Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: September 9, 2015
Kaiser Health News: Planned Parenthood Isn’t The Only Health Program At Risk Of Losing Funds
Federal funding for Planned Parenthood will clearly be a flash point when Congress returns this week from its summer break. But the fate of many other health programs, from the National Institutes of Health to efforts to reduce teen pregnancy, hang in the balance as well, as lawmakers decide whether and how to fund the government after the current fiscal year expires Sept. 30. (Rovner, 9/8)
The Associated Press: Health Insurance Signups Near 10 Million In Midyear Report
About 9.9 million people have signed up and paid for health insurance under President Barack Obama's health care law, the administration said Tuesday, a slight dip from a previous count but on track toward the administration's year-end goal of 9.1 million. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that 84 percent of those, or more than 8.3 million, were receiving tax subsidies to help with the cost. A Supreme Court decision earlier this summer upheld insurance subsidies in all 50 states, a major victory for the White House. (9/8)
Los Angeles Times: Obamacare Enrollment Drops Slightly To 9.9 Million
The new numbers were released Tuesday by the Obama administration in the latest quarterly report on the insurance marketplaces created by the federal health law. The tally was a drop from the 10.2 million people who were enrolled in plans by the end of March.Such attrition has been a regular process since the marketplaces opened in the fall of 2013, as consumers who select health plans during the annual open enrollment period drop coverage through the year or fail to pay premiums. (Levey, 9/8)
The Wall Street Journal: 'Cadillac’ Health Tax Fight Heats Up
A looming tax on generous employer health plans could imperil flexible spending accounts, a popular benefit that lets employees set aside tax-free money for certain medical expenses. The Affordable Care Act’s tax on high-cost employer health insurance is scheduled to start in 2018, when it will impose a 40% levy on benefits that exceed a government-set threshold. Employers already are reviewing or trimming health plans to minimize the effect of this “Cadillac tax,” benefit experts say. (Armour, 9/8)
The Wall Street Journal: About 9.9 Million Enrollees Pay For Health Insurance On State, Federal Sites
Data-matching issues caused some of the decline. Overall, as of June 30, 2015, the exchange has ended coverage for approximately 423,000 people with plans in 2015 who failed to produce sufficient documentation on their citizenship or immigration status. The exchange has also adjusted tax credits or financial assistance for about 967,000 households, in some cases because of incorrect information on family income. (Armour, 9/8)
USA Today: Nearly 10 Million People Have Paid For Obamacare Plans
HHS said the 10 states with the highest rate of consumers who received tax credits were: Mississippi (95.4%), Wyoming (92.2%), North Carolina (91.6%), Florida (91.3%), Alabama (90.9%), Louisiana (90.7%), Georgia (90.0%), Arkansas (90.0%), Wisconsin (89.6%) and Alaska (88.8%). The states with the lowest rate of consumers who received credits are: District of Columbia (10.2%), Minnesota (54.8%), Colorado (55.3%), Hawaii (61.4%), New Hampshire (62.8%), Vermont (64.2%), Utah (65.6%), Kentucky (69.8%), Maryland (70.7%) and New York (71.4%). (O'Donnell, 9/8)
The Washington Post: Coverage In Affordable Care Act Health Plans Wanes Since Winter
Nearly 1 in 4 of the Americans who picked a health plan this year through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces have dropped or lost their coverage, according to new federal data. ... Those people reflect a decline from the roughly 12.7 million consumers who signed up for a 2015 health plan. (Goldstein, 9/8)
The Associated Press: Congress Starts Planned Parenthood Hearings, Accusations Fly
A prominent abortion foe is accusing Planned Parenthood of violating federal laws barring for-profit sales of fetal tissue, while a defender of the group says it's done nothing illegal as Congress begins long-awaited hearings that are already weaving accusations, emotion and politics. Clandestinely recorded videos show that Planned Parenthood "violates various federal laws," and only banning research using fetal tissue from abortions or abortion itself "will prevent the inevitable abuse," James Bopp Jr., general counsel for National Right to Life, said in testimony prepared for Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing. (9/9)
The Wall Street Journal: Planned Parenthood Fight Threatens To Bring Shutdown
Rising conservative anger against Planned Parenthood is upending congressional GOP leaders’ plans to avoid a government shutdown when federal funding runs out at month’s end. Republicans in full control of Congress for the first time since 2006 are eager to keep the government running when the next fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. But they face mounting resistance from some House Republicans who won’t vote for any government funding bill unless it cuts off funding for Planned Parenthood. Their opposition follows a string of videos purporting to show the group profiting from the sale of fetal tissue to medical researchers. Planned Parenthood has denied the allegations. (Peterson and Armour, 9/8)
