Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: GOP's Doomed Vow On Health Law; 'Scary Sign' On Obamacare From Supreme Court
USA Today: Boehner-McConnell Vs. Obama: Our View
The other big flashpoint is the two GOP leaders' declaration that they remain committed to repealing Obamacare, rather than working with the White House to improve it. They could hardly do otherwise, because Republicans promised supporters they'd do that if they got control of Congress. In his news conference Wednesday, though, Obama renewed his own promise to veto any repeal. A foredoomed fight over repeal would set pulses racing in the bases of both parties, but it would achieve nothing and drain away energy and goodwill for things that can get done. (11/6)
The New York Times' Taking Note: Facts & Figures: Healthcare Premiums Are Not On The Rise
Republicans warned that insurance premiums would rise dramatically in 2015, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Only two of 17 states in an Urban Institute study will see premium increases of more than 5 percent. (11/6)
The New Republic: A Scary Sign The Supreme Court Could Be Taking The Latest Obamacare Suit Seriously
This past Monday, when most of the nation was focused on the midterm elections, the Supreme Court hinted that it could be taking seriously the latest right-wing challenge to the Affordable Care Act. In King v. Burwell, ACA opponents have asked the high court to overturn the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ rejection of their argument that ACA tax credits and subsidies are illegal on federally managed state insurance exchanges (of which there are 34 or 36, depending on how one counts). Most court-watchers had expected that the Court would deny ACA opponents’ request. The justices’ standard practice is to wait and remain above the fray, until and unless a split among the circuit courts materializes. However, on Monday, the Court neither denied nor granted review, instead “re-listing” King for consideration at its next internal conference, this coming Friday, November 7. (Simon Lazarus, 11/6)
The New York Times' The Upshot: Election Results Endanger Innovative Arkansas Medicaid Plan
In Arkansas, a bipartisan policy compromise has led to one of the country’s most successful health insurance expansions under the Affordable Care Act. But this week’s election results put the future of the state’s Medicaid expansion in jeopardy. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 11/6)
Forbes: Arkansas Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion--Now What?
Arkansas has received its share of national attention the past few months, culminating in the spectacular defeat of incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Pryor by GOP Congressman Tom Cotton. In an electoral thumping powered by opposition to Obamacare, last night also saw the defeat of every Democratic candidate for Congress and all statewide offices. But there’s one more Obamacare loss likely on the horizon in the Natural State: Arkansas’s disastrous “Private Option” Obamacare expansion. (Nic Horton, Jonathan Ingram, and Josh Archambault, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times: Asymptomatic Quarantines For Ebola Are Foolish
Caution about risk is part of our vernacular. In the ongoing discussions about the precautions needed to prevent more U.S. cases of Ebola, you often hear the phrase "in an abundance of caution," usually invoked to justify a high level of government intrusion, such as a quarantine. In a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 71% of the respondents supported mandatory quarantines for health professionals who have treated Ebola patients in West Africa, even if they are asymptomatic. But we don't — or at least we shouldn't — make public policy decisions by referendum. Addressing risk, whether it derives from infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals or hurricanes, should have a scientific basis and be proportional to the probability and degree of harm. (Henry I Miller, 11/6)
Bloomberg: Next Ebola Challenge: Spending The Money
President Barack Obama is asking Congress for $6 billion in emergency funds to fight Ebola, including $2 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development to spend on health care in West Africa. But an analysis of federal spending shows that in the five years leading up to the Ebola outbreak, his administration struggled to spend the money Congress had already made available. (Christopher Flavelle, 11/6)
The New York Times' Taking Note: An Oklahoma Court’s Good Move On Abortion Rights
This week’s focus on the abortion-related ballot measures in Colorado and North Dakota (where “personhood” initiatives were emphatically defeated), and Tennessee (where a majority of voters weakened protection of reproductive rights) has obscured a notable Election Day development in a fourth state: Oklahoma. (Dorothy J. Samuels, 11/6)
Los Angeles Times: Business Fraud, Waste And Absurd Charges A Drag On Medicare
Medicare has a zombie problem. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that the federal insurance program paid nearly $300,000 to cover HIV drugs for about 160 people. However, all those people were dead when their prescriptions were filled in 2012. (David Lazarus, 11/6)
Times of Trenton: Medicare Open Enrollment Brings Improved Plans, Steady Rates
This year, people with Medicare who choose to enroll in a Medicare health or prescription drug plan will have access to more high-rated, four- and five-star plans than ever before. Approximately 60 percent of Medicare Advantage enrollees are in a Medicare Advantage plan that earned four or five stars in 2015, compared to an estimated 17 percent back in 2009. Likewise, about 53 percent of Part D enrollees are enrolled in stand-alone prescription drug plans with four or five stars for 2015, compared to just 16 percent in 2009. (Marilyn Tavenner, 11/6)
Bloomberg: How To Put The Chill On Teen Sex
The conservative method of preventing teen sex is to tell teens not to have sex. That seems pretty straightforward, right? There’s just one problem with abstinence education -- it doesn’t work. ... Fortunately, liberals may have found just such a way. According to a recent study in the Journal of School Health, a comprehensive sex-education program called Get Real, developed by Planned Parenthood, managed to cut the number of sexually active eighth-graders by about 15 percent. That may not sound like a huge number, but it’s far, far better than abstinence-education programs have managed. (Noah Smith, 11/6)
The Journal of the American Medical Association: Designing Smarter Pay-For-Performance Programs
Over the past decade, public and private payers have experimented with the use of financial incentives to motivate physicians to achieve quality and efficiency. The idea behind pay for performance is simple. Because individuals and organizations respond to incentives, physicians whose patients achieve desirable outcomes should be paid more as an incentive to improve their performance. Yet the results of pay-for-performance programs have been largely disappointing. One argument is that neither the right set of incentives nor the right set of metrics has been identified. Another explanation, which has received far less attention, is that the right set of patients has not been identified for targeted efforts. (Aaron McKethan and Ashish K. Jha, 11/6)
