Headlines

CBO: Repealing Obama healthcare law will increase budget deficit, The Hill, May 15, 2013

Congressional budget analysts said Wednesday that repealing ObamaCare would increase the deficit by scrapping the law's taxes, fees and spending cuts. The notice from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) came ahead of Thursday's House vote on full repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

CMS Won’t Penalize Hospitals In States Slow To Expand Medicaid, Kaiser Health News, May 14, 2013

The Obama administration announced that for the next two years, it doesn’t plan to penalize states that have yet to expand Medicaid coverage under the federal health law by targeting them for reduced Medicaid funding.

Budget request denied, Sebelius turns to health executives to finance Obamacare, Washington Post, May 10, 2013

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said.

One hospital charges $8,000 — another, $38,000, Washington Post, May 8, 2013

For the first time, the federal government will release the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges have been closely held by facilities that see a competitive advantage in shielding their fees from competitors. What the numbers reveal is a health-care system with tremendous variation in the costs of services.

Slowdown in Health Costs’ Rise May Last as Economy Revives, New York Times, April 6, 2013

One of the economic mysteries of the last few years has been the bigger-than-expected slowdown in health spending, a trend that promises to bolster wages and help close the wide federal deficit over the long term — but only if it persists.

State-By-State: A Progress Report On Medicaid Expansion, Kaiser Health News, May 2, 2013

As of May 1, 16 states plus the District of Columbia have approved the expansion or are headed in that direction, 27 have rejected it or about to and seven states could still go either way.