Nelson calls on HHS to oversee state’s handling of 13,000 kids removed from CMS

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson today called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "to exercise its oversight and enforcement authority" to protect more than 13,000 Florida children with special needs who were improperly removed from the state's specialized care program, known as Children's Medical Services. Nelson's request comes on the heels of recent reports that despite a Florida judge's ruling two years ago that required the state to stop using a new screening tool that declared thousands of kids ineligible for the state's specialized care program, the state of Florida has still not yet notified all of the families who were improperly removed from the program to provide them an opportunity to reenroll.

Correction: Abortion-Oregon story

In stories Aug. 15 and July 5 about Oregon's expansion of abortion and reproductive health care coverage, The Associated Press reported erroneously the amount of money allocated from the general fund for reproductive health care coverage to immigrants who aren't otherwise eligible for Medicaid. The new law allocates about $6.2 million for care for that population, including about $500,000 for abortion services.

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.

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.

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.

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.