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Republicans on Friday passes a controversial budget plan championed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, and though it stands nearly no chance in the Senate, it is likely a starting point for negotiations among lawmakers.
The medical device industry took a hit during legislative deal-making over health care last year, an excise tax that’s expected to yield $20 billion over 10 years, but the industry is using all its Capitol Hill muscle in a drive to kill the tax.
Seventeen governors sent a letter to congressional leaders in opposition to a plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to convert Medicaid into a block grant program. But their criticisms fall flat.
Current plans to improve quality and reduce waste should avoid the need for the Independent Payment Review Board to step in and order cuts, Medicare chief says.
The GOP vision for health care reform, as expressed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., is to limit federal health care spending to levels far below what they are today, and then let individuals make the best of it. The federal health law not only offers a more realistic approach to controlling costs, but a more humane one.
Eight health policy experts review the president’s proposals to cut the deficit while preserving Medicare and Medicaid.
Obama laid out his plans for preserving Medicare while cutting spending in the program, and he also rejected a Republican plan to give states block grants for Medicaid.
In a major speech at George Washington University today, President Barack Obama laid out a framework for controlling the deficit. Here are excerpts of what the president said about health care.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Marilyn Werber Serafini talk with Jackie Judd about President Obama’s speech outlining his plans for reducing the deficit, especially focusing on health care spending. He slammed the Republican plan, saying it would leave “seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry,” and he rejected GOP ideas to give states block grants for Medicaid.
President Obama on Wednesday spoke about reining in health care spending in Medicare and Medicaid as part of his proposal to reduce the federal deficit. Here are excerpts:
Obama proposes holding Medicare cost growth down by strengthening the Independent Payment Advisory Board and making Medicaid more flexible without using block grants.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey talks with Jackie Judd about an 11th hour spending deal reached late last week that would remove some minor provisions of the health care law and require that the Senate will vote separately on two measures the House already has approved
With states reducing the number of psychiatric beds, mentally ill patients often languish in hospital emergency rooms for several days, sometimes longer. At most, they get drugs but little counseling, and the environment is often harsh.
Nearly half of the states have received some type of help, including 11 states with Republican governors.
RAND Health Vice President and Director Arthur Kellermann, M.D., disputes the way his organization’s research was depicted in a recent column by John Goodman about Medicaid. Kellerman notes the study in question was designed to examine health care quality, not to determine the value of different types of insurance.
A majority of Americans give the country’s health system barely passing grades. Most people choose a hospital based on someone’s personal experience than looking at quality ratings. Yet when it comes to surgeons, people are evenly split on whether experience or data is the best guide.
Alec Vachon, who once worked for Republican Sen. Bob Dole and the Senate Finance Committee, says the GOP premium support proposal will run into trouble if funding doesn’t meet seniors’ needs to buy insurance.
The centers, designed to help low-income and uninsured people, offer an affordable option for care, but it can also be tough to get an appointment.
Pennsylvania has long been a laboratory for innovation in providing health coverage to the uninsured. But this legacy came crashing down earlier this year when 42,000 adultBasic enrollees lost their health insurance. The program’s termination was explained as a “fiscal reality,” but this fiscal decision is not a sound investment in the state’s future.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey talks with Jackie Judd about an 11th hour spending deal reached late last week that would remove some minor provisions of the health care law and require that the Senate vote on two measures the House already has approved
