Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'People Are Afraid': Families Who Rely On Safety Net Programs Despair Over Trump's Budget Proposal
The Washington Post: ‘We Would Literally Not Survive’: How Trump’s Plans For The Social Safety Net Would Affect America’s Poorest
Since the day in January 2010 when teenager Courtney Bias and her 1-week-old daughter were kicked out of her mother’s house, the young family has slept wherever they can: under bridges. On strangers’ floors. In city parks. Today, 25-year-old Bias, her boyfriend and their three young children are renting part of a friend’s apartment outside Baltimore. They scrape by on his wages from construction and landscaping jobs, relying on federal food stamps to help feed their children and Medicaid for doctor’s visits. Bias has also been on a wait list for subsidized housing for the past seven years and was told 2018 would be the year she could finally move into her own apartment. (Dewey and Jan, 2/14)
The Hill: 172 Dems Ask Trump Official To Reject Medicaid Work Requirements
More than 170 House Democrats asked Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar to reject requests from states to require Medicaid beneficiaries to work. "Such actions to tie health coverage to work are motivated purely on the basis of ideology and mistaken assumptions about what Medicaid is and who it covers," the Democrats wrote to Azar. (Hellmann, 2/14)
Kaiser Health News: Work-For-Medicaid Lifts Off In Indiana, But Even Fans Fret About Red Tape
Indiana is one of the states poised to enact work requirements for some citizens with Medicaid coverage — a controversial policy and long-sought goal for Republicans. But advocates for the poor have protested loudly in recent months, saying many will lose coverage or be ensnared by bureaucratic mistakes. KHN’s Sarah Varney reports in collaboration with PBS NewsHour. Read the full transcript. (2/14)
The Courier-Journal: Bevin's Medicaid Changes Will Cost Kentucky Millions To Start
Within Gov. Matt Bevin's complex plan to reshape the state Medicaid program to cut costs and hold people accountable is this fact that may surprise some Kentuckians: Under Bevin's plan, it actually will cost Kentucky more to provide health coverage to people affected by the Medicaid changes than if the state did nothing. (Yetter, 2/14)
The Associated Press: Bill Would Let Kentucky Take Over Medicaid Pharmacy Benefits
Max Wise wants to know where $600 million went. The Republican Kentucky state senator says independent pharmacies in his rural central Kentucky district are in danger of closing, in part because of low reimbursement rates from Medicaid. He says the joint state and federal Medicaid program spent $1.68 billion on pharmacy benefits last year, of which about $1 billion went to pharmacies. (Beam, 2/14)
Media outlets report on more Medicaid news out of Kansas and New Mexico —
KCUR: Backers Of Kansas Medicaid Expansion Pack Hearing, But Can They Change Policy?
When it comes to packing Statehouse hearings, few groups fill a room more reliably than those pushing for Medicaid expansion. What they’re less good at, at least so far, is convincing lawmakers and a governor to expand Medicaid eligibility to another 150,000 low-income Kansans.They came close last year. Lawmakers passed an expansion bill, but came a few votes short of overriding then-Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto. (McLean, 2/14)
The Santa Fe New Mexican: Providers Say Memo Backs Up Concerns About Bias In Medicaid Contract Process
The state Human Services Department announced in January that Molina Healthcare of New Mexico and UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico wouldn’t receive contracts to continue to provide managed care for Medicaid recipients after this year. But with hundreds of millions of dollars in contract fees at stake, Molina and United aren’t going quietly into the night. (Cole, 2/14)
