Health Care Reform:

News and Features Related to Health Care Reform

101. Experts Predict Medicare Fund Shortage
     

     March 25, 2008 -- Medicare's trust fund will spend more than it receives from taxes this year, a report warned Wednesday. The event marks the beginning of what Bush administration officials predict is the start of a slide toward possible bankruptcy for Medicare's Part A Trust Fund, which pays hospit

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102. Brand-Name Prescription Drug Costs Up
     

     March 5, 2008 -- The cost of brand-name prescription drugs rose again in 2007, according to the advocacy group AARP. But the prescription drug industry says AARP's numbers miss the mark. The AARP Public Policy Institute's latest Rx Watchdog Report tracks the prices that manufacturers charge wholesal

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103. Health Spending to Double by 2017
     

     Feb. 26, 2008 -- Health care spending will take up a fifth of the U.S. economy in the next decade, according to government economic projections released today. Government economists predict that the nation's total health care bill will nearly double from $2.2 trillion this year to $4.3 trillion by 2

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104. 'America's 50 Best Hospitals' Listed
     

     Feb. 25, 2008 -- HealthGrades, a health care ratings company, today released its second annual America's 50 Best Hospitals report. The hospitals on the list "have demonstrated superior clinical quality for the most consecutive years" from 2003 to 2008, states the report. The list is based on Medicar

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105. Bush Proposes Health Cuts in Budget
     

     Feb. 4, 2008 -- Government health care programs would face deep cuts under a federal budget proposed by the Bush administration on Monday. The $3.1 trillion budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 proposes cutting Medicare by $183 billion over the next five years, including $13 billion in cuts n

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106. Doctors' Group Wants Insurance for All
     

     Jan. 31, 2008 -- The nation's biggest organization of specialty doctors called on presidential candidates Thursday to back health insurance coverage for all Americans. Saying the U.S. health care system is "failing," the American College of Physicians (ACP) threw its support behind universal insuran

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107. Bush Wants Health Insurance Tax Breaks
     

     Jan. 28, 2008 -- President Bush proposed new tax breaks for individuals who buy their own health insurance, making the proposal the only new health care initiative of his final year in office. The proposal came in President Bush's final State of the Union address to Congress Monday night. In it he p

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108. Uninsured Get Healthier With Medicare
     

     Dec. 27, 2007 -- Compared with those with health insurance, the uninsured get sicker and sicker as they age -- until they qualify for Medicare. The finding comes from a huge survey of 5,006 Americans with health insurance and 2,227 Americans who were persistently or intermittently uninsured from age

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109. Buying Health Insurance on Your Own
     

     Dec. 3, 2007 -- Most people who try to buy health insurance on their own find that they either can't get it or can't afford it, even if they are relatively healthy, a yearlong investigation by Consumer Reports shows. Of the roughly one in seven people surveyed who had no health insurance, 76% said t

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110. Part D Open Enrollment: 12 Questions
     

     Nov. 16, 2007 -- Medicare's Part D prescription drug plan is about to enter its second year. The open enrollment period lasts from Nov. 15, 2007 to Jan. 1, 2008. It's the time for new Medicare beneficiaries to choose a plan for the first time and for existing beneficiaries to look over their plans a

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