Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'You Work ... And You Really Pay The Price': How Middle-Class Americans Are Bearing Brunt Of High Deductible Revolution
Los Angeles Times: Rising Health Insurance Deductibles Fuel Middle-Class Anger And Resentment
Denise Wall, a Fresno area school teacher with more than $2,000 in medical bills, was outraged to hear she could get free care if she quit her job and enrolled her family in Medicaid. Brenda Bartlett, a factory worker in Nebraska, was so angry about $2,500 in medical bills she ran up using the coverage she got at work that she dropped insurance altogether. “They don’t give a rat’s butt about people like me,” she said. (Levey, 7/17)
In other news on insurance —
Detroit Free Press: After Huge Spikes, Obamacare Rates Are Now Falling In Michigan
Sticker prices for many Affordable Care Act-compliant individual health insurance plans will drop next year, a reversal from the huge price hikes sought in past years by the insurance companies. Insurers' new proposed rates, which would take effect in 2020 if approved, were announced Wednesday by the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services. (Reindl, 7/17)
The CT Mirror: Expanded Insurance Coverage For Breast Cancer Screenings Lauded By Officials, Advocates
Harrowing tales from breast cancer survivors from across the state and a slip-up from a freshman legislator are among the circumstances that led to the passage of a bill expanding health care coverage for annual breast cancer screenings. There are approximately 3,500 newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer in Connecticut each year, according to the Connecticut Breast Health Initiative, and the scourge of the disease was apparent in the stories told at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital Wednesday as officials, advocates, and health care experts lauded the passage of legislation they say will save lives. (Moore, 7/17)
Houston Chronicle: Oscar Insurance To Start Offering Medicare Advantage In Houston
Medicare Advantage plans are a type of health coverage where participants enroll and receive Medicare-covered benefits, but they are administered through private health insurance companies instead of directly from the federal government. They are heavily marketed to seniors as offering more generous benefits than traditional Medicare such as wider prescription drugs coverage, dental and vision coverage. About a third of the nation's Medicare recipients were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans in 2017, according to federal statistics. One criticism of the program, though, is that plans often have narrow networks of providers. (Deam, 7/17)
