Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Despite Common Rhetoric That Medicaid Offers Subpar Coverage, Beneficiaries Are Pretty Happy With It
The Washington Post: Republicans Say Medicaid Is ‘Broken.’ Here’s How The People It Covers Feel.
Politicians call the Medicaid program that provides health care for the poor "broken." Academic studies have reported on its limited health benefits or the longer appointment wait times that people with Medicaid face. But as Republicans feverishly work to revise a health-care bill that would trigger deep cuts to the program over time, a massive new survey reveals that people enrolled in Medicaid rate their health care pretty high. (Johnson, 7/10)
NPR: Medicaid Beneficiaries Are Happy With Care
Is Medicaid the best health care possible? A lot of people who use it seem to think so. A new study released by Harvard's Chan School of Public Health shows that people enrolled in Medicaid are overwhelmingly satisfied with their coverage and care. (Kodjak, 7/10)
Chicago Tribune: Mother Of 6-Year-Old Cancer Patient Thankful For Medicaid, Fearful For Its Future
Six-year-old Jamela Anthony — wearing a black shirt proclaiming "I Kicked Cancer's Butt" — ran through a hallway at Lurie Children's Hospital toward a golden bell. She rang it triumphantly, smiling before her mother scooped the tiny girl into a long, tight hug. Jamela rang it, a tradition at Lurie, to mark the end of chemotherapy more than a year after doctors found a type of rare, aggressive tumor on her spinal cord. She's now in remission. Jamela's mother, Tangela Watson, is thankful for her daughter's remission and that Medicaid, a state- and federally-funded health insurance program, covered the costs of Jamela's care. (Schencker, 7/10)
The Washington Post Fact Checker: McConnell’s Claim That Senate GOP Health Bill Would Not ’Cause Anyone Currently On Medicaid To Come Off It’
A reader asked us to fact-check this claim, reported in an article by the West Kentucky Star about a luncheon speech McConnell delivered in Kentucky during the Fourth of July recess. The impact of the Senate GOP health-care bill on Medicaid enrollees and financing is one of the major points of debate in the Senate. Previously, we awarded Three Pinocchios to President Trump’s claim that the Senate proposal, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), actually increases Medicaid spending. (Lee, 7/11)
CNBC: Senate's Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Make Long-Term-Care Unaffordable
If you're heading toward retirement and assume proposed cuts to Medicaid in the Senate's Obamacare replacement bill could never affect you, think again. The Better Care Reconciliation Act includes a $772 billion reduction in Medicaid funding through 2026, and a recent Kaiser Family Foundation report found that 62 percent of all nursing- home residents use Medicaid to pay for it. The study also found that a third of people turning 65 will need nursing-home care at some point. (O'Brien, 7/10)
Kaiser Health News: Millions Of Kids Fall Outside Senate Plan To Shield Disabled From Medicaid Cuts
Aidan Long is a 13-year-old from Montana who has suffered multiple daily seizures since he was 4. The seizures defy medical cure, and some of them continue for weeks, requiring Aidan to be airlifted to children’s hospitals in Denver or Seattle, said his father, Ben Long. The medical bills to Medicaid and his private insurance have been enormous. “I kept track of these until about 2 million bucks, and then I said I can’t spend any more time worrying about it,” his father said. (Rau, 7/10)
Kaiser Health News: Crippling Medicaid Cuts Could Upend Rural Health Services
Each day as Ginger Peebles watches daughter Brenlee grow, she sees the importance of having a hospital close by that delivers babies. Brenlee’s birth was touch-and-go after Peebles realized something was wrong. “I couldn’t feel the baby move, and my blood pressure was sky-high,” said Peebles, a nurse. Dr. Roslyn Banks-Jackson, then an OB-GYN specialist at Emanuel Medical Center in Swainsboro, Ga., diagnosed preeclampsia, a potentially lethal complication of pregnancy, and induced labor to save Peebles and the baby. Brenlee was born on Oct. 28, 2014, completely healthy. (Anderson, 7/11)
WBUR: Maine Family Will Visit D.C. To Fight For Medicaid
Congress has returned from its July recess and continues to debate health care. ... The current bill could deeply impact Medicaid, a government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, cutting $772 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (Bailey and Khalid, 7/10)
And in Maryland —
The Baltimore Sun: Making Dental Care More Affordable For The Elderly
Those concerns have prompted the state Department of Aging and Department of Health to explore ways to expand senior citizens' access to dental care. Children from low-income families in Maryland get dental coverage through Medicaid and the Maryland Children's Health Program. Some advocates hope that legislation passed in the General Assembly this year could lead to expanded coverage. Lawmakers agreed to study the possibility of expanding insurance coverage for dental care through Medicaid, the federal- and state-funded insurance program for low-income people. (McDaniels, 7/10)
