Len Nichols

The portion of people covered by job-based and other private insurance declined and likely will continue to do so, placing more pressure on public programs, said Len Nichols, a health economist and director of the health-policy program for the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group in Washington.

"While it's superficially good news in that more people have coverage, it exemplifies the stress the system is bearing," Nichols said. "I don't think most governors are going to be happy to sustain the current [Medicaid… more

The number of uninsured Americans decreased by 1.3 million from 2006 to 2007, a change largely attributable to an increase in government-sponsored coverage, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Aug. 26.

The Census Bureau's annual report on income, poverty, and health insurance found that the number of uninsured people decreased from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007, or 15.8 percent to 15.3 percent of Americans.

However, during that time period, the percentage of people with private insurance decreased while the… more

...[T]he economic slowdown means that more people who now are middle class could find themselves uninsured. It also means that more people are worried that they could lose jobs and their health insurance.

“It is a deep and growing -- and you could say even gnawing -- fear among the middle class,” said Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute. LINK

“Both (bills) encourage a new marketplace that would have a common set of rules to enable the health insurance market for small business to work better than it does today by increasing efficiencies and economies of scale,” says Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program at the Washington, D.C.-based New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy group. “They represent the bipartisan agreement we need for small business and all Americans to secure quality, affordable health coverage.”  LINK

Rising health care costs place increasing strain on state and local budgets and threaten the long-term stability of the Medicare program. In order to begin to control health care costs nationwide and make the Medicare program more sustainable, Medicare must become a more value-based purchaser of health care. Medicare experts from across the country joined the New America Foundation on July 23rd in Washington, DC, to propose innovative ways to reform our Medicare program. more

...In the current market, insurers selling individual policies try to pick the healthiest applicants to lower their risks. In most states, insurers can consider an applicant's health history in deciding whether to offer coverage and how much to charge.

Insurers "will not cover the sick if they can avoid them," says Len Nichols, an economist with the New America Foundation, a centrist think tank.

Nichols and other experts say limits on who can get coverage is one of at least three major problems with the individual… more

...Some studies show similar tax credits like Sununu's could cut the ranks of the 46 million uninsured by two to six million according to Len Nichols, a health policy expert for the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, DC. "You are going to get some coverage but not take a huge bite out of the uninsured," Nichols explained during a telephone interview. "There are some middle income people, the self-employed, those who are really healthy and right now choose not… more

...Len Nichols is the director of the Health Policy Program for the New America Foundation, which aims to expand health care coverage to all Americans. He said San Francisco's efforts are so revolutionary that the city shouldn't be knocked for taking longer to enroll everyone... LINK

Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program, serves as a panelist on AARP TV's Inside E Street and discusses the rising costs of Medicare. LINK to video

A prominent advocate of a single-payer national health system will make her case to a presidential commission later today. Dr. Steffie Woolhandler (left, in file photo) of Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School is scheduled to testify at 2 p.m. before the President’s Council on Bioethics, which is meeting today and tomorrow in Chicago.... Other experts scheduled to present plans include Len Nichols, director of the health policy program for the New America Foundation, and James Capretta, a fellow at… more