KFF Health News: Trump’s Idea for Health Accounts Has Been Tried. Millions of Patients Have Ended Up in Debt.
Sarah Monroe once had a relatively comfortable middle-class life.
She and her family lived in a neatly landscaped neighborhood near Cleveland. They had a six-figure income and health insurance. Then, four years ago, when Monroe was pregnant with twin girls, something started t... Read more
KFF Health News: Health Savings Accounts, Backed by GOP, Cover Fancy Saunas but Not Insurance Premiums
With the tax-free money in a health savings account, a person can pay for eyeglasses or medical exams, as well as a $1,700 baby bassinet or a $300 online parenting workshop.
Those same dollars can’t be used, though, to pay for most baby formulas, toothbrushes — or insuranc... Read more
KFF Health News: As Health Companies Get Bigger, So Do the Bills. It’s Unclear if Trump’s Team Will Intervene.
A cancer patient might live in a town with four oncology groups, but only one accepts his insurance — the one owned by his insurer. A young couple could see huge bills after their child is born, because their insurer agreed to the health system’s rates in exchange for a contr... Read more
Health Care Costs Surge As ACA Open Enrollment Begins
Americans shopping for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace insurance plans during open enrollment – which began this Saturday – are experiencing confusion and dramatically more expensive premiums. This includes five million older Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 who ... Read more
Social Security Callers Waiting Hours, Or Sometimes Days, for Help
Seniors and people with disabilities calling the Social Security Administration (SSA) face endless looping music, long wait times, useless robot messages, and extended periods between a request and an actual callback, according to a new report from the Washington Post.
The Adm... Read more
KFF Health News: Shutdown Halts Some Health Services as Political Risks Test Parties’ Resolve
Threats of a federal government shutdown have gone from being an October surprise to a recurring theme. This time around, though, the stakes are higher.
Federal funding ran out at midnight on Oct. 1, after Congress failed to pass even a stopgap budget while negotiations contin... Read more
KFF Health News: AI Will Soon Have a Say in Approving or Denying Medicare Treatments
[caption id="attachment_572" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Mehmet Oz, chief of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said during a June press conference that “violence in the streets” had prompted the Trump administration to take on the issue of prior authoriza... Read more
KFF Health News: Team Trump’s Answer to Ballooning Obamacare Premiums: Less Generous Coverage
Trump administration officials, looking at the possible impact of large insurance premium increases for millions of next year’s Obamacare customers, want more people to consider plans with less generous benefits and high deductibles.
The agency that oversees the ACA announce... Read more
Report: Social Security Benefit Cuts Would Be Devastating for Americans
More than half (56 percent) of Americans surveyed in a new analysis from Nationwide Financial agreed that they would “not be able to survive” if they even lost half of their monthly Social Security payment.
The survey showed that beneficiaries are having a hard time making... Read more