Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives On The GOP Health Policy Agenda And Trump's Obamacare Options
The New York Times: The Art Of The Scam
But it’s already clear that bait-and-switch — big but empty promises, completely lacking in detail — will be central to Republican strategy on one key issue: the future of health coverage for millions of Americans. ... Republicans have promised to repeal the law as soon as they had a chance, replacing it with something much better. Strange to say, however, they have never described what their replacement would look like. And I don’t mean that they haven’t spelled out all the details. Almost seven years after Obamacare was enacted, Republicans haven’t offered even the broad outline of a health reform plan. Why not? (Paul Krugman, 12/5)
The Wall Street Journal: How The Republican Health Agenda Could Play Out
The worm is about to turn in health policy and politics when Republicans shift from throwing stones to owning the problems of the health system and the Affordable Care Act or its replacement, as President Barack Obama and Democrats have for the past eight years. It’s hard to predict how events will play out, but it’s likely that grand plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, convert Medicaid to a “block grant” program, and transform Medicare into a premium support program could be whittled down or delayed as details of such sweeping changes, and their consequences, become part of the debate. (Drew Altman, 12/2)
The Washington Post: Under Trump, Red States Are Finally Going To Be Able To Turn Themselves Into Poor, Unhealthy Paradises
In 2004, the journalist and historian Thomas Frank wrote an insightful and prescient book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas?", in which he tried to puzzle out why voters in his native state backed Republicans whose policies undermined their own economic interests. Watching the apocalyptic response to Donald Trump's victory in the liberal precincts I inhabit, I’m struck by a similar quandary: Why are voters in states that pay a disproportionately large share of federal taxes, and benefit from a disproportionately small share of federal spending, so upset about the prospect of a cut in taxes and federal spending? ... If these states want to maintain the Obamacare insurance exchanges, the low-income subsidies and the expansion of the Medicaid program, they can do that, just as Massachusetts did under Mitt Romney even before passage of the federal law. (Steven Pearlstein, 12/4)
The Wall Street Journal: Diagnosing Your Doc’s New Euphoria
If your doctor is happier now than you’ve seen her in years, the reason is the potential dismantling of ObamaCare in favor of something that will help restore sanity to the health-care system. My first patient one recent Thursday morning was a smoker with an ObamaCare policy he purchased on the state exchange. A slight irregularity on his chest X-ray had led me to jump over insurance hoops for approval to do a CT scan. None of the radiology places I use accepted his insurance, but my staff finally found one that did. Now he was here to review the results. (Marc Siegel, 12/4)
