Julie Appleby reports on the implementation of the healthcare overhaul law, the interplay of healthcare treatments and costs, trends in health insurance and policy issues affecting hospitals for Kaiser Health News.
When a car rolls off an assembly line, the automaker knows exactly what parts, labor and facilities cost. Not so in healthcare, and now some health executives are trying to change that.
Even as many states gear up for tougher insurance regulations under the federal health law, Maine lawmakers last year bucked the trend, loosening rules they blamed for some of the highest premiums in the nation.
President Obama's recent pronouncement in favor of same-sex marriage has no legal effect on employers' decisions on whether to offer benefits to workers' domestic partners, but some advocates believe it could reinforce a decade-long trend toward coverage.