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Misleading money-for-groceries ads helped lure people to call centers where some were enrolled in Affordable Care Act coverage — or switched from their existing plans — without their express permission, a new lawsuit alleges.
After an assassination attempt last weekend sent former President Donald Trump to the hospital with minor injuries, the Republican National Convention went off with little mention of health care issues. And Trump’s newly nominated vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, has barely staked out a record on health during his 18 months in office — aside from being strongly opposed to abortion. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Renuka Rayasam, who wrote June’s installment of KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month,” about a patient who walked into what he thought was an urgent care center and walked out with an emergency room bill.
The initiative targets the biggest incentive driving fraudulent sign-ups and plan switches: the commissions that rogue agents or large call centers seek.
Anthony Wright, a champion for Californians’ health care rights, will take the helm of Families USA in Washington, D.C., where he plans to campaign for more affordable and accessible care nationally. He leaves Health Access California, where he helped outlaw surprise medical billing, require companies to report drug price increases, and cap hospital bills for uninsured patients.
An ongoing lawsuit aims to set aside the Affordable Care Act’s requirements that insurers cover preventive care, such as contraception. If that happens, state reproductive health laws — varying across the country — would carry more weight, resuming the “wild West” dynamic from before Obamacare.
A Supreme Court ruling restricting federal power will likely have seismic ramifications for health policy. A flood of litigation — with plaintiffs like small businesses, drugmakers, and hospitals challenging regulations they say are too expensive or burdensome and not authorized by law — could leave the country with a patchwork of disparate health regulations.
A debate marked by President Joe Biden’s faltering performance featured clashes over insulin costs, inflation, abortion, immigration, and Jan. 6.
A Biden campaign ad highlighting how an Obamacare repeal would affect people with preexisting conditions is mostly true.
KFF Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media in the last two weeks to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Most states that saw enrollment in the Obamacare marketplace double from 2020 to 2024 are in the South. But the enhanced federal subsidies that attracted people with $0 premiums and low out-of-pocket costs will expire next year.
With tens of thousands of Americans already affected by enrollment scams that leave some without doctors or treatments, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden wants increased enforcement against rogue agents or other perpetrators and legislation to allow for criminal penalties.
President Joe Biden’s new health care ad draws on the Affordable Care Act’s popularity among independent voters and alludes to his edge over Trump on health issues.
Federal regulators face a growing challenge — how to prevent rogue health insurance agents from switching unknowing consumers’ Obamacare coverage without making the enrollment process so cumbersome that enrollment declines.
The lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that large call centers were used to enroll people into Affordable Care Act plans or to switch their coverage, all without their permission.
Some tax filers’ returns are being rejected because they failed to provide information about Affordable Care Act coverage they didn’t even know they had.
Days after publication of a KFF Health News article about Obamacare enrollees being switched to different plans without their knowledge or consent, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services took steps to tighten insurance agents’ access to private consumer information on the federal marketplace.
Federal and state regulators are mulling what they can do to thwart this growing problem.
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