Latest KFF Health News Stories
PhRMA, Advocates: Specialty Drug Costs For Patients Too High
Here’s the next salvo in the back and forth between insurers and the drug industry over drug prices: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America are pushing the Department of Health and Human Services to take action to protect consumers who have gained insurance via the health law’s online marketplaces from high, out-of-pocket costs for specialty drugs. Specialty drugs are most often […]
Obamacare Health Spending Surge? Not So Fast
A growing economy and an Obamacare spending surge, many suspected, had ended five years of moderate health-spending growth. Early government figures showed medical-cost acceleration at the beginning of the year. “Health care spending rose at the fastest pace since 1980 in the first quarter as the new health insurance law prompted many more Americans to […]
The Continuing Drama Over Medicaid Expansion
With Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe throwing in the towel in his effort to push a Medicaid expansion through the state’s General Assembly, KHN’s Julie Rovner joined Judy Woodruff on PBS NewsHour to discuss where Medicaid expansion stands in states across the country. Watch that conversation in the video below.
Study: Health Law Boosts Hospital Psych Care For Young Adults
Expanded coverage for young adults under the Affordable Care Act substantially raised inpatient hospital visits related to mental health, finds a new study by researchers at Indiana and Purdue universities. That looks like good news: Better access to care for a population with higher-than-average levels of mental illness that too often endangers them and people […]
Study Puts A Price Tag On Autism
Autism exacts a heavy toll on families across the country, but what is the financial cost of the disorder? Now we have an actual price tag: the lifetime cost of supporting a person with autism ranges from $1.4 million to $2.4 million in the United States, depending on whether the person also has an intellectual […]
What’s A Surgeon’s Role In An ACO? Not Much So Far, Survey Says
Accountable Care Organizations have given little attention to surgery in the early years of the Medicare program, choosing to focus instead on managing chronic conditions and reducing hospital readmissions. That’s according to a case study and survey published this week in the journal Health Affairs. The authors conducted case studies at four ACOs in 2012 […]
Medicaid Enrollment Surges By More Than 1 Million In April
Medicaid enrollment surged by more than 1 million people in April, bringing the total growth in the state-federal health insurance program for the poor since September to about 6 million, the Obama administration said Wednesday. The increase is significant because it shows Medicaid enrollment continued to grow even after the new state and federal online […]
Pre-Existing Condition Bans – Are They Really Gone?
“Welcome to Cigna,” said the letter, dated May 16, on behalf of my new employer, the Kaiser Family Foundation. They were placing me on a one-year waiting period for any pre-existing conditions. Seriously? Wasn’t the health law was supposed to end that? “We have reviewed the evidence of prior creditable coverage provided by you and/or […]
Most Americans Say The Health Law Has Not Affected Their Families: Poll
More than four years after enactment of the health law, six in 10 Americans say neither they nor their families have been affected by the sweeping measure, according to a poll released Friday. Among those who say the law has impacted them, Republicans are much more likely to say their families have been hurt by the […]
Can Employers Dump Workers To Health Exchanges? Yes, For A Price
How to expand Americans’ health insurance choices under the Affordable Care Act without sabotaging employer coverage? The Obama administration is still working to get the balance right. The latest tweak from the Internal Revenue Service essentially prohibits employers from giving workers tax-free dollars to buy policies in the online public marketplaces created by the health law. […]
Single-Payer Advocates Hit Capitol With New Sense Of Reality
Advocates for a single-payer “Medicare for all” health system are fanning out across Capitol Hill this week, lobbying members of Congress. But years of mostly fruitless struggles – and watching the intense opposition to the much less sweeping Affordable Care Act – appears to have left them with a much more clear-eyed view of what […]
Study: Limited Competition Raised Obamacare Prices
Many insurers only dipped a toe into the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces for their first year. Cigna, one of the country’s largest insurers, offered 2014 plans to individuals in fewer than half a dozen states. Humana is only in a little more than a dozen states. The biggest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, didn’t offer any policies […]
Survey: Many Women Unaware How Health Law Benefits Them
A large number of women face significant barriers to health care, and while the health law will likely help them get services, some are unaware of the benefits already in effect, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) Intended as a […]
Study: Diabetes Afflicts 1 In 3 Hospitalized Patients Over 34 In California
In California, roughly one in three hospitalized people over 34 years old has diabetes, increasing the complexity and cost of their care, according to a report released Thursday. Hospitalizations for patients with diabetes on average cost about $2,200 more than for patients who didn’t have the disease, regardless of the reason they were admitted, according […]
Harvard: Overused Medical Services Cost Medicare Billions
Medical overtreatment is the inverse of former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography: while easy to define in concept, it can be hard to know it when you see it. A treatment that is appropriate for one patient can also be unnecessary or even counterproductive for another, depending on the patient’s condition. This […]
States’ Medicaid Decisions Leave Health Centers, Patients In Lurch
More than 1 million patients who use federally funded community health centers will remain uninsured because they live in one of 24 states that chose not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, according to a study released Friday by researchers at George Washington University. Most of those patients live in the South, because […]
IRS Urged To Broaden Preventive Coverage In High-Deductible Plans
High deductible health plans paired with tax-free savings accounts — increasingly common in job-based insurance and long a staple for those who buy their own coverage – pose financial difficulties for people with chronic health problems. That’s because they have to pay the annual deductible, which could be $1,250 or more, before most of their medications […]
During Confirmation Hearing, Burwell Pledges Support For CHIP
Advocates of the Children’s Health Insurance Program cheered Thursday when President Obama’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services said she supports continued funding for the program, which covers about 8 million low-income children whose families’ income exceeds Medicaid’s eligibility guidelines. During a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing, Sylvia […]
Arizona Offers ‘Sneak Peak’ At Costs Of Shifting Kids Off CHIP
Families of Arizona children who were forced to switch from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to private plans sold in the federal marketplace are likely paying more and getting fewer benefits, according to a study released Thursday. Millions of families who are ineligible for Medicaid could soon face the same choice if Congress chooses […]
Report: Federal Exchange A Comparative Bargain
Sometimes there really are economies of scale. And the nation’s health insurance exchanges may be a case in point. As rocky as its rollout was, it cost the federal exchange, healthcare.gov, an average of $647 of federal tax dollars to sign up each enrollee, according to a new report. It cost an average of $1,503 […]
