Will Health Care Savings Be Used To Reduce The Deficit?
As health care legislation falters, health groups worry that proposed spending cutbacks might be used to narrow the budget gap, not expand coverage.
The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Showing 261 - 280 of 304
As health care legislation falters, health groups worry that proposed spending cutbacks might be used to narrow the budget gap, not expand coverage.
The president has long championed comparative effectiveness research, saying it would provide crucial information to determine which regimen or drug should be used. But critics fear that could lead to an effort to cut costs and restrict patients' choices.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller says Congress will pass health overhaul legislation this year even though Democratic leaders are increasingly focusing on the economy and jobs.
The Democrats' health overhaul legislation is in trouble for many reasons, including key policy decisions that led many Americans to wonder whether they would wind up worse off.
The final decision on who should supervise health exchanges is critical to health plan choices available to consumers, the cost of the premiums and the clout regulators may have.
Now that the Senate has passed a hotly debated health care bill, Congress is headed to the next step: House-Senate negotiations in January to try to hammer out a final version. Here's where things stand and how you might be affected.
Democrats' health plan would give agencies more power to test and expand promising approaches to holding down costs, but the question remains: Can lawmakers resist interfering in efforts that could hurt incomes of home-state providers?
Hospitals, doctors and insurers are opposed to allowing people under 65 to join Medicare
To get the necessary 60 votes to pass health overhaul legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must resolve Democrats' disagreements on the public option, abortion, cost and affordability.
While much of the attention paid to the Senate health reform bill has been about the public option or financing, there are many lesser-known provisions that would affect consumers.
The Senate and House health bills differ in important ways. We ask and answer questions consumers might have about the bills.
Majority Leader Harry Reid added new taxes and modified major provisions of health bills passed by two Senate panels in a health bill unveiled Wednesday night.
Some say moving kids from the Children's Health Insurance Program to health exchanges would add stability, but others fear they could lose benefits and their families could face higher co-payments for coverage.
Democrats get new momentum from House passage of a health care bill, but face new tests in bridging differences within the party -- and between the chambers -- on cost, financing and coverage.
Those who want a health reform bill passed by Christmas fear that if that doesn't happen, there could be a repeat of the brutal August town hall meetings. Others don't think the situation is so dire and say that Democrats could deliver the bill to Obama by the spring.
House Democrats late Tuesday released a 42-page "manager's amendment" to accompany their health care legislation.
Despite all the controversy, a new Congressional Budget Office estimate indicates that relatively few people would be helped by a public health insurance plan. Any "opt-out" provision means at least some states are likely to bar a government-backed plan within their borders.
The finances of Hillsboro Medical Center in North Dakota improved after it got a "critical access" designation. Sens. Conrad, D-N.D., Wyden, D-Ore., Pryor, D-Ark., and Brownback, R-Kan., want to make it easier for other rural hospitals to get the designation as part of health reform.
With the support of a lone Republican, Olympia Snowe, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill that would assure that most Americans would have access to health insurance, end discriminatory insurance industry practices and impose a tax on high-costhealth care plans. The bill will now be combined with the HELP Committee's bill before a full Senate vote.
Senate Finance Committee health care legislation would cost $829 billion over the next decade according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Wednesday.
Stay informed by signing up for the Morning Briefing and other emails:
© 2026 KFF