In an effort to curb rising healthcare costs, states are limiting Medicaid hospital coverage for the poor to as few as 10 days a year. State governments claim the move is necessary to balance their meager budgets which have been battered by the economic downturn and the end to federal stimulus funding that helped keep their Medicaid programs afloat. Hospital executives and advocates for the impoverished adamantly oppose the measure, as it will place limits on medical care, bear more costs to hospitals, and inflate charges for privately insured patients.

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC), a federal program that administers scholarships and loan repayment programs to government-approved medical professionals, has nearly tripled in size, the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Department announced Thursday. During the announcement, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (left) declared that 20 percent of Americans live in "underserved" medical areas, and that NHSC ensures these populations have access to quality healthcare services. "When you don't have access to primary care, small health problems grow into big ones. Chronic conditions that could be managed spiral out of control," asserted Sebelius. "Here in America, no one should go with[out] the care they need just because of where they live."

Health insurance costs continue to rise as President Obama’s healthcare overhaul begins to affect Americans’ insurance premiums, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET). Leaders in health policy analysis and communication, Kaiser and HRET found that annual family insurance premiums have spiked this year at a rate three times higher than in 2010, significantly outpacing wage increases and general inflation.

In June 2009, President Obama addressed the American Medical Association to promote his national healthcare bill, as he declared a seemingly forthright promise to the American people: "No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what," he vowed.

The true costs of ObamaCare continue to rise, as budget projections under the healthcare law are being understated by as much as $50 billion per year, according to a new report from Cornell economist Richard Burkhauser and his colleagues from Cornell and Indiana University. This alarming revelation is due to official budget forecasts that neglect to account for employees’ spouses and children — which could result in hundreds of billions more in taxpayers’ dollars over the next 10 years.

Religious groups and pro-life advocates denounced a new ObamaCare mandate requiring health insurance plans to cover birth control and other "preventive care" services for women, with no co-pays. Drafted by the Institute of Medicine and announced last week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the new requirements will take effect on or after August 1, 2012.

New health insurance requirements announced by the Obama administration on Monday will force health insurance plans to cover birth control and voluntary sterilization — with no co-pays — as preventive care for women. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service disclosed that the new guidelines, drafted by the Institute of Medicine, will take effect on or after August 1, 2012, and they are expected to apply to both individual and employer-based insurance plans.

A report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) calls for a sweeping overhaul of U.S. medical device regulation, challenging the FDA to broaden government oversight and enact stricter approval standards for thousands of devices — ranging from artificial hip and knee joints to bypass-surgery devices.

As state and federal deficits continue to climb and as entitlement spending maintains a sharp upward curve, Texas legislators passed a sweeping reform package on Wednesday that would transform the state’s Medicaid program. The measure would work to privatize Medicaid in South Texas and permit the development of healthcare cooperatives, a form of mutual insurance that helps members get access to medical care on preferential terms.

Following a report of potential fraud of Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wrote a trenchant and discerning letter to Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll, regarding concerns about administrative abuse in the disability benefits program. The Senators suspect that the SSDI program may be wielding disability benefits as an extension of unemployment benefits, rather than providing financial assistance only to individuals who are legitimately disabled.