Healthcare Reform

Policy Reforms Could Save Money While Preserving Medicare
   Given the right package of options, policymakers should be able to produce substantial budgetary savings while also preserving the Medicare program for current and future beneficiaries.
3/7/13 5:27 PM  read complete story

'Rate Shock' Not Caused by ACA's Age-Rating Provisions, Study Finds
   The ACA's so-called "age rating bands" are designed to prevent insurers from selling non-group coverage to adults age 64 or older for more than three times the premium they charge to a 21-year-old for the same coverage.
3/7/13 12:31 PM  read complete story

Transitioning Medicaid Patients to Medicare Could Pose Problems
   People who become eligible for Medicare in states without a comprehensive transition plan could face gaps in coverage, avoidable out-of-pocket costs, duplicative health premiums, and/or premium penalties for late enrollment into Medicare.
1/14/13 4:51 PM  read complete story

States Press Forward in Implementing Health Insurance Exchanges
   Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius continues leading the administration's efforts to focus on the positive aspects of ObamaCare. Just before the Chirstmas break, she publicly heralded the news that three more states are on track to implement the health care law and establish health insurance marketplaces -- a.k.a. "exchanges" -- in their states.
12/27/12 9:15 PM  read complete story

AMA Identifies States with Least Competitive Health Insurance Markets
   It appears that consolidation has resulted in the possession and exercise of health insurer monopoly power," the study notes, pointing to increased premiums, watered-down benefits and insurers' growing profitability ...
12/26/12 4:05 PM  read complete story

ACA Ends $12.7 Billion in Annual Excess Payments to Medicare Plans
   New policies enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will reduce costs and improve quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries, while rewarding high-performing Medicare Advantage plans, find the authors of a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.
10/16/12 04:05 AM  read complete story

Insurance Program Covers People with Pre-existing Conditions
   With all the talk about health care coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, it seems very few people are actually aware that coverage is available in every state as a result of Obamacare, a.k.a., the Affordable Care Act, says Dr. Dixie Swanson, a former television health reporter and physi...
10/2/12 5:38 PM  read complete story

IOM Report Sparks Renewed Interest in Health Care Reform
   The U.S. health care system "wasted" approximately $750 billion in 2009, much of it in the delivery of health services to older Americans, according to the 382-page Institue of Medicine report.
9/11/12 3:05 PM  read complete story

New Toolkit: Meeting the Demand for Physician Care
   Barring a successful effort by congressional Republicans to repeal the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA), the new law is expected to expand health insurance coverage to as many as 30 million previously uninsured Americans over the next few years. At the same time, physician shortages are likely to worsen across the nation. This forecast is especially troubling for seniors on Medicare as well as those who provide services to them.
8/22/12 12:56 PM  read complete story

ACA's Expansion of Medicaid Covers Highly Diverse Group
   A newly released report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute report finds that the approximately 15 million uninsured adults who could gain coverage under the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion are a diverse group in terms of age, race, and ethnicity.
8/10/12 1:04 PM  read complete story