Mary Agnes Carey

Bipartisan Group Of Senators Concerned About Medicare Advantage Cuts

KFF Health News Original

Some Democrats have now joined their Republican counterparts in asking the Obama administration to moderate scheduled Medicare Advantage payment cuts for 2015. In a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner,  a bipartisan coalition of 40 senators urged the administration “to maintain payment  levels that will allow [Medicare Advantage] beneficiaries to […]

CBO Reports That Health Law Provision Called ‘Bailout’ By GOP Will Raise $8B

KFF Health News Original

New findings from the Congressional Budget Office may make it harder for Republicans to portray a provision in the health law designed to limit insurers’ losses and gains as a “bailout” for the industry. The House Oversight and Government Reform panel is scheduled to have a hearing Wednesday examining the law’s “risk corridors,” which limit […]

GOP Senators’ New Health Overhaul Plan Would Tax Some Workers’ Benefits

KFF Health News Original

A health care overhaul plan released Monday by three Senate Republicans may reveal how the party will handle the issue for the 2014 elections and beyond. Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Richard Burr of North Carolina unveiled a legislative framework that would scrap much of the 2010 health law, replacing those provisions […]

Wyden Plan May Be Vision For Future Medicare Reforms

KFF Health News Original

Key members of both parties and both chambers of Congress stand before the podium to introduce their bipartisan Medicare proposal.  Insurers and health care providers welcome it. Seniors’ groups are on board, too. If Congress is ever going to overhaul Medicare, it will almost certainly have to happen this way.  Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat widely […]

Oregon To Feds: Give Tax Credits To Shoppers Who Bypassed Troubled Exchange

KFF Health News Original

Two officials from the Oregon governor’s office were on a mission in D.C. Tuesday — trying to get a federal go-ahead to compensate individuals who purchased insurance on their own because of the breakdown of the state’s health care exchange. Sean Kolmer, the governor’s health policy adviser, and Dan Carol, director of multi-state and strategic […]

Medicare Beneficiaries Have Good Access To Doctors, Study Finds

KFF Health News Original

As key congressional committees consider legislation to repeal Medicare’s physician payment formula, a new study shows that the program’s beneficiaries have generally good access to doctors. The report, prepared by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that 96 percent of beneficiaries report having access to a doctor’s office or clinic, and about 90 percent of beneficiaries […]

Obamacare Deadline For Jan. 1 Coverage Extended One Week

KFF Health News Original

Consumers will have an extra week — until Dec. 23 — to enroll in health insurance coverage that begins Jan. 1, Obama administration officials said Friday. Millions of consumers have been frustrated by their inability to sign up for coverage through healthcare.gov, the federal website for residents of 36 states, which went public Oct. 1.  While […]

17 Million People Eligible For Premium Subsidies, Study Finds

KFF Health News Original

Seventeen million people who are now uninsured or who buy their own health insurance will be eligible for tax credits next year to help purchase coverage on the health law’s online marketplaces or exchanges, according to an analysis released Tuesday. More than a third of those people live in just three states: California with nearly […]