Once the New Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill Is Available, What About Cost and Coverage?
The Food and Drug Administration’s approval is viewed as groundbreaking, but many details still must be figured out.
Insurance
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A Plan to Cut Montana’s Medicaid Waiting List Was Met With Bipartisan Cheers. Then a Veto.
Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto disappointed and bewildered those seeking to address low-income residents’ long wait for assisted living or in-home care.
The Long Road to Reining In Short-Term Plans
Episode 305President Biden made good on a campaign promise this week with a proposal that would limit short-term health insurance plans that boast low premiums but also few benefits. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw affirmative action programs could set back efforts to diversify the nation’s medical workforce. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat News join KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Bram Sable-Smith, who reported the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” about how a hospital couldn’t track down a patient, but a debt collector could.
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With More People Giving Birth at Home, Montana Passed a Pair of Laws to Make It Easier
The state now requires Medicaid to cover midwife services and has expanded the list of prescription drugs midwives can administer.
By Keely Larson -
Medi-Cal’s Fragmented System Can Make Moving a Nightmare
When Medi-Cal beneficiary Lloyd Tennison moved last year from Contra Costa County to San Joaquin County, he was bumped off his managed care plan without notice before his new coverage took effect. His case highlights a chronic issue in California’s fragmented Medicaid program.
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Journalists Discuss Floridians Being Dropped From Medicaid and Tips for Telemedicine Visits
KFF Health News 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.
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At Least 1.7M Americans Use Health Sharing Arrangements, Despite Lack of Protections
A new report boosts the estimated number of people enrolled in plans whose members — usually brought together by shared religious beliefs — pay one another’s health costs.
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Fraudsters Are Duping Homeless People Into Signing Up for ACA Plans They Can’t Afford
Homeless people are being fraudulently enrolled in health plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, induced with cash payments from insurance agents and brokers. Those who sign up for an ACA plan are disqualified from other forms of free and low-cost care and risk disruption in treatment.
By Daniel Chang -
On the Brink of Homelessness, San Diego Woman Wins the Medi-Cal Lottery
Annie Malloy, of San Diego, is among the first to receive a new housing move-in benefit from Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. It’s an effort to help homeless and near-homeless people who might otherwise rack up huge medical bills.
By Angela Hart Debt Deal Leaves Health Programs (Mostly) Intact
Episode 301The bipartisan deal to extend the U.S. government’s borrowing authority includes future cuts to federal health agencies, but they are smaller than many expected and do not touch Medicare and Medicaid. Meanwhile, Merck & Co. becomes the first drugmaker to sue Medicare officials over the federal health insurance program’s new authority to negotiate drug prices. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, and Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News senior correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble, who reported the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature, about the perils of visiting the U.S. with European health insurance.
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A Windfall in Health Insurance Rebates? It’s Not as Crazy as It Sounds
The billion-dollar amount cited by former Sen. Al Franken, while an estimate, is likely very close to what insurers will owe this year under a provision of the Affordable Care Act that compels rebates when insurers spend too little on actual medical care.
A ‘Payday Loan’ From a Health Care Behemoth
Season 9, Episode 7UnitedHealth Group is the largest health insurer in the United States. And it keeps growing. This has led some health care experts to call for antitrust regulation of this “behemoth” company.
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The Debt Ceiling Deal Takes a Bite Out of Health Programs. It Could Have Been Much Worse.
A bipartisan deal to raise the government’s borrowing limit dashed Republican hopes for new Medicaid work requirements and other health spending cuts. Democrats secured the compromise by making relatively modest concessions, including ordering the return of unspent covid funds and limiting other health spending.
By Julie Rovner Our 300th Episode!
Episode 300When KFF Health News’ “What the Health?” podcast launched in 2017, Republicans in Washington were engaged in an (ultimately unsuccessful) campaign to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. The next six years would see a pandemic, increasingly unaffordable care, and a health care workforce experiencing unprecedented burnout. In the podcast’s 300th episode, host and chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner explores the past and possible future of the U.S. health care system with three prominent “big thinkers” in health policy: Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania, Jeff Goldsmith of Health Futures, and Farzad Mostashari of Aledade.
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As Medicaid Purge Begins, ‘Staggering Numbers’ of Americans Lose Coverage
In what’s known as the Medicaid “unwinding,” states are combing through rolls to decide who stays and who goes. But the overwhelming majority of people who have lost coverage so far were dropped because of technicalities, not because officials determined they are no longer eligible.
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More States OK Postpartum Medicaid Coverage Beyond Two Months
Montana, Alaska, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming are among the latest states moving to provide health coverage for up to a year after pregnancy through the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people.
By Matt Volz -
How a Medical Recoding May Limit Cancer Patients’ Options for Breast Reconstruction
The federal government’s arcane process for medical coding is influencing which reconstructive surgery options are available, creating anxiety for breast cancer patients.
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Health Care Coalition Jockeys Over Medi-Cal Spending, Eyes Ballot Initiative
California Healthline has learned that a coalition of doctors, hospitals, insurers, and community clinics want to lock in a tax on health insurance companies to draw in extra Medicaid funding. It also wants to make the tax permanent.
By Angela Hart and Samantha Young -
California Governor and Democratic Lawmakers at Odds Over Billions in Health Care Funds
Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting pressure from his political allies to begin spending money on health care that the state raised by fining Californians who go without health insurance. But Newsom says the state can’t afford to.
By Angela Hart -
Perspective
Denials of Health Insurance Claims Are Rising — And Getting Weirder
The Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with monitoring denials both by Obamacare health plans and those offered through employers and insurers. As insurers’ denials become more common, they sometimes defy not just medical standards of care but sheer logic. Why hasn’t the agency fulfilled its assignment?