The yr in well being coverage has already begun: The Trump administration Thursday launched a long-awaited regulation geared toward making it simpler for small companies and others to type “association health plans.” Now advocates and opponents will have the ability to weigh in with extra particular suggestions.
Meanwhile, in December, the well being coverage focus was on the tax invoice and its repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” penalty for most individuals who don’t have medical health insurance. But some latest key courtroom choices may reshape the advantages thousands and thousands of individuals obtain as a part of their well being protection.
This week’s “What the Health?” visitors are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times.
They focus on these subjects, in addition to the prospects for pending well being laws on Capitol Hill.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
The Trump administration’s resolution to broaden affiliation well being plans faces a lot of obstacles, together with the dearth of excellent oversight in lots of states and the poor monitor document of many previous plans. Consumer advocates concern that development of affiliation plans may go away many shoppers with out enough advantages as a result of some plans is not going to cowl the identical important advantages that Obamacare plans assure. They are also involved that wholesome prospects will migrate to the brand new plans and go away the ACA’s market plans with an abundance of enrollees who’re unwell. The prospects of the invoice to stabilize the person insurance coverage market sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) seem like dimming. Two federal judges have dominated towards the Trump administration rule to vary the ACA’s contraception mandate. The choices, although, are usually not primarily based on the coverage however on defective rule-making. In one other extremely watched courtroom case, a federal decide has dominated that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has till 2019 to set new guidelines on what employers can require of employees of their wellness applications.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists advocate their favourite well being tales of the week that they assume it’s best to learn, too.
Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ “Care Suffers as More Nursing Homes Feed Money Into Corporate Webs,” by Jordan Rau (of Kaiser Health News).
Paige Winfield Cunningham: The New York Times’ “In Pursuit of Liquid Gold,” by David Segal.
ALSO: Bloomberg News’ “How Doctors Are Getting Rich on Urine Tests for Opioid Patients,” by Fred Schulte and Elizabeth Lucas (of Kaiser Health News).
Alice Ollstein: ProPublica’s “Want to Lower Health Care Costs? Stop Wasting Our Money,” by Marshall Allen.
Margot Sanger-Katz: The New York Times’ “Unfiltered Fervor: The Rush to Get Off the Water Grid,” by Nellie Bowles.
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