Health care is in the headlines! To learn more about the issues, check out the clips and videos below.
If you’re like most Americans, you probably have one big question about health care reform: will the cost of health insurance skyrocket? “People do have some nervousness about rates going up,” says Amy Bach, executive director of the non-profit insurance advocacy group United Policyholders.
The Obama administration made public on Wednesday previously unpublished hospital charges for the 100 most common inpatient treatments in 2011, saying a similar release of physician data is on the horizon. The massive data file reveals wide variation in charges for these 100 services listed in hospitals' "chargemasters" -- industry jargon for what hospitals charge.
The Obama administration revealed what over 3,000 hospitals charge for common medical procedures in an early effort to challenge healthcare costs by showing consumers how prices for the same service can vary by tens of thousands of dollars. The most extensive release of hospital charge rates to date showed dramatic variations in prices between different hospitals, even when they are located in the same city or town.
The federal government released stunning figures Wednesday showing dramatic variations in what hospitals charge Medicare for routine procedures. The Medicare agency reported that medical claims for the same procedure can differ by tens of thousands of dollars, even within the same city — a situation healthcare experts have long lamented.
Have a heart attack in Ogdensburg, N.Y., and it’ll cost $15,087 on average. But if you are treated in Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville, Texas, the bill will be nearly $66,000. The federal government, for the first time, has published the prices charged by thousands of different U.S. hospitals, and the numbers confirm what health reform advocates have been screaming about for years: The charges vary enormously, and for seemingly unclear reasons.
Hospitals will now be required to tell patients how much they charge for procedures, a move federal officials said Wednesday should spark competition and lower costs. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released data Wednesday showing the differences in costs for 100 medical procedures, from surgery to poisoning treatment.
If you need a lower joint replacement, Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington D.C. will charge you or your insurance provider an average of $30,000, according to The Washington Post. Across town at George Washington University, the same procedure will cost $69,000. And at Las Colinas Medical Center near Dallas? $160,832.
In 2014, nearly 26 million Americans may be eligible for health insurance subsidies, according to data from Families USA, a national nonprofit focused on affordable health care. For those who may qualify, it’s essential they understand what subsidies they and their family could be entitled to under the Affordable Care Act.
Alice Marie Francis believes it's important to have health insurance, but finding a plan that fit her budget was no easy task. "Money is tight," says the 50-year-old Burbank mother of two, whose children are insured by their father's work-based policy.
Sen. Max Baucus said Tuesday that he’ll retire at the end of 2014, but he could still deepen his already considerable imprint on federal health policy through the rollout of the health reform law this fall and the entitlement battles likely to rage as the debt ceiling deadline approaches this summer. And Baucus’s departure could thrust the gavel of the Finance Committee into the hands of Oregon Sen.
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