Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Hospital Visits Fell When Seniors Got Drug Coverage
Eleven years ago Bob Bennett, then a Republican senator from Utah, made a fiscal sales pitch for including prescription drugs in Medicare coverage for seniors. “Medicare says if you go to the hospital and run up a bill of however many tens of thousands of dollars to stay that many days, we will pay for […]
Health Law Push Brings Thousands Into Colo. Medicaid Who Were Already Eligible
The big marketing push to get people enrolled in health coverage between October and March resulted in 3 million people signing up for Medicaid. Hundreds of thousands of those people were children who were already eligible and could have signed up even before the Affordable Care Act made coverage much more generous. They came “out of the woodwork” to […]
Survey: Health Insurance Enrollment In California More Complex Than Anticipated
Newly insured Californians felt relieved after signing up for health coverage but encountered numerous obstacles with technology and communication during the enrollment process, according to a report released Monday by the California HealthCare Foundation. Surveyed in interviews and focus groups, consumers said they had trouble getting through to the call center, choosing a health plan […]
State Exchange Directors Offer Enrollment Snapshots
This post was corrected and updated at 4:50 pm, April 11. The Obama administration is touting the success of the health law’s open enrollment, which signed up at least 7.5 million Americans for health coverage through the online insurance marketplaces. But the experience varied according to states and Families USA brought together five state exchange […]
Letters to the Editor is a periodic KHN feature.
What Consumers Can Learn From Medicare Payment Data
Wednesday the federal government published details on Medicare’s $77 billion in payments to physicians, drug testing companies and other medical practitioners during 2012. KHN’s Jordan Rau, who reported on what can be learned from the newly-released data, discussed Medicare payments to providers with NPR’s Melissa Block on “All Things Considered” Wednesday night. Audio of that conversation […]
A Call For Pricey Treatment For Millions With Hepatitis C
Authors of the first-ever global hepatitis C guidelines went big Tuesday, advocating for worldwide use of two of the most expensive specialty drugs in the world. The new guidelines, from the World Health Organization, give strong endorsement to the two newest medicines. Gilead Science’s Sovaldi costs $1,000 per pill/$84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment and […]
Primary Care Shortage? Not For The Insured, Study Shows
Researchers posing as nonelderly adult patients made nearly 13,000 calls to primary care practices across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and eight other states between fall 2012 and spring of last year. What they found may provide some comfort amid growing concerns of doctor shortages, especially as more people gain coverage through the Affordable Care Act, potentially […]
Report: Jails House 10 Times More Mentally Ill Than State Hospitals
In 44 states and the District of Columbia, at least one prison or jail holds more people with serious mental illnesses than the largest state psychiatric hospital, according to a report released Tuesday by the Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs’ Association. Across the country, an estimated 356,268 people with mental illnesses including bipolar […]
Medicaid Enrollment Increased By 3 Million From October To February
The number of low-income people enrolled in Medicaid rose by 3 million to 62.3 million from October through February as more Americans joined the state-federal insurance program through state and federal online insurance marketplaces, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services. States that expanded Medicaid eligibility under the […]
Why Some Don’t Pay Their Obamacare Premium: It’s Not What You Think
A new analysis finds that many people who signed up for a Covered California health insurance exchange plan are likely to drop the coverage for a good reason: They found insurance elsewhere. Researchers at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center released estimates Wednesday showing that about 20 percent of Covered California enrollees are expected to leave […]
As Insurance Enrollment Exceeds 7M, Obama Says Health Law ‘Here To Stay’
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1 The Obama administration took a victory lap Tuesday as enrollment through the health law’s exchanges topped 7 million, a goal previously thought untouchable when the website healthcare.gov sputtered and crashed as sign-ups began last fall. In a statement in the Rose Garden, President Barack Obama, said, “The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care […]
Healthcare.gov Woes Frustrate In-Person Helpers Around The Country
Last minute health insurance shoppers nationwide turned up in record numbers online Monday, and they also showed up in person at clinics, county health departments and libraries to sign up for Obamacare on the last official day of open enrollment. Here are dispatches from public radio reporters in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Houston — three of […]
For California’s Uninsured, A Rush To The Finish
Uninsured Californians flocked to shopping malls, beauty salons, clinics and libraries Monday to meet the deadline for enrolling in health coverage. The website of the state-run insurance exchange, coveredca.com, was so inundated that officials directed some consumers who began online applications to return later to complete them. The state was seeing a “huge surge” in […]
Former Young Invincible Becomes Less So
LAKEPORT, Calif.—When we last left Brad Stevens, he was living in Lakeport, Calif., a struggling massage therapist in a struggling town on the southern tip of Clear Lake. Brad has been uninsured his entire adult life and believed firmly that clean living and exercise could stave off any need for medical care. After a bike […]
Obamacare’s National Enrollment Looks OK, But States Matter More
With this year’s deadline to register for individual health insurance just a weekend away, much attention is being lavished on two numbers — the 6 million Americans who have signed up so far, and the percentage of those folks who are (or aren’t) young. But experts say the national numbers actually don’t mean very much. “These […]
Obama Announces 6 Million Have Signed Up For Insurance
More than 6 million people have signed up for health insurance through the health law’s state and federal online marketplaces, or exchanges, since Oct. 1, the administration announced Thursday. President Barack Obama, who is traveling in Europe, announced the number in a conference call with groups that are helping consumers sign up for coverage. In a blog […]
What’s Working, What Isn’t As Healthcare.gov Deadline Is Extended
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey was on PBS NewsHour Wednesday to talk about the Obama administration’s plan to allow extra time for Americans to sign up for health insurance coverage under the health law.
Consumers Get $10B In Subsidies For Health Coverage, Study Finds
Americans have already qualified for about $10 billion in tax credits to help them purchase private health insurance this year through the Affordable Care Act, according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) That’s an average of $2,890 for each of the 3.5 million people […]
Half Of Uninsured Not Planning On Getting Coverage, Poll Finds
With less than a week left for customers to apply for insurance through the health care marketplaces, a poll released Wednesday finds that half of the people still without health coverage intend to remain uninsured. Five million people have signed up for insurance since the marketplaces created by the federal health law opened in October. The […]
