Corner cases and hard questions
As legislative repeal of the ACA is likely down for the year, we need to think about what is next. We need to lay out a couple of critical questions.
Category Archives: Medicaid
North Carolina leaders put more meat on Medicaid proposal
Gov. Roy Cooper's administration wants the state's pending Medicaid overhaul to integrate physical and mental health treatment more quickly and expand coverage to more of the working poor in North Carolina, according to its plan unveiled Tuesday. The Department of Health and Human Services released a report explaining how it wants the Medicaid program to look when a 2015 state law directing the reorganization takes effect, possibly in July 2019.
The art of political compromise
Perhaps the art of politics - compromise - isn't dead, after all. Good for U.S. Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., for attempting to jumpstart it.
Entrenched poverty tough to shake in the Mississippi Delta
Otibehia Allen is a single mother who lives in a rented mobile home in the same isolated, poor community where she grew up among the cotton and soybean fields of the Mississippi Delta. During a summer that feels like a sauna, the trailer's air conditioner has conked out.
Universal health care can work: But the case must be made for how to pay and how money will be saved
In this Oct. 17, 2016, photo, supporters applaud Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who spoke at a rally in support of Colorado Amendment 69, a ballot measure to set up the nation's first universal health care system, on the campus of the University of Colorado, in Boulder. Progressives are riled up with renewed seize-the-day determination to turn Congress' failure to gut Obamacare and Medicaid into a push for nationwide universal health care.
Combining a free market and single-payer system will provide more options
But, given the tenor of recent conversations between the parties, the next bill presented will need to make significant concessions to satisfy both sides of the table. We propose a new approach - grounded in sound economics - which will test the love-hate capacity of Republicans and Democrats alike, but will result in more options, more coverage, and more fiscal transparency and prudence for the American people.
Obama’s health care law still needs some patchwork
Mario Henderson leads chants of "save Medicaid," as other social service activists, Medicaid recipients and their supporters stage a protest outside the building that houses the offices of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Thursday, June 29, 2017, in Jackson, Miss. Soaring prices and fewer choices may greet customers when they return to the Affordable Care ActAos insurance marketplaces in the fall of 2017, in part because insurers are facing deep uncertainty about whether the Trump administration will continue to make key subsidy payments and enforce other parts of the existing law that help control prices.
The Skinny Repeal Gets a Score
With eight hours left of debate in the Senate reconciliation process , it appears all of the Republicans' chances of repealing Obamacare will come down to a single option: the "skinny repeal." Not much is known about the skinny repeal, however.
Today in the peanut gallery
This revised iteration of BCRA - which included an amendment by Sen. Ted Cruz to allow non-Obamacare plans back on the market paired with $100 billion in funding to partially offset the Medicaid cuts - was subject, because of the Senate budget rules, to a 60-vote threshold for a procedural vote. It failed handily, 43 to 57, with nine Republicans and all of the Democrats opposing it.
Senate Democrats won’t let Trump make recess appointments
President Donald Trump shares a laugh with Ms.Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Secretary Tom Price, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Vice President Mike Pence on... WASHINGTON -- Senators are planning to continue procedural moves to prevent the Senate from formally adjourning for recess next month in order to prevent President Donald Trump from making recess appointments, when the chamber eventually adjourns through the Labor Day weekend. Using the threat of a filibuster, Democrats plan to force the Senate to hold pro forma sessions --- a practice both parties have carried out to block recess appointments from presidents of opposite party, Democratic and Republican aides say.
Walorski Demands Answers After Indiana Prescriber Writes $1.1 Million in Opioid Prescriptions
U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski Wednesday questioned Medicare's top fraud prevention official about how safeguards failed to prevent a doctor in Indiana from prescribing more than $1 million in opioids to 108 patients under Medicare's prescription drug program.
Ap Fact Check: On a doubt voiced about 2016 election result
An advisory committee that President Donald Trump created to examine the integrity of U.S. voting systems held its first meeting Wednesday. And its vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, said afterward that "we may never know" whether Trump's rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote through voter fraud.
CBO: Senate Republican Obamacare repeal plan would increase uninsured by 32 million in 2026
CBO says Senate's repeal bill could make insurance market unstable, increase premiums and dramatically increase the number of people without insurance. CBO: Senate Republican Obamacare repeal plan would increase uninsured by 32 million in 2026 CBO says Senate's repeal bill could make insurance market unstable, increase premiums and dramatically increase the number of people without insurance.
New Hampshire ‘Obamacare’ recipients remain worried
In this March 4, 2015 image from video, Michael Morris discusses his family's experience with purchasing insurance under the Affordable Care Act, in Concord, N.H. . Since then, his family has moved from a marketplace plan to Medicaid but hopes to return to an ACA plan in 2018.
INSIGHT-More hospital closings in rural America add risk for pregnant women
Dr. Nicole Arthur, a family practice physician, was trained to avoid Cesarean deliveries in child-birth, unless medically necessary, because surgery increases risks and recovery time. But she has adjusted her approach since arriving last year at the 70-bed North Baldwin Infirmary in rural, southern Alabama.
Senate prepares for new version of healthcare bill
The new healthcare bill is expected to include Sen. Ted Cruz's amendment allowing insurance companies to offer plans to do not satisfy all of Obamacare's requirements for essential care as long as they have at least one plan that does. But some centrist Republicans have voiced concerns that the amendment might make care for those with pre-existing conditions prohibitively expensive.
Who Would Enjoy Tax Breaks Under The GOP Health Care Proposals?
The GOP health bills would eliminate the 10 percent tax on the use of tanning beds. It was one of more than a dozen taxes introduced as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Ramesh Ponnuru
Republican efforts to pass health-care legislation are in jeopardy again, in part because of controversy over its potential impact on Medicaid. But the Republican reforms are more moderate, and more worthwhile, than they are getting credit for.
Conservative View: Marc A. Thiessen – Senate GOP’s health-care …
Sen. Mitch McConnell called off a vote last week on the Senate Republican health-care bill. That's a good thing.
Why the Senate’s plan to replace Obamacare hurts Louisiana worse than any other state
Jessica Michot, center, left and Angela Lorio, center right, speak in favor of the benefits of Medicaid as Parents, children and healthcare providers gather at the Baton Rouge office of Sen. Bill Cassidy to urge him and other senators to avoid cuts to Medicaid. Parents, children and healthcare providers hold signs and gather in the atrium at the Baton Rouge office of Sen. Bill Cassidy to urge him and other senators to avoid cuts to Medicaid.