First Edition: November 12, 2014

Kaiser Health News: Red State Idaho Launches Its Own Obamacare Exchange
Idaho on Saturday becomes the latest state to launch its own health insurance exchange under the federal health law, with marketplace officials promising an easier shopping experience for consumers and greater responsiveness to insurance agents. But the exchange, yourhealthidaho.org, will be challenged to do as well as the federal insurance exchange during the first open enrollment period that ended last March. About 76,000 Idahoans signed up for private coverage at healthcare.gov, one of the most successful enrollments in any state. (Galewitz, 11/12)

Kaiser Health News: More States Expected To Expand Medicaid In 2015
Texas and Florida, with their large uninsured populations, are not expected to offer coverage to many low-income patients. Kaiser Health News staff writers Phil Galewitz and Mary Agnes Carey discuss what you need to know before open enrollment in the health law’s marketplaces begins again on November 15th. (Carey and Galewitz, 11/12)

Kaiser Health News: Network Blues: Big Bills Surprise Some E.R. Patients
In-network” and “out-of-network” – for people with health insurance, those words mean one thing: money. If you don’t want to get charged extra, you get your treatment done in-network. It sounds straightforward, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way, even when patients think they’re playing by the rules. Jeffrey Craig Hopper, a probate attorney in Austin, Texas, knows all about following the rules. Still, accidents happen. Last June he was coaching a Little League practice session when an errant baseball smashed into his face. (Feibel, 11/11)

Kaiser Health News: Medicare Proposes Coverage Of Low-Dose CT Scans To Detect Lung Cancer
Andrea Borondy Kitt’s husband Dan lived for a year and a half after his October 2011 lung cancer diagnosis. She’s convinced, however, that he might have lived longer had Medicare paid for a low-dose CT scan of his lungs that could have caught his cancer in the early stages. Nine months before his diagnosis, Andrea read about this test, which had demonstrated encouraging rates of detecting early stage lung-cancers in long-time smokers. She wanted Dan to be screened. But her husband, a 40-year smoker who had quit eleven years earlier, wouldn’t do it because Medicare didn’t cover it. In a Monday announcement, Medicare officials signaled this policy is about to change. (Gillespie, 11/11)

NPR: Affordable Care Act Has Many Political And Legal Challenges Ahead
The federal health exchange website is live this week for window shopping and people will begin to purchase new health insurance there on Saturday. But the Affordable Care Act still has many political and legal challenges ahead. (Liasson, 11/11)

The New York Times: States Race To Improve Health Insurance Exchanges
Massachusetts and Minnesota have sharply increased the number of call center workers who will help people enroll in health plans through the states’ insurance exchanges. Colorado has created an online avatar named Kyla to guide consumers through the sign-up process. And Maryland has replaced its exchange, which floundered last year, with Connecticut’s successful model. (Goodnough, 11/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospital CEO Contends With Medicaid Conundrum
The future of Truman Medical Centers, a two-hospital safety-net system [in Kansas City, Mo.], depends on the state legislature—and no one understands that better than its new chief executive, Charlie Shields. Mr. Shields, a genial 55-year-old, spent 20 years as a Republican lawmaker, ending up as the leader of the Missouri Senate before term limits forced him to step down. In 2010, he became chief operating officer of one of Truman’s hospitals, and in July he succeeded longtime Truman CEO John W. Bluford III. (Wilde Mathews, 11/11)

The Wall Street Journal: New Nevada Health-Exchange Chief Faces Technology Shift
Nevada’s health exchange will look different this time around. After a bumpy first year, the exchange has uncoupled from its technology provider, Xerox Corp. , and connected instead to HealthCare.gov, the federal-government site. It also has a new leader, and new challenges. (Radnofsky, 11/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Latinos Lag Under Health Law
One quarter of Hispanics in the U.S. lack health insurance, the highest rate for any racial or ethnic group, according to census data. Reducing that number will be one of the Obama administration’s biggest challenges when it reopens health-insurance exchanges for a second year on Saturday. During the first year’s sign-up period, just 2.6 million of an estimated 10.2 million uninsured Hispanics eligible for coverage enrolled in health plans, according to an October report by the Department of Health and Human Services. (Campo-Flores, 11/11)

