Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Insurers Received Double Payment For Some Medicaid Patients
The Wall Street Journal: Taxpayers Spent Billions Covering The Same Medicaid Patients Twice
Health insurers got double-paid by the Medicaid system for the coverage of hundreds of thousands of patients across the country, costing taxpayers billions of dollars in extra payments. The insurers, which are paid by state and federal governments to cover low-income Medicaid recipients, collected at least $4.3 billion over three years for patients who were enrolled—and paid for—in other states, a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicaid data found. (Weaver, Mathews and McGinty, 3/26)
Stat: Medicaid Cuts Complicate House GOP Budget And Tax Plans
The House’s plan to cut government spending, including on Medicaid, to help pay for the extension of tax cuts is already hitting snags. The House budget resolution, which sets broad plans for GOP efforts to cut taxes, directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut government spending by $880 billion over a decade. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said hitting that target would require significant cuts to Medicaid. (Wilkerson, 3/26)
Des Moines Register: Iowa Closer To Mandating Work Requirements For Thousands On Medicaid With House Vote
Iowa Republicans are closer to requiring thousands of Medicaid recipients to fulfill work requirements or lose their health care benefits after a House vote. Although Senate Republicans have passed legislation seeking to institute Medicaid work requirements in past years, Wednesday's vote is the first time the House has done so. (Gruber-Miller, 3/27)
More public health news from the federal government —
The New York Times: Elmo and Elon Musk Are Cited as G.O.P. Lawmakers Grill PBS and NPR
Congressional Republicans laced into PBS and NPR on Wednesday, accusing the country’s biggest public media networks of institutional bias in a fiery hearing that represented the latest salvo against the American press by close allies of the Trump administration. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who organized the hearing — which she called “Anti-American Airwaves” — opened her remarks by deriding PBS and NPR as “radical left-wing echo chambers” that published skewed news reports and indoctrinated children with L.G.B.T.Q. programming. (Mullin and Grynbaum, 3/26)
Politico: Supreme Court Upholds Federal Ban On ‘Ghost Guns’
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the federal government’s ban on so-called ghost guns — effectively untraceable weapons that can be easily assembled from parts kits often purchased on the internet. The justices split 7-2, with four conservative justices and three liberals backing the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to regulate kits used to make guns that lack serial numbers and are typically sold without a background check. Such weapons are frequently used in crimes. (Gerstein, 3/26)
