Parsing Policy: Cost-Saving Innovations Already Hurting Medicaid Recipients

Real Clear Health: New Medicaid Work Requirements Already Jeopardizing Thousands
Efforts by state and federal Republican lawmakers to scale back safety-net programs that support millions of families are reshaping health care and deepening the digital divide for low-income Americans. These lawmakers are limiting opportunities during a time of increasing inequality across the country. Nowhere is this trend clearer than in states where President Trump is hugely popular, including Kentucky and Arkansas, where the president captured 62 and 60 percent of the vote respectively. In these states, access to Medicaid and Lifeline, an affordable internet program, are being stifled under the guise of innovation and cost-savings. (Jason Resendez and Carmen Scurato, 7/19)

The Detroit News: Other Views On Insurance Reform
As consumer health advocates, we were heartened to learn that a federal court struck down onerous Medicaid work requirements for Kentuckians. We believe work requirements run counter to the core value of the Medicaid program: to provide quality care for low-income populations. We hope this court decision prevents other states considering work requirement waiver applications before the federal government, including Michigan, from implementing burdensome work requirements for their most vulnerable residents. If implemented in Michigan, Medicaid beneficiaries would be at risk of losing their care. (7/22)

San Jose Mercury News: Trump Plan Would Damage California Women's Health
It’s appalling that this president wants to strip Title X federal funding from family planning clinics that provide abortions or refer patients to places that do. The direct attack on Planned Parenthood will have a negative impact on 850,000 women throughout California, most of whom are low-income and do not have the resources to go elsewhere. (7/20)

The Hill: Quality, Not Quantity, Should Guide Medicare Coverage For Heart Valve Disease Treatment
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is reconsidering its nationwide policy on whether, and under what circumstances, Medicare will pay for a less-invasive heart valve disease treatment called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Heart valve disease impacts an estimated 8.7 to 11.6 million Americans. Aortic stenosis is one of the most common types of heart valve disease, and it can be debilitating, costly, and deadly. Survival rates for severe aortic stenosis, if left untreated, are low at 50 percent at 2 years after symptom onset, and 20 percent at 5 years. Many with the disease are never diagnosed or treated, particularly minorities and underserved individuals. ...Volume is no longer a necessary surrogate for health outcomes in hospitals that offer TAVR. There should be more emphasis on: 1) timely intervention, because the longer patients wait to be treated, the more likely they are to die; and, 2) a focus on health outcomes. Additional measures such as quality of life, mobility, and length of stay in the hospital should be added into the mix. (Susan Peschin, 7/21)

Stat: Medicare's 'Catastrophic Insurance' Can Be A Catastrophe For Middle-Income Seniors
Pam Holt, a teacher and school administrator in Granger, Indiana, was looking forward to her retirement. After her husband died when she was 40, she raised three children alone. She paid into a pension, made Medicare and Social Security contributions, accumulated some savings, and was only three years away from paying off her mortgage when, at age 66, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer that originates in bone marrow. Fortunately for her, taking a pill called Revlimid, made by Celgene, can hold the disease at bay. But its cost began eating her up. (Erin E. Trish and Geoffrey F. Joyce, 7/23)

The Hill: A Numbers Game: Employers Need 'Cadillac Tax' Relief 
The so-called “Cadillac Tax” would impose a 40-percent tax on the value of employer-sponsored health coverage that exceeds certain arbitrary cost thresholds. Employer plans affected by the tax will be forced to provide health plans with fewer benefits and higher deductibles — which have already risen 176 percent since 2006. While the name suggests that the tax would only apply to a few individuals with “luxury” health coverage, its actual design and rising health costs ensure that more and more Americans will be affected by it every year. A conservative estimate from Mercer indicates that over half of all companies will be subject to the tax by 2027. (Jim Klein, 7/21)

Stat: A Tax On Medical Devices Makes No Sense. It's Time To Eliminate It For Good
Earlier this year, Congress made the wise decision to once again suspend the medical device tax for two years. But this temporary reprieve doesn’t go far enough. To maintain the nation’s vibrant medical technology ecosystem, it’s time to eliminate the tax altogether and stop penalizing some of our most creative companies. (David Beier, 7/23)