ACA Enrollment Might Be Artificially High Due To Dubious Sign-Ups, Oz Says
The CMS administrator says he thinks fraud, duplicative sign-ups, and enrollment mistakes might have contributed to "too high of a number" of participants. Plus, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing to remodel the health insurance exchanges.
NBC News:
Mehmet Oz Says Obamacare Enrollment May Be ‘Too High’
Although Obamacare sign-ups have fallen significantly this year over skyrocketing monthly premiums, Dr. Mehmet Oz believes enrollment is still too high. Oz, the Trump administration’s top official overseeing the Affordable Care Act, told NBC News that millions of people may be fraudulently enrolled or eligible for other types of coverage. About 23 million people signed up for ACA coverage during this year’s open enrollment period, which ended in January, according to the latest data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Lovelace Jr., 3/9)
Modern Healthcare:
‘Non-Network’ Health Plans See Opportunity In ACA Proposal
A proposal to remake the health insurance exchanges could open up a vast new market to emerging companies that sell health plans without provider networks. Cash-pay startups and reference-based pricing companies such as Sidecar Health and Imagine360 say they are ready to jump at the opportunity. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule last month that would enact major changes to how the health insurance exchanges from the Affordable Care Act of 2010 have operated for more than a decade. (Tepper, 3/9)
More health news about the Trump administration —
CIDRAP:
GAO Calls For Greater Transparency On High-Risk Pathogen Research
A new report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should make more information public about how it evaluates and mitigates risks associated with high-risk pathogen research. (Bergeson, 3/9)
AP:
Cuban Doctors To Leave Another Country, Guyana, As US Applies Pressure
Cuban officials are preparing to withdraw the nation’s medical brigade from Guyana after it moved to provide full salaries to doctors and nurses from the island instead of sending most of the payments to the Cuban government. Cuban doctors have worked in African, South American and Caribbean nations for decades under diplomatic agreements that earned the Cuban government money while providing medical care in places where it was otherwise scarce. But the Trump administration has sharply criticized it, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing it as forced labor. (Wilkinson, 3/10)
On MAHA and RFK Jr. —
KFF Health News:
More Kids Are In ERs For Tooth Pain. Trump Cuts And RFK Jr.’s Anti-Fluoride Fight Aren’t Helping
Eight-year-old Jonah woke up one May morning with a swollen face and a toothache. He refused the pain medication that his mom, Geneva Reynolds, tried to give him. He didn’t sleep or eat and cried constantly. Within a few days, Reynolds became so desperate that she and her husband had to physically restrain Jonah, dumping pain medication down his throat as he screamed in pain. (Brenner and Zhang, 3/10)
Politico:
‘I Share Your Outrage’: Democrats Woo MAHA Moms Ahead Of The Midterms
The MAHA base is furious with the Trump administration over its promotion of a controversial pesticide. Democrats up for election this fall see a prime political opportunity in the infighting. President Donald Trump’s executive order on glyphosate, a chemical used in industrial farming, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s defense of that move, drove a wedge into the Make America Healthy Again movement. As Trump’s Justice Department prepares to back the chemical maker’s Supreme Court bid for legal immunity, it’s exacerbating MAHA’s existing frustrations with an administration that has had a checkered record on addressing their top priorities. (Ollstein and Reader, 3/9)
The 19th:
MAHA Movement Gains Democratic Ally In Rep. Chellie Pingree
Long before entering politics, Rep. Chellie Pingree was a self-described hippie, a back-to-the-lander and an organic farmer. In the 1970s, after attending college in Maine, she saw an opportunity to live a more sustainable life there. She decided to stay, and moved to an island off the coast where she and her husband started a small farm and sold their produce at a local market. (Kutz, 3/9)
