Medicaid & The Uninsured: Aug. 25, 2022

They Lost Medicaid When Paperwork Was Sent to an Empty Field, Signaling the Mess to Come
By Brett Kelman
Tennessee expects to soon disenroll about 300,000 people from its Medicaid program. But families like the Lesters have suffered when bureaucracy and clerical mistakes caused them to unfairly lose coverage under the same program.

Inflation Reduction Act Contains Important Cost-Saving Changes for Many Patients — Maybe for You 
By Michael McAuliff
The legislation, which the House is expected to pass Friday, would allow the federal government, for the first time, to negotiate the price of some drugs that Medicare buys. It also would extend the enhanced subsidies for people who buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

For Medically Vulnerable Families, Inflation’s Squeeze Is Inescapable
By Heidi de Marco
Inflation hasn’t hit Americans like this in decades. And families living with chronic diseases have little choice but to pay more for the medicine, supplies, and food they need to stay healthy.

Journalists Dig Into Questions About the 988 Hotline and Inflation Reduction Act
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: A Big Week for Biden
Congress is leaving for its annual summer break having accomplished far more than many expected, including, barring unforeseen snags, a bill to address the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries and extend the enhanced subsidies for insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the abortion issue continues to roil the nation as Indiana becomes the first state to ban the procedure in almost all cases since the Supreme Court overruled the constitutional right to abortion in June. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

Buy and Bust: Collapse of Private Equity-Backed Rural Hospitals Mired Employees in Medical Bills
By Sarah Jane Tribble
The U.S. Labor Department investigates Noble Health after former employees of its shuttered Missouri hospitals say the private equity-backed owner took money from their paychecks and then failed to fund their insurance coverage.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Kansas Makes a Statement
In the first official test vote since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, voters in Kansas’ primary said in no uncertain terms they want to keep a right to abortion in their state constitution. Meanwhile, the Senate is still working to reach a vote before summer recess on its health care-climate-tax measure, but progress is slow. Tami Luhby of CNN, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Bram Sable-Smith, who wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment about a very expensive ambulance trip.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Wrapping Up Summer’s Health News
President Joe Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act and Congress is gone until after Labor Day. But the administration and lawmakers left lots of health policy achievements behind, including new rules to facilitate the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids and a potential reorganization of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

Shelter Sickness: Migrants See Health Problems Linger and Worsen While Waiting at the Border
By Renuka Rayasam
U.S. immigration policies, an increasing number of migrants, and the covid-19 pandemic have led to the growth of the Mexican shelter system, in which people are getting sick and medical care is limited.

Watch: How Nursing Homes Put Friends and Families on the Hook for Residents’ Debts
In pursuit of unpaid bills, nursing homes across Rochester, New York, have been suing relatives and friends of their residents. This CBS News report, done in partnership with a KHN-NPR investigation, takes a look at the practice and tells the stories of some of the people affected.

Upended: How Medical Debt Changed Their Lives
By Noam N. Levey and Aneri Pattani and Yuki Noguchi, NPR News and Bram Sable-Smith
People talk about the sacrifices they made when health care forced them into debt.

‘An Arm and a Leg’: How to Negotiate for Lower Medical Bills
By Dan Weissmann
A nonprofit that trains people to apply for charity care has started teaching others how to negotiate with hospitals and debt collectors to lower the amount they owe.