Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Patients And Providers Alike Anxious Over Future Of Health Care Coverage
USA Today: Obamacare Overhaul Proposals Create Uncertainty For Patients, Providers
Once its patients were insured by the Affordable Care Act, the community health center in Whitesburg, Ky. opened on the weekends in 2014 and added optometrists and a dental clinic in 2015. Van Breeding, the primary care doctor in charge of the clinic, says if his patients lose coverage in any ACA replacement, he’ll have to close on weekends and get rid of the newer services. Patients like Lee Sexton, an 88-year-old banjo player with black lung disease, will have to head to the far more expensive emergency room if they need care on the weekends. (O'Donnell, 2/12)
Arizona Republic: Fact Check: How Many Arizonans Would Lose Health Coverage With An 'Obamacare' Repeal?
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare,” on “day one” of his presidency. As president, he signed last month an executive order affirming his intention... A news release about the ad campaign stated 709,000 Arizonans would lose health coverage if the ACA is repealed. To back up that figure, it cites a report from the left-leaning Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on social and economic policy research. (Jarvis, 2/10)
And in other health law news from the states —
Kaiser Health News: Obamacare Came To Montana Indian Country And Brought Jobs
The Affordable Care Act created new health coverage opportunities more than half a million Native Americans and Alaska Natives — and jobs have followed on its coattails.In Montana, this is playing out at the Blackfeet Community Hospital. It’s the only hospital on the Blackfeet reservation, and has been mostly funded — and chronically underfunded — by the Indian Health Service, which has been in charge of Native American health care since its founding in the 1950s. But now, many Native Americans have been able to afford health insurance on the Obamacare exchange, and last year, Montana expanded Medicaid. Now, about one in seven reservation residents gets Medicaid. (Whitney, 2/13)
California Healthline: For California’s Smallest Businesses, Obamacare Opened The Door
Under Republican-led plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, hundreds of thousands of self-employed people in California are at risk of losing their ability to buy affordable insurance. Some business owners welcome the rollback of the law, but the smallest of California businesses — entrepreneurs and contract workers who buy insurance on their own through Covered California — have the most to lose under a repeal.That worries small business advocates who favor the Affordable Care Act. They say putting health care coverage out of reach of the self-employed could threaten Americans’ entrepreneurial spirit and burden people who create jobs and take on financial risk. (Bartolone, 2/13)
