Watch: Affordability Plagues Health Care in Its Shift From Nonprofit to Profit Machine
[embedded content] On What the Health? From KFF Health News, distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and host Julie Rovner sat down with Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, to talk about the likelihood of a national health care debate to rein in costs. As the midterm elections approach, the cost of health care […]
In Switching to Original Medicare, Beware of Medigap Plan Refusals
It’s open enrollment season for Medicare Advantage, when people currently enrolled in private managed-care plans can either sign up for a new one or switch to original Medicare through March 31. But there’s a catch: If people want to move to original Medicare and buy a supplemental Medigap insurance plan to cover some out-of-pocket costs, […]
‘Dark Money’ Group Angles for Higher Medicare Advantage Payments
If you judged by the more than 16,400 comments posted on a federal government website, you’d think there was a groundswell of older Americans demanding that federal officials hike payments to their Medicare Advantage health insurance plans. Yet about 82% of the comments are identical to a letter that appeared on the website of a […]
What the Health? From KFF Health News: RFK Jr.’s Very Bad Week
The Host It’s been a tough week for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In addition to Kennedy having surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, personnel issues continue to plague the department: The nominee to become surgeon general, an ally of Kennedy’s, may lack the votes for Senate confirmation. The controversial […]
Medicare Advantage ‘Dark Money’ Group Attempts To Win Higher Payments for Insurance Companies
Judging by more than 16,400 comments recently posted on a federal government website, you’d think there was a groundswell of older Americans demanding that federal officials hike payments to their Medicare Advantage health insurance plans. Yet about 82% of the comments are identical to a letter that appeared on the website of a secretive advocacy […]
What the Health? From KFF Health News: 40 Years of Health Policy
The Host This month marks host Julie Rovner’s 40th anniversary reporting on health policy in Washington. Over that time, she’s covered a vast range of topics, from the response to the AIDS epidemic, to Medicare and Medicaid changes, to the fight over the “Patients’ Bill of Rights” — and a half-dozen major reform fights, including […]
Even Patients Are Shocked by the Prices Their Insurers Will Pay — And It Costs All of Us
Samantha Smith of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, went into the operating room for emergency removal of an ectopic pregnancy. “I’m grateful I didn’t die,” she said, but she was shocked to see that the outpatient surgery was billed to her insurer for about $100,000. Jamie Estrada of Albuquerque, New Mexico, twice received injections of lidocaine in his […]
‘Kind of Morbid’: Health Premiums Threaten Their Nest Egg. A Terminal Diagnosis May Spare It.
COLUSA, Calif. — Early on, Jean Franklin got some career advice she followed religiously: “Pay yourself first.” So she did, socking away hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement savings by the time she became a stay-at-home mom at age 41. She and her husband, Charles, a former high school teacher who goes by Chaz, […]
When It Comes to Health Insurance, Federal Dollars Support More Than ACA Plans
Subsidies. Love ’em or hate them, they dominated the news during the Affordable Care Act’s sign-up season, and their reduction is now hitting many enrollees in the pocketbook. While lawmakers continue to disagree on a way forward, and the politics of affordability keeps the issue front and center, it would be understandable to think these […]
Trump Required Hospitals To Post Their Prices for Patients. Mostly It’s the Industry Using the Data.
Republicans think patients should be shopping for better health care prices. The party has long pushed to give patients money and let consumers do the work of reducing costs. After some GOP lawmakers closed out 2025 advocating to fund health savings accounts, President Donald Trump introduced his Great Healthcare Plan, which calls for, among other […]