Capsules: Fiscal deal kills future funding for health law's co-ops; Consumers may draw wrong conclusions from medical prices

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Phil Galewitz reports on a 'fiscal cliff' development that will impact health insurance co-ops: "The fiscal cliff deal, approved by Congress on New Year's Day, eliminates most of the more than $1.4 billion in remaining funding from the federal health law for new nonprofit, customer-owned health plans designed to compete against the major for-profit insurers" (Galewitz, 1/2).

Also on the blog, Shefali S. Kulkarni reports on medical prices: "Some health policy experts and consumer advocates are pushing for greater transparency in the pricing of medical good and services. If consumers know the price of an item, so the thinking goes, they'll make smarter decisions about whether they need it" (Kulkarni, 1/3). Check out what else is on the blog.