Website News and Research

RSS

Healthcare.Gov progress reports and post-mortems

KHN report looks forward, about what is next in the queue in efforts to fix the website -- including possible fixes that would allow insurers and web-based brokers to enroll customers directly into subsidized coverage.

26 Nov 2013

Health law's Medicaid expansion running smoothly

While many Americans have struggled to sign up for insurance on the troubled healthcare.gov website, enrollment is moving faster for Medicaid in states that opted into the expanded program.

26 Nov 2013

Administration moves health plan sign-ups to mid-November in 2015

On Friday, the Obama administration announced that starting next year, it will push back the start of the sign-up period for those buying insurance until mid-November, rather than mid-October. Republicans called the shift a blatantly political move.

25 Nov 2013

Anti-epileptic drugs, bone loss and supplements

Antiepileptic drugs are medications used to prevent and control seizure disorders. These medications are also frequently used for other diagnoses other than seizures, however this current study concentrated on patients with a seizure disorder.

25 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 25, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how political concerns and strategies are taking shape as a result of healthcare.gov's difficulties.

25 Nov 2013

Capsules: Obamacare deadline for Jan. 1 coverage extended one week

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 the administration has said the site will work smoothly for most customers by Nov. 30, some advocates had been concerned that consumers still might not have enough time to sign up for coverage that would take effect Jan. 1.

25 Nov 2013

Viewpoints: Opposition to Medicaid dooming the South; Obama's 'blank check' for insurers; one woman's quest for coverage

As inapt as those comparisons are, what is distressingly similar today is how the South is once again committed to taking a backward path. By refusing to expand health care for the working poor through Medicaid, which is paid for by the federal government under Obamacare, most of the old Confederacy is committed to keeping millions of its own fellow citizens in poverty and poor health. They are dooming themselves, further, as the Left-Behind States (Timothy Egan, 11/21).

25 Nov 2013

Consumers given more time to get healthcare.gov coverage that starts in January

Administration officials announced Friday that consumers would be permitted to enroll in a health insurance plan on healthcare.gov as late as Dec. 23 for coverage that begins on Jan. 1 next year.

25 Nov 2013

In health law politics, redistribution is a toxic word

"Redistribution is a loaded word that conjures up all sorts of unfairness in people's minds," said William M. Daley, who was Mr. Obama's chief of staff at the time. Republicans wield it "as a hammer" against Democrats, he said, adding, "It's a word that, in the political world, you just don't use."

25 Nov 2013

Some cities delay plans to move retirees to marketplaces for coverage

The problems with the healthcare.gov website has put a hold on those plans.

25 Nov 2013

As popularity of health law 'sinks,' some marketing will wait until new year

In the meantime, a new poll suggests the problems with the health law rollout have harmed the public's view of the law as a whole, and a second poll suggests the public sees addressing health care costs as the central issue.

25 Nov 2013

House Speaker Boehner enrolls in Obamacare after initial errors

The Washington Post examines if Sen. Mary Landrieu actually cast the "deciding vote" for the health law as a conservative group is saying she did in an advertising campaign against her. In the meantime, House Speaker John Boehner enrolled Thursday for health coverage through the District of Columbia's online insurance marketplace -- after initially receiving errors.

23 Nov 2013

Financial analysts say in addition to political turmoil, website problems could send stocks into turmoil

Wall Street health care analysts warned Thursday that a failure to successfully launch HealthCare.gov by Nov. 30 could send Democrats fleeing from Obamacare and industry stocks into turmoil. "If the website is not functioning on Nov. 30, then I think you see a stampede of Democratic legislators in risky elections next year," said Carl McDonald, a senior analyst at Citi Investment Research, at a conference organized by the Center for Studying Health System Change (Cheney, 11/21).

23 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 22, 2013

Today's headlines include reports that the Obama administration will push back 2015 Obamacare enrollment by a month, starting Nov. 15, 2014, instead of Oct. 15, 2014.

22 Nov 2013

Health law opinions: Obama asks you to talk ACA at Thanksgiving; Rove says Dems views on success are 'delusional'

Here's a hypothetical scenario: You're the president. You've just botched the roll out of what should have been your signature accomplishment, a major reform of the health insurance system. The public's hopping mad because you said anyone who liked his insurance plan would be able to keep it, but that wasn't true. So what do you do now? What the actual president did was suggest we all discuss health insurance with their families this holiday season (Andrew Rosenthal, 11/20).

22 Nov 2013

HealthCare.gov: It's getting better all the time -- but system flaws, failures persist

Some states and insurers are contemplating alternatives if the website isn't ready by a critical December deadline. Meanwhile, just as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was talking up the website in Florida, it crashed before her eyes.

22 Nov 2013

Oregon health law insurance exchange never worked, officials questioned on problems

Oregon residents are facing a state health exchange application deadline in two weeks to get coverage at the beginning of 2014, even as the online aspect of the marketplace still doesn't work -- and never did. In the meantime, Oregon lawmakers question officials on the exchanges problems and when they knew about them.

22 Nov 2013