The Associated Press: Nearly 330K Virginians Sign Up For Coverage Under Health Law
President Barack Obama’s administration says that nearly 330,000 Virginia residents have signed up and paid for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. The administration said Tuesday that 327,026 residents had enrolled through the end of June. Of those, nearly 84 percent, or more than 274,000, were receiving financial assistance from the federal government. (9/8)
USA Today: Feds To Focus On Health Inequities Among Minority, Rural And Poor Seniors
Federal regulators announced a new plan Tuesday to make health care for minority and poor senior citizens more equitable, a challenge that persists 30 years after the Department of Health and Human Services issued a powerful report on the problem. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its first plan to address health equity in the mammoth Medicare program. The "equity plan" focuses on six priority areas, including increasing the ability of health care workers to meet the needs of vulnerable populations. (O'Donnell, 9/8)
The Washington Post's Wonkblog: What We Know About How Health Insurance Affects Health
A study published Tuesday in Health Affairs reports new evidence of health insurance's salutary effects on chronic disease, quantifying those effects down to changes in blood sugar control, blood pressure and a slight drop in cholesterol. Expanding coverage to half the number of non-elderly uninsured people, the authors estimate, will mean 1.5 million additional people will be diagnosed with chronic diseases and 659,000 will gain control of their illness. The analysis adds to a growing, if somewhat uneven, body of evidence probing health insurance's effects on health. (Johnson, 9/8)
The New York Times' DealBook: Concordia Healthcare To Acquire Drug Maker Amdipharm Mercury
The Concordia Healthcare Corporation of Canada said on Tuesday that it had agreed to acquire the drug maker Amdipharm Mercury from the European private equity firm Cinven in a deal that valued the company at about $3.5 billion, including debt. The deal is expected to expand Concordia’s geographic footprint to more than 100 countries and give it access to 190 complementary and niche pharmaceutical products, Concordia said. (Bray, 9/8)
The Associated Press: More Precise Medical Codes Aim To Track Quality Of Care
If things are a bit tense in your doctor’s office come Oct. 1, some behind-the-scenes red tape could be to blame. That’s the day when the nation’s physicians and hospitals must start using a massive new coding system to describe your visit on insurance claims so they get paid. (Neergaard, 9/8)
Los Angeles Times: Diabetes Nation? Half Of Americans Have Diabetes Or Pre-Diabetes
About half of all Americans have either diabetes or pre-diabetes, according to a new report. And experts in the field say that's good news. That's because the study finds that after two decades of linear growth, the prevalence of diabetes in the United States has finally started to plateau. In a paper published Tuesday in JAMA, the authors write that their findings are consistent with other studies that show the percentage of people with diagnosed diabetes remained steady from 2008 to 2012. (Netburn, 9/8)
The Associated Press: Surgeon General Calls For Steps To Promote Healthy Walking
Take a walk: That's the U.S. surgeon general's prescription for sedentary Americans — but communities will have to step up, too, and make neighborhoods easier and safer for foot traffic. Only half of adults and just over a quarter of high school students get the amount of physical activity recommended for good health, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in a "call to action" being issued Wednesday. (Neergaard, 9/9)
The Associated Press: Parents, Unemployed Focus Of NYC Mental-Health Experiment
A $30 million, city-sponsored experiment in training non-professionals to provide mental health help will focus on people who work with parents of small children, the unemployed poor and young people who aren't in work or school, according to City Hall's charity arm. Those target populations, described to The Associated Press as the city prepares to solicit proposals from community groups, flesh out plans to explore whether non-professionals can form a psychological front line in the nation's biggest city. The idea has gained some traction among mental health advocates, though they also have cautioned that it's no substitute for professional help. (Peltz, 9/9)
The New York Times: Cuomo Pledges Advice And Assistance To Puerto Rico
The assistance was largely in the form of expertise and influence, including promises to push Washington to increase federal health care funding on the island and to develop a plan to evaluate and improve its current Medicaid program; to send state teams specializing in agriculture and energy issues; and to hold a “commercialization summit” to help find funding for “promising early-stage Puerto Rican businesses.” (McKinley, 9/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Gov. Cuomo Mixes Business, Friendship On Puerto Rico Trip
Most prominent Democrats, including Mr. Cuomo, have endorsed giving Puerto Rico the ability to pursue bankruptcy protection as well as Medicaid reimbursement equivalent to what states receive. (Orden, 9/8)
