Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: People Really Want Their Obamacare, Despite Trump's Attempts To Ruin It; Expected Premium Increase Will Haunt GOP
The Washington Post: People Think Obamacare Is Failing, But They Want It Anyway
President Trump unabashedly tries to create his own reality, urging Americans to ignore facts and even their life experience. When it comes to their health care, however, he’s having only minimal success convincing Americans that he has already destroyed Obamacare. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest poll tells us: “About one-fifth of non-group enrollees (19 percent) are aware the [Affordable Care Act] mandate penalty has been repealed but is still in effect for this year. Regardless of the lack of awareness, nine in ten non-group enrollees say they intend to continue to buy their own insurance even with the repeal of the individual mandate. About one-third (34 percent) say the mandate was a ‘major reason’ why they chose to buy insurance.” (Jennifer Rubin, 4/3)
Axios: The Politics Of ACA Rate Hikes Will Be 2016 In Reverse
We are about to see a replay of the 2016 election fight over premium increases, but this time in reverse. Last time, it was the Republicans hammering Democrats for the rate hikes. This time, it will be Democrats accusing Republicans of driving up premiums by sabotaging the Affordable Care Act. What to watch: It's going to be a balancing act for the Democrats. They can (and will) score political points by blaming Republicans for the coming premium increases, but another campaign debate about rising premiums could also undermine the ACA by focusing on its continuing problems. (Drew Altman, 4/4)
USA Today: Trump And The GOP Are Botching Health Care. We Need Medicare For Anyone.
Congressional Republicans missed their best and probably last chance this year to stabilize the Affordable Care Act when they passed a government funding package without a health deal. As a result, repeal of the individual mandate and the Trump administration’s proposal to expand non-ACA plans are projected to spike premiums by 18% beyond medical inflation next year. At the same time, the Trump administration is encouraging waivers to the Medicaid program that put up barriers to enrollment, limit benefits and increase costs for the poor. States can take action to mitigate coverage losses and premium increases, and most of the ACA’s historic coverage gains will persist. But it is imperative to chart a path forward for the health care system — a path of expansion and greater security rather than retrenchment. That path is the idea of “Medicare for anyone.” (Topher Spiro, 4/3)
San Francisco Chronicle: Single-Payer Plan Is Within Reach Of California
There is great desire and public support for health care coverage for every person in California. In our study, “Financing Universal Coverage In California: A Berkeley Forum Roadmap,” we identify three changes in the California health care system that can generate enough reductions in health spending to finance universal health coverage in the next few years. (Richard Scheffler, 4/3)
Des Moines Register: Lawmakers Undermine Iowans' Health Insurance And The Insurance Market
Iowa has only one remaining health insurer offering coverage in the state’s insurance exchange this year. Two other companies have exited, leaving Minnesota-based Medica as the only insurer of Iowans who are self-employed or retired early and buy plans in the marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. So one would think elected officials would be bending over backward to help the company succeed and remain here. But the GOP-controlled Iowa Legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds have other ideas. (4/3)
Los Angeles Times: State Senator Says It May Be Time For Law Requiring Easily Understood Medical Bills
[B]ills from hospitals, doctors and insurance companies are frequently indecipherable with their codes, abbreviations, misleading descriptions and lack of any explanation for why charges are so high. State Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) agrees. He told me he's looked at his family's own medical bills and scratched his head repeatedly over what they were being charged for. ... He said he and his staff will explore the issue and see if an existing regulation can be applied to making medical bills more transparent and easily understood. "If not," Glazer said, "then we'll look at the possibility of a new law." (David Lazarus, 4/3)
St. Louis Post Dispatch: Legislature's Food Stamp Work Rules Are Worse Than We Thought
In an editorial published Monday, we erred in criticizing bills being considered by the Missouri Legislature because they’d require more able-bodied adults without dependents to meet work requirements to receive food stamps. In fact, the bills are worse than that. Lawmakers want to require able-bodied adults who have school-age dependents — most of them single women raising children — to work for their food stamps.In other words, we underestimated the harshness of Senate Bill 561 and House Bill 1486. We also underestimated how much they could cost a state that already can’t make ends meet. (4/3)
San Jose Mercury News: Stop Trump From Discriminating Against Patients
Caregivers must advocate for patients, not discriminate against them. I’ve seen firsthand how people suffer when health care workers discriminate against patients on “moral grounds,” as President Donald Trump is now giving them the green light to do. (Sal Rosselli, 4/3)
Columbus Dispatch: Who Better To Help Addicted Parents?
Trying to help opioid addicts who have children requires understanding more than just the facts of addiction. Most likely, no one who hasn’t lived in that special hell — seeing your children suffer and knowing you are the cause of it, but being powerless to change your behavior — can fully empathize.Likewise, it’s doubtful anyone can get through to such an addict as well as someone who has lived that hell and emerged from it.That makes Fairfield County’s START project — it stands for Sobriety, Treatment and Reducing Trauma — an especially promising dot in the constellation of efforts to tackle Ohio’s opioid crisis. (4/3)
USA Today: Fix The Opioid Crisis Without Taking Prescriptions Away From Patients
President Trump’s new proposal to combat opioid addiction included some very tough talk about a tragic problem, so it was easy to miss one ambitious goal: slashing legal opioid prescriptions by one-third. Similarly, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested that part of the problem is that not enough people are willing to “tough it out,” and that they should be just taking aspirin instead, he quickly got my attention. Recently, I tried to do just that. (Steven Horwitz, 4/2)
Bloomberg: Humana's Medicare Advantage Boost Could Cost Walmart
The good news just keeps piling up for Humana Inc. The health insurer's shares jumped after a report on Friday that Walmart Inc. may be interested in acquiring it, capping a 251 percent increase over the past five years. And on Monday, the U.S. government announced it would boost payments to insurers who run private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans by nearly twice as much as the government had previously estimated. As the nation's second-largest MA insurer, Humana will be among the largest beneficiaries. (Max Nisen, 4/3)
The Hill: Do We Want Another Spanish Influenza Epidemic? Reauthorizing Preparedness Act Could Prevent It
This year is the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. It comes with the disturbing realization that the impacts of an outbreak — similar to what remains the deadliest pandemic in human history — would be even more catastrophic today, in a world made smaller and more crowded by trade, travel and explosive population growth.While public health and science have made great strides in the last century, our preparedness for the next pandemic is now compromised by a decline in the numbers of public health experts. Fortunately, this is a problem we can do something about. (Jeffrey S. Duchin, 4/3)
