affordable care act

Medicare Board Not Popular With Job Seekers

Posted on 01/31/2013 by | Washington Watch | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsAfter every presidential inauguration, ambitious policy wonks scan a “plum book” of available appointments. But some jobs are more like prunes. The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff says the new Independent Payment Advisory Board isn’t attracting the type of top talent in health and economics that was envisioned for the influential panel. The mission of the 15-member panel is nothing less than saving the economy by slowing down the growth of Medicare spending, with the hope that slowdown will put a brake …

The Story of Medicare — in Just 7 Minutes

Posted on 01/30/2013 by | News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsWhat better time to reflect on how far Medicare has come from its origins nearly 50 years ago to its position front and center in debates over how to bring the federal deficit under control? Written and produced by the staff of the Kaiser Family Foundation, “The Story of Medicare: A Timeline” offers an animated timeline of the program’s history, including the debate that led to its creation in 1965, the passage and repeal of the medicare catastrophic coverage in …

Penalty Could Keep Smokers Out of Health Overhaul

Posted on 01/25/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthBy Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama’s health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation. The Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1. For a 55-year-old …

Cracks Appearing In GOP Opposition To Health Law

Posted on 01/23/2013 by | Health | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsBy Phil Galewitz, Senior Correspondent, Kaiser Health News This story was produced in collaboration with USA Today. JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Phil Bryant and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney have known each other for 30 years and call themselves friends. Now, though, a wedge has come between the two elected Republicans: President Barack Obama’s health law. Bryant is trying to stop Chaney from creating a critical feature of the Affordable Care Act — an online health insurance marketplace that will allow an …

Unusual Respite From Surging Health Care Costs

Posted on 01/8/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin TodayBy Ricardo-Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans kept health care spending in check for three years in a row, the government reported Monday, an unusual respite that could linger if the economy stays soft or fade like a mirage if job growth comes roaring back. The nation’s health care tab stood at $2.7 trillion in 2011, the latest year available, said nonpartisan number crunchers with the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s 17.9 percent of the economy, which averages …

Medicaid Expansion: The Brinksmanship Begins

Posted on 12/2/2012 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin TodayBy Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s health care brinksmanship, with hundreds of billions of dollars and the well-being of millions of people at stake. President Barack Obama’s health care law expands Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people, but cost-wary states must decide whether to take the deal. Turn it down, and governors risk coming off as callous toward their neediest residents. Not to mention the likely second-guessing for walking away from a pot …

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