The Last Taboo
We live in a time when seemingly no subject is taboo. Yet, there remains one subject Americans seem unable to talk about in an honest and rational way: the inevitable decline of old age.
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We live in a time when seemingly no subject is taboo. Yet, there remains one subject Americans seem unable to talk about in an honest and rational way: the inevitable decline of old age.
Physicians, while disputing the charges of plans for euthanasia, say the debate on what is in the House health bill on end-of-life care could help focus attention on an underfunded service.
Section 1233 of the health overhaul bill approved by three House committees has been the subject of great debate. We present the language as written in the bill itself.
Elevating the commission, known as MedPAC, isn't about greasing the path for unpopular payment reductions, an obvious way to save money. It's about rethinking payment altogether. Even as MedPAC advised upping payments, commissioners quietly insisted for years that Congress should scrap its abstruse, fragmented rules for paying providers.
Some analysts say false claims that the health bill encourages seniors to end their lives early were purposely spread to undermine the bill. In fact, the bill would pay health care providers to discuss a patient's health care wishes. This story comes from our partner
President Barack Obama continued his press for public support of health reform initiatives Tuesday at what The White House called a "Health Insurance Reform Town Hall" meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
In negotiating health care legislation, lawmakers might want to look back to 1986. That was the year that a Democratic House and a Republican Senate worked together to pass a tax simplification bill. A full-court press by lobbyists is usually enough to stop a bill - but it wasn't in 1986. This story comes from our partner .
Today's Health on the Hill is mostly about health off the Hill. Jackie Judd talks with Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown about the contentious town hall meetings and how the lawmakers are preparing themselves for questions. The White House has launched a Web site to try to correct false rumors and to push the President's agenda on health reform.
Today's Health on the Hill is mostly about health off the Hill. Jackie Judd talks with Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown about the contentious town hall meetings and how the lawmakers are preparing themselves for questions. The White House has launched a Web site to try to correct false rumors and to push the President's agenda on health reform.
As President Obama and Congress struggle to bend the rising cost curve in order to make health care available to all Americans, the history of the first great expansion of health care coverage when Lyndon Johnson drove Medicare and Medicaid through Congress in 1965 offers some critical lessons.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday in a conference call with members of the Service Employees Internation Union that some people protesting at town hall meetings around America are trying to silence the health care debate.
As the economy has worsened, community health centers - which provide free and reduced-cost care to millions of Americans - have felt the pinch . Facilities, such as the Walker-Jones Health Center in Washington D.C., will have even more patients if Congress passes a health overhaul that expands coverage.
If the possibility of lesser reform doesn't motivate liberals, then maybe something else will: the possibility of no reform.
Some Massachusetts policymakers want to end the tradition of paying health care providers a separate fee for every service they provide. They say paying fees for every visit, test and procedure ordered is the main reason Massachusetts' health care costs are the highest in the nation. This story comes from our partner
For the tens of thousands of individual insurance agents nationwide, proposed changes to the health care system could radically alter how they do business.
In interviews, two agents talk about how they are bracing themselves for the post-reform environment. One thinks her fellow agents are too complacent, the other says "in every adversity, there is opportunity."
A trade group says insurers only make 1 cent off every dollar spent on health care. But that figure measures insurer profits against all the money pumped into the U.S. system. Economists say profits are traditionally calculated by how much insurers spend versus how much money they take in.
Many voters agree the current system is broken, but the "confusing babble" from D.C. sounds worse.
Obama and congressional leaders hope to reduce health care spending by promoting prevention to catch disease early. But some insurance and health officials say such efforts-although laudable-may not cut overall health costs.
Jackie Judd talks with Eric Pianin about the House Energy and Commerce Committee's vote last Friday, wrapping up its work on major health care legislation, before Congress adjourns for the August recess.
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