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Last week, the president said the country has serious issues to address. He’s right. One of the biggest is the budget challenge. Unfortunately, the president’s carefully orchestrated attack on the Ryan plan has made it much less likely that real progress will be made before 2013 to address the problem.
During the month of April — Minority Health Month — the Obama administration took significant steps to build momentum for efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic health inequities. But with this momentum the stakes have become higher than ever, just as fiscal and political pressures mount that could undermine progress.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Politico Pro’s David Nather talk with Jackie Judd about lawmakers’ return to work this week on lowering the federal deficit and how health programs could be affected.
Studies presented this weekend at the American Society on Aging conference say hoarders are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and have social phobias rather than obsessive compulsive disorder.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Politico Pro’s David Nather talk with Jackie Judd about Congress’ return to Washington to work on proposals to lower the deficit. How to, and if, Medicare and Medicaid are reformed in the process are part of the mix of policy and politics lawmakers are considering in their work.
Why do seniors receive Medicare benefits totaling more than twice what they pay in to the system?
Entrepreneurs create new private marketplaces
According to a new survey, emergency rooms doctors say crowding is caused by insured people who can’t find a doctor to treat them.
Beginning in 2012, bad grades from unhappy patients could cause hospitals to lose out on bonuses.
KHN’s Bara Vaida joined Santa Clara University professor Brad Joondeph and the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher to discuss the progress of legal challenges to the law.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Jackie Judd report on a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll that reveals a split among the public on the GOP plan to cut Medicare cost growth.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll finds 30 percent of seniors support the effort to switch Medicare to a voucher-type program. Among all adults, opinion is more evenly divided, but confusion is rampant.
KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey talks with Jackie Judd about varied reaction by Americans and lawmakers to the GOP plan to reduce the deficit by making changes to Medicare. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows most seniors oppose some GOP-proposed changes at a greater rate than the general public, which views it more favorably.
Michael T. McRaith, who is taking a new job shortly with the Treasury Department, says state or regional health insurers are having trouble remaining viable.
A short walk down memory lane — to a retired auto worker’s 1959 congressional testimony — offers a stark reminder that Republican plans to change Medicare could turn back time and leave many seniors unable to pay their medical bills.
Many states are trying to restrain Medicaid spending by putting more people into managed care plans, but with billions of dollars at stake, insurers and health providers are lobbying hard for their interests.
This year, seniors enrolled in Medicare no longer have to pay for more than a dozen tests and services to prevent disease thanks to the health law. Many, however, aren’t lining up for mammograms or colonoscopies though free wellness checks are luring many.
The groups are financed through a monthly fee, and those revenues are divvied up and sent to members when they have health care expenses.
The billing can get complicated if doctors find a polyp during a screening: Some insurers
