Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parsing Policy: Adopt Medicare Fees For Everyone To Solve Soaring Costs; Shrinking Medicaid Plans Will Only Worsen The Crisis
The Washington Post: There’s A Genuine Solution To Our Health-Care Problem
No doubt about it: Health care is a vexing political problem. There’s a contradiction at the core of our thinking. We want the best care when we or our loved ones get sick. It’s a moral issue. There should be no limits on treatment. But the resulting uncontrolled health spending harms the country. It undermines other priorities — higher wages (more labor income gets channeled into health-insurance premiums) and competent government (defense and other programs may be underfunded). (Robert J. Samuelson, 4/29)
Lexington Herald Leader: Gov. Matt Bevin's Medicaid Plan Will Dismantle The Best Health Care Program Kentucky Has Ever Had
It is essential to empower Kentuckians to be self-sufficient and accountable, but I disagree with Gov. Matt Bevin’s vision for achieving this goal. Bevin is dismantling one of the most successful health-care programs Kentucky has ever seen. Unlike Bevin’s Medicaid waiver, Kentucky’s original implementation of the Affordable Care Act saves money, jobs and lives. First, the number of uninsured Kentuckians dropped by 63 percent between 2013 and 2015, making it the third most successful case of Medicaid expansion, behind Arkansas and Nevada. Second, the uninsured portion of the Appalachian community is medically underserved and accounts for approximately 100,000 (a fifth of the total) recipients of Medicaid under the expansion. While low-income Kentuckians in central and northern parts of the state may be able to get through this period, our Appalachian brethren cannot. (Rena Mae Childers, 4/27)
The Detroit News: Protect Healthy Michigan As Is
We are hopeful that in the debate in Lansing over mandating work requirements for Medicaid recipients, facts will win out. Legislation recently introduced seems to be driven in large part by misinformation about who is eligible and is using this vital program that helps boost the health and lifespan of many Michiganians.According to available data, the vast majority of people on Medicaid today are children under 18, people with a disability or senior citizens with minimal or no income from retirement savings. (RoAnne Chaney and Farah Erzouki, 4/29)
The New York Times: Nine Rights Every Patient Should Demand
Ever since the American Hospital Association created its first Patient Bill of Rights in the early 1970s, medical centers, professional associations and states have been adapting it or creating their own. They are featured on websites and included in admissions packets, and adorn hospital walls. ...Today patients’ worries are financial as much as medical. Twenty percent of people with insurance say they have trouble paying their medical bills, a figure that rises to above 50 percent for the uninsured. In an era when patients are told to be better consumers of health care, they need a Financial Bill of Rights, too. Here are some suggestions for what it should include. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 4/27)
Boston Globe: Has Maine Found A Bipartisan Solution To Easing Health Care Costs?
Might we ever see a bipartisan health care bill that addresses costs and receives unanimous legislative support? Although one emanating from Washington seems unlikely anytime soon, an innovative bipartisan health care bill — referred to as Right to Shop — unanimously passed the Maine Legislature in 2017 and merits a closer look. (Jeffrey Flier and Josh Archambault, 4/30)
The Hill: Bring Back Short-Term Health Insurance Plans — It’s Only Fair
Last October President Trump issued an executive order intended to increase choices for consumers who purchase their health insurance in the individual market and for whom the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) locked them into expensive, government dictated, one size fits all plans.In response to the presidential directive entitled “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States,” the Secretaries of the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services in February issued a proposed rule that would restore the maximum permitted period of short-term, limited-duration insurance (STLDI) to its historical length of 12 months. The 60-day public comment period closed on April 23. The Agencies should now finalize this rule. (Roger Klein, 4/27)
