure on our bad debt levels,” Tenet Healthcare financial chief Daniel Cancelmi told […]
Q&A: How ACA Will Affect People With Autism
Autism advocates expected Obamacare to require insurers to cover treatment. But political pressure from states and insurers yielded a more ambiguous result.
Sebelius: We’re Open to ‘Uniquely Texan’ Approach
The federal government is open to allowing Texas to expand Medicaid coverage under Obamacare in a way that is “uniquely Texan,” HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday in Austin.
Fuzzy Math Behind Florida’s Health Insurance Projections, Group Says
After the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation released a chart and related information last week projecting that individual monthly health insurance premiums would rise 30 to 40 percent next year thanks to Obamacare, some critics cried “fuzzy math!” This week, the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, a left-leaning nonprofit research and education group, issued a […]
