Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: New Tricks Designed To Destroy Health Law; Unenforced Standards Boost Medicaid Enrollments
WBUR: The Trump Administration Is Still Trying To Gut Obamacare
The administration two weeks ago announced that states could allow residents to use Obamacare subsidies to buy skimpy insurance: plans that don’t cover the law’s minimum benefits or that discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. Voters, who just elected a Democratic House largely to protect the Affordable Care Act (ACA), should tell their state leaders to keep hands off its protections. (Rich Barlow, 12/12)
The Wall Street Journal: ‘Means Tested’ Welfare Means Nothing In Practice
ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion bears most of the blame. The new law made people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty line eligible to receive Medicaid. The Medicaid marketplace it created includes no mandatory verification processes, allowing people simply to declare their income and start receiving benefits. As described in a 2013 issue brief from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services touting “simplified, real-time verification”: “Eligibility will be verified primarily through self-attestation.” Simplified indeed. (Robert Doar, 12/11)
St. Louis Post Dispatch: Short-Term Health Plans May Cause More Pain Than Gain
If you’re shopping for the best health insurance plan for you, it’s important to know that the current administration recently expanded access to health insurance plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act. Traditionally, short-term plans have been used to provide health coverage for a couple months, typically for those in between jobs. Now, short-term plans can be purchased for a yearlong term, with the ability to renew for up to three years of coverage. While these plans are meant to offer a cheaper alternative to the plans offered in the Health Insurance Marketplace — where plans must comply with the ACA’s consumer protections — their restrictions could be detrimental to Missourians’ health. (Tim Williams, 12/12)
Los Angeles Times: The Trump Administration Unveils A Stealth Attack On People With Preexisting Conditions
Trump administration officials apparently are prepared to go to their graves insisting that they did everything possible to protect Americans with preexisting medical conditions, even as they pull out the stops to undermine those protections. The latest example of this subterfuge came in late October, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new rules for states contemplating alterations in the Affordable Care Act. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/11)
