Weekly Edition: October 26, 2018
Gun Store Owner Marshals Voters To Expand Medicaid In Idaho
By Phil Galewitz
Idaho is one of four conservative states where voters next month will determine whether to buck the GOP’s resistance to the Affordable Care Act and implement or renew its expansion of Medicaid to adults.
States Explore Paths To Pay Their Share For Medicaid Expansion — Using Political GPS
By Shefali Luthra
The state-federal health insurance program is more popular than ever. Now, states that want to expand eligibility are devising new strategies to pay for it — creating, in many red states, a significant political challenge.
Booming Economy Helps Flatten Medicaid Enrollment And Limit Costs, States Report
By Phil Galewitz
The drop in the number of people enrolled in the federal-state program for low-income residents is the first since 2007.
Politicians Hop Aboard ‘Medicare-For-All’ Train, Destination Unknown
By Elisabeth Rosenthal and Shefali Luthra
Candidates are charging toward midterm elections on a platform of single-payer and universal coverage rhetoric. Yet “Medicare-for-all” and single-payer mean different things to different people.
Gavin Newsom Is Bullish On Single-Payer — Except When He’s Not
By Brian Rinker
The front-runner in the California governor’s race, known for his political audacity, has officially endorsed the controversial move to create one public insurance program for all Californians. Yet he also faces formidable challenges, and liberal critics fear he’ll retreat.
Spending Against Dialysis Ballot Measure In California Breaks Record
By Harriet Blair Rowan
Dialysis companies have contributed more than $110 million to defeat an initiative on California’s Nov. 6 ballot that would limit their profits — breaking the $109 million record set by the pharmaceutical industry in 2016.
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Trump, GOP Fight Back On Health Care
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Ollstein of Politico discuss a flurry of proposals from the Trump administration on prices Medicare pays for drugs and the Affordable Care Act.
Fixing Obamacare’s ‘Family Glitch’ Hinges On Outcome Of November Elections
By Shefali Luthra
This gap in the 2010 health law means health insurance remains unaffordable for millions of Americans. For now, relief is hard to come by.
Marketplace Subsidies May Be Option In 2020 For Plans That Skirt Obamacare
By Phil Galewitz and Julie Appleby
The new guidance allows states to ask for waivers from provisions in the Affordable Care Act governing not only subsidies, but also the benefits insurers must offer in all their plans.
In Days Of Data Galore, Patients Have Trouble Getting Own Medical Records
By Judith Graham
Federal law guarantees that people have the right to see and obtain a copy of their medical records. But, hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and insurance companies often erect obstacles.
Primary Care Doctors ‘Not Doing Enough’ To Curb STDs
By Anna Gorman
As rates of sexually transmitted diseases surge, public health officials want physicians to step up screening and treatment of patients.
Facebook Live: What About Those Sky-High Air Ambulance Costs?
This Facebook Live discussion explores an aspect of the health care cost continuum that often flies below the radar.
Readers And Tweeters: Are Millennials Killing The Primary Care Doctor?
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.