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Health care played a feature role in the first debate among Democratic presidential candidates Wednesday, with would-be nominees spreading across the spectrum on the question of how quickly to move to universal coverage and what, if any, role should remain for private insurance. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump earlier this week signed an executive order calling for hospital prices to be made more available to the public. But some analysts wonder if publicizing prices could cause them to rise rather than fall. This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner from Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News. Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s strong endorsement during the debate for eliminating private health insurance could come back to haunt her with moderate voters. The more nuanced stance of moving more gradually to universal care championed by other candidates, such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, seems geared to a general election campaign.
- President Donald Trump’s order this week for federal agencies to come up with a rule mandating more transparency in health care touches on a pain point for patients: They want to be able to know their costs upfront.
- It has been an article of faith among conservatives that if consumers had access to transparent pricing in health care, it would help bring down costs because people would migrate to cheaper care options. But some recent studies raise questions about that.
- The Supreme Court’s decision to take a case brought by insurers who did not get money originally promised them under the Affordable Care Act could lead to some difficult remedies. Several of the insurers have gone out of business and it’s not clear how they or their enrollees would be compensated if they prevail in court.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the health costs bill sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will be a priority to get on the floor for a vote this summer. But the sponsors are still in negotiations with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) about how to resolve “surprise” medical bills.