The New York Times: In Control, Republicans See Budget As Way To Push Agenda
Next year, House Republicans will try again to transform Medicare and Medicaid, repeal the Affordable Care Act, shrink domestic spending and substantially cut taxes for high earners through the budget process. Then they will leave it to the new Senate Republican majority to decide how far to press the party’s small-government vision, senior House aides said this week. (Weisman, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Who Is Jonathan Gruber?
The MIT economics professor, best known until now for his key role advising the Obama administration on the Affordable Care Act, has come under attack after a year-old video of a University of Pennsylvania panel surfaced that featured him referring to the "stupidity of the American voter" and a “lack of transparency” as crucial to the passage of the 2010 health reform law. Those comments have struck a nerve on the right, with some of the law’s critics pointing to Gruber’s comments as evidence that the administration intentionally deceived the American public on the costs of the program. (DelReal, 11/11)

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Repeat After Me: It’s About Obamacare And Workers, Not Jobs
Thom Tillis is a newly-minted senator from North Carolina, having narrowly defeated the incumbent, Sen. Kay Hagan (D). But in one of his first interviews since the campaign ended, he hauled out a stale talking point that has long been debunked. What’s dismaying about this is that The Fact Checker called out Tillis on this issue back in February, when his campaign first aired an ad making this claim. Time for a refresher course! (Kessler, 11/12)

The Washington Post: The Small Change That Can Save You Thousands Of Dollars A Year In Health Costs
Welcome to open enrollment season. That time of year when you get e-mail after e-mail from your employer reminding you of all the changes you need to make to your benefits. Of all the decisions that need to be made around now, one that often gets looked over is the chance to open a health savings account. (Marte, 11/11)

Los Angeles Times: Should Life Insurance Firms Have Access To Your Genetic Test Results?
So, you're thinking you might like to check out one of those inexpensive new tests that would give you some insight into, say, the health implications of your ethnic heritage. It may, incidentally, turn up findings you may or may not want -- say, on your Alzheimer's disease risk, or your risk of developing lung, breast or skin cancer. ... Although the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 bars the use of genetic information for health insurance coverage decisions, it does not do so when it comes to life insurance, disability insurance or long-term care insurance. (Healy, 11/11)

NPR: Medicare Poised To Cover CT Scans To Screen For Lung Cancer
The evidence has been piling up that properly done CT scans can help doctors find tiny lung tumors in longtime smokers while the cancer can still be treated effectively. Now Medicare is proposing to pay for annual scans for beneficiaries at a high risk for lung cancer. To qualify, patients would have to first meet with a doctor to talk through the pros and cons of scans, which involve a low-dose of radiation. (Hensley, 11/11)

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Approve Health Care Law Change
Virginia lawmakers approved emergency legislation Monday allowing health insurance companies to renew plans that do not meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act. (11/10)

The Associated Press: California: Nurses Go On Strike
As many as 18,000 nurses went on strike Tuesday and picketed in front of Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California over concerns about patient-care standards and Ebola. The two-day strike by the nurses, who have been in contract talks since July, was expected to affect at least 21 Kaiser hospitals and 35 clinics and last until 7 a.m. Thursday. (11/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Arizona Ballot Measure That Pushes Back Against Federal Actions Passes
The measure garnered strong support from conservative groups, and reflects growing angst in conservative-leaning states about federal laws, including the health-care mandates. (Carlton, 11/11)

The Washington Post: Ebola Victim Thomas Eric Duncan’s Family Has Settled With Dallas Hospital
Now, after alleging that Texas Presbyterian had not done right by Duncan, his family has reached what its attorneys called a “resolution” with the health-care facility. According to a statement issued by the law offices of Miller Weisbrod, Duncan’s family will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning “regarding a resolution they have reached on behalf of the children and parents of the deceased with Texas Health Resources and all related entities,” as WFAA 8 reported. (Moyer, 11/12)