Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Medicaid Turns 50, Debate On Expansion Clouds Celebration
USA Today: Medicaid Turns 50 Mired In Controversy
Tennessee farmer Timmy Parks lives without a prosthetic for his amputated arm and endures chest pain so excruciating he sometimes doesn't want to eat — all because he has no insurance and no way to pay for health care. Yet if he lived less than five miles away, in Kentucky, he'd qualify for Medicaid, the government program designed to help the poor. As Medicaid turns 50 years old this month, it's racked with cost over-runs, bitter politics and never-ending controversies that have left millions of people around the country like Parks without health care coverage they desperately need, unable to afford everything from open heart surgery to prescriptions to prevent life-threatening seizures. (O'Donnell and Ungar, 7/15)
Fox News: GOP Govs Test Obamacare Compromise: Make Medicaid Recipients Pay
Republican officials, after battling for years with Washington over ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, are testing a middle ground that could reshape the program – by making recipients pay for part of their health care. (Fossen, 7/16)
Reuters: Alaska Governor Pushes To Expand Medicaid Program For The Poor
Alaska Governor Bill Walker is set to announce on Thursday plans to expand the Medicaid health program for the poor, which would bring coverage to more than 40,000 uninsured residents. Walker, an independent, has already had several expansion efforts blocked by the Republican-led state legislature since he took office after winning the November 2014 election. The governor's office said Walker would lay out details of the plan on Thursday. (Quinn, 7/15)
Alaska Dispatch News: Supreme Court Ruling May Pave Way For Walker To Act On Medicaid Expansion
Gov. Walker has scheduled an announcement for Thursday on his plans for Medicaid expansion. His options could include another special session on the topic, possibly in the fall, or taking unilateral action without legislative support. Walker's press secretary Katie Marquette said it is “in our interest to ensure more Alaskans have access to health care -- expanding Medicaid is the obvious next step.” ... At the end of the regular session, the then-pending Supreme Court case, King v. Burwell, was cited as a factor against expansion by opponents such as Rep. Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks. ... House Rules Committee Chair Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage, made similar comments at the end of the regular session, calling expansion “a billion-dollar gamble” and said no action should be taken with the issue in flux. (Forgey, 7/15)
Arkansas News: Hutchinson: State ‘Doing The Right Thing’ With Medicaid Check
Arkansas is “doing the right thing” in checking the eligibility of enrollees in Medicaid and the Medicaid expansion known as the private option and terminating coverage for thousands who do not qualify, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday. Hutchinson told legislators in a letter Monday that within the next three months the state will have verified the eligibility of nearly 600,000 Medicaid recipients. More than 15,000 people, most of them enrollees in the private option, already have had their coverage terminated because their income levels were found to be too high for eligibility — and they did not show they were eligible within 10 days of receiving notice. (Lyon, 7/15)
Arkansas Online: Task Force Studies Ways To Trim Medicaid Costs
Striking more deals with drug companies, joining forces with the health plan for teachers and state employees, and hiring a managed care company to handle prescription drug benefits were among the options for reducing the state Medicaid program's drug costs that a legislative task force explored Wednesday. The Health Reform Legislative Task Force is examining Medicaid spending on drugs, as well as medical services, as it crafts recommendations for improving the program. Among the changes the task force is expected to recommend is a replacement program for the state's private option, which uses federal Medicaid funds to buy private insurance for more than 218,000 low-income Arkansans. (Davis, 7/15)
Salt Lake Tribune: While Medicaid Debate Drags On, Utahns Are Dying
Legislative leaders are working on an agreement to expand Medicaid coverage to tens of thousands of uninsured, low-income Utahns, but even if a deal is struck, it will be far too late for Carol Frisby. Frisby died Monday from cancer, years after she first showed symptoms but couldn't get the colonoscopy her doctor recommended because the screening wasn't covered by the state's Primary Care Network. "I'm not going to back down, and she's never been one to back down," said Carol's husband, Brent Frisby, a Vietnam War veteran. "My message to them is: Get off this childish stuff, and let's be pioneers and do something to help people." (Gehrke and Moulton, 7/15)
