Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Pursuing 'Medicare For All' Creates Minefield Jeopardizing Progress On Other Issues; Warren Misleads U.S. On Harms Of Her Health Care Plan
The Washington Post: Medicare-For-All Is A Pipe Dream
I am worried about the Democratic Party’s new focus on Medicare-for-all. The merits of the policy are anything but a slam dunk, but, more immediately, the politics are a minefield. When it comes to health-care reform, Democrats need to mind three basic rules. First, experience teaches us that much as Americans hate the status quo, they’re not too excited about change, either. (Rahm Emanuel, 10/25)
Fox News: Elizabeth Warren Misleads Americans On Harm And Costs Of 'Medicare-For-All'
Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren promised to release her plan to pay for "Medicare-for-all."Throughout her campaign, Warren has come under fire for refusing to say whether she would raise taxes on the middle class to fund her health care plan. Many of her fellow Democrats — including "Medicare-for-all" architect Bernie Sanders — have made clear that the plan would require tax hikes for everyone. (Sally Pipes, 10/27)
The New York Times: The Most Pressing Issue For Our Next President Isn’t Medicare
When Bill Clinton became president, his top legislative priority was health care. When Barack Obama became president, he first had to prevent a depression, but then he too turned to health care. The next Democratic president should choose a different priority. It’s still true that too many Americans suffer from inadequate or expensive insurance coverage, and the next president should certainly look to make progress on health care. (David Leonhardt, 10/27)
Bloomberg: Two Obamacare Threats: Texas Lawsuit And Trump's Wavering
Amid all the attention being paid to Medicare for All and other proposals for health-care reform, you might not have noticed that the current system is once again under legal assault. It’s for the courts to decide the merits of this new challenge and to say in due course whether the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — can stand. In the meantime, President Donald Trump’s administration should wake up to what’s at stake for millions of Americans and start speaking up on their behalf. Last year, a group of states led by Texas began this fresh attack. Their opening was a 2017 revision to the law that set the penalty for defying the “individual mandate” at zero. This arguably unmoored the ACA from its constitutional foundations, as laid down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012. In that ruling, the penalty for defying the mandate to obtain insurance was deemed to be a lawful exercise of Congress’s taxing power; now that the tax is zero, this argument no longer applies, according to the new challenge, so the mandate becomes impermissible under the Constitution’s commerce clause. (10/25)
Boston Globe: Charlie Baker’s Health Care Bill Could Make A Real Difference
How much of the enormous (170-plus pages) omnibus bill he recently unveiled makes it through the legislative meat grinder is anyone’s guess. There is enough here for lawmakers — and lobbyists — to gnaw on for months, and some parts that definitely need some work.But with health care costs continuing to burden families and businesses alike, it’s worth the effort. (10/26)
The Washington Post: Virginia’s Medicaid Work Requirements Are Puritanism Run Amok
The debate over Virginia’s Medicaid work requirements has heated back up as Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and Republican legislative leaders butt heads over funding job-search services included in the original Medicaid expansion compromise. Meanwhile, a new analysis suggests that implementing work requirements could kick as many as 74,000 Virginians off the program’s rolls. Beyond the policy implications, I can attest from personal experience that the prospect of losing coverage because of these restrictions is terrifying. (Brent Merritt, 10/25)
Kansas City Star: Kansas Senate GOP Leader’s New Medicaid Plan Is A Good Start
When a proposal is attacked from the right and the left, it’s often a good sign that you’re on the right track. Denning, a Republican, is.We’ve argued for Medicaid expansion in Kansas for years. There are several economic reasons for extending health insurance coverage to people with low incomes — it can help save rural hospitals, it brings federal money to the state, it creates jobs. (10/28)
