Federal health care reform

Where We Stand

Expanding Health Coverage in Kentucky: Why It Matters
This Kentucky Voices for Health issues brief provides highlights of recent research that clearly illustrates why expanding health coverage matters to Kentucky. Click here to review the brief. Issued 9/9/09


Health Reform Comparison Tool Now Reflects Proposal From Senate Finance Committee

The Kaiser Family Foundation's interactive side-by-side health reform comparison tool now includes details from the proposal from the Senate Finance Committee, also known as the Chairman’s Mark, which will be considered by the committee next week. With the update, the online tool allows users to compare any or all of 12 different plans, including the plans approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and by the three House committees with responsibilities for health reform (H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, also known as the House Tri-Committee bill).

Users can choose which proposals to compare, as well as specific characteristics about those proposals, including coverage, cost containment and financing. The tool also allows users to print out the comparison of all the plans together. The Foundation will continue to update the tool to reflect major new proposals and any significant changes to the plans already introduced.

Federal Health Reform Links

Health Care Reform(U.S. House of Representatives): This page, developed by the U.S. House Majority Leader, provides summaries and full text of the health reform legislation (the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009)passed by the U.S. House on November 7.

Kaiser Health News: The Kaiser Family Foundation is a leading health policy organization that also operates statehealthfacts.org - one of the most comprehensive health data sites in the country. The health news site provides daily health policy reports and tracks the latest developments in federal health reform.

Congressional Quarterly: Congressional Quarterly (CQ) is a respected nonpartisan journal that covers the federal government. This page contains CQ’s coverage of federal health reform.

The Hill: This is health reform coverage from The Hill—another Washington, D.C. based periodical that reports on the federal government.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The health reform page of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, another leading national organization that conducts research and provides grant funding for health reform activities.

Politico: Politico is an online journal that follows American politics. Their health reform page contains commentary on the current debate.

Health reform.gov: This is the official health reform web site of the Obama Administration.

National Council of State Legislatures: The NCSL is the national organization that serves the 50 state legislatures and their site is chocked full of great information. This is a link to their federal health reform page.

 

View Today's Headlines from Kaiser Health News


FACTOIDS

Uninsured Kentuckians are older, poorer, and more likely to work part-time than the average American who has no health coverage.

The vast majority (83%) of uninsured Kentuckians are low-income workers whose jobs generally do not provide coverage.

Kentuckians without health insurance are three times more likely to skip going to a doctor or needed medical treatment than insured Kentuckians.

Uninsured Kentuckians are more than twice as likely as those with insurance to report having problems paying a medical bill, being contacted by a collection agency about medical bills, going without basic necessities due to medical bills, and exhausting savings to pay medical bills.

One in three Kentuckians (34%), receives health coverage from a publicly funded source, such as Medicaid, Medicare, or the Kentucky Employees Health Plan, which covers all local school district employees and active and retired state employees.

About half of Kentucky’s population (48%) obtains health coverage from private employers.

It is estimated that 57.9% of all private employers in Kentucky provide health coverage to their employees, which is slightly better than the national average of 55.8%. However, only 42% of small employers in Kentucky (employing 50 or fewer employees) offer coverage.

State researchers who estimated the cost of providing coverage to the uninsured in 2004 concluded that the benefits to society outweigh the additional costs by as much as $871 million annually.

Nine of 10 Kentuckians (91%) surveyed in the 2008 Kentucky Health Issues Poll favored providing access to affordable, quality health care to all Americans.