Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Twice As Many People Are Now Paying Over $500 A Month For ACA Premiums
Bloomberg: Obamacare Health Plans Cost Over $6,000 This Year For Twice As Many People
The share of Affordable Care Act insurance customers in plans that cost more than $6,000 a year doubled, a sign of the squeeze on household budgets after Congress let Covid-era assistance expire. The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted data late Friday on ACA plans, also called Obamacare, that showed total enrollment this year dipping by about 5% to 23.1 million. That figure doesn’t yet count people who still may drop off plans because they can’t pay premiums, so the decline is expected to deepen. (Tozzi, 3/30)
Miami Herald: Meals, Mortgage Or Medicine? Floridians On Obamacare Are Facing Tough Choices
The new year brought Kellie Brvenik a choice. She could pay to keep her cancer at bay, or cover life’s other necessities, like food and her mortgage. Brvenik, 44, was diagnosed in 2024 with leiomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. A property manager in Lake Worth Beach, she stayed at work through 10 weeks of radiation, “until it became unbearable,” and she’s since lived off a $1,952 monthly disability check. (Klaver, 3/31)
Stat: HSA Firms Boost Lobbying To Cash In On Trump's Great Healthcare Plan
Sellers of health savings accounts see an opening for expanding their market, and they’re ramping up lobbying efforts to seize the opportunity. (Wilkerson, 3/31)
NPR: How To Navigate The Maze Of Drug Discounts To Get The Best Price
When TrumpRx launched in February, it joined a chorus of websites claiming to have deals on prescription drugs. Despite the hype, many of the medicines on TrumpRx include brand-name drugs that patients can find cheaper elsewhere — as generics. (Lupkin, 3/29)
Healthcare Dive: Tech Nonprofit Sues CMS Over Medicare AI Prior Authorization Pilot
A digital and privacy rights nonprofit is suing the CMS in an attempt to get more information on the agency’s pilot program that uses artificial intelligence to manage prior authorization requests in Medicare. The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues the CMS has not responded to a Freedom of Information Act request it submitted relating to the technology companies participating in the pilot and any evaluations on accuracy, bias or hallucinations in their technology. (Olsen, 3/30)
On Medicaid cuts and costs —
MedPage Today: 8 Million People At Risk Of Losing Medicaid Under Work Mandate
More than 8 million people will be at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage once the Medicaid work requirement passed as part of last year's reconciliation bill is fully implemented by the states, a study found. Among a population of 16.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries ages 19 to 64, 50.4% of enrollees, or 8.3 million, would be at risk of disenrollment because they worked too few hours, Rishi Wadhera, MD, of the Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues reported in a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine. (Frieden, 3/30)
KFF Health News: States Pay Deloitte, Others Millions To Comply With Trump Law To Cut Medicaid Rolls
States are paying contractors such as Deloitte, Accenture, and Optum millions of dollars to help them comply with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a law that will strip safety-net health and food benefits from millions. State governments rely on such companies to design and operate computer systems that assess whether low-income people qualify for Medicaid or food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps. Those state systems have a history of errors that can cut off benefits to eligible people, a KFF Health News investigation showed. (Liss and Pradhan, 3/31)
The Colorado Sun: Head Of Colorado’s Medicaid Program Resigns As State Senate Was Preparing To Take 'No Confidence' Vote
The head of the Colorado agency overseeing the state’s Medicaid program abruptly announced her resignation Monday as the state Senate was preparing to debate a resolution of no confidence in her. (Paul, Ingold and Brown, 3/30)
North Carolina Health News: North Carolinians Find Common Ground On Health Care Costs, Medicaid
North Carolinians feeling the heat of rising health care costs say they’re making difficult choices — some even skipping care they need because of the financial pinch. This is just one finding from a telephone interview poll of 800 North Carolina residents at the beginning of March that asked a broad array of questions about the health care environment — ranging from vaccine support to oral health care costs to Medicaid policy. (Hoban, 3/31)
