After a five-year combat, the Virginia legislature voted this week to broaden the Medicaid program to an estimated 400,000 low-income residents who are usually not at present eligible for well being protection. And New Jersey turned the second state to impose a state-level “individual mandate” requiring most residents to have medical health insurance or pay a advantageous, following final yr’s repeal of the federal penalty.
Meanwhile, Congress has quietly handed a significant bipartisan invoice to overtake and streamline well being applications supplied to the nation’s veterans. The invoice consists of an growth of veterans’ capability to get personal care paid for out of doors the Department of Veterans Affairs system, in sure instances.
Also this week, an interview with Dr. Arthur Kellerman, dean of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the army’s medical college in Bethesda, Md.
This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
Two key components helped push Medicaid growth by means of the Virginia General Assembly. One was the Trump administration’s endorsement of labor necessities for nondisabled adults and the opposite was the blue wave that shook the state final November when the House of Delegates practically turned from a protected Republican majority to Democratic management. New Jersey’s passage of a mandate that state residents get protection or face a penalty was stunning as a result of that provision was probably the most disliked elements of the federal Affordable Care Act. Even as Congress despatched the president the invoice increasing VA applications, there’s a widening debate in Washington about whether or not the system ought to be privatized. That debate has helped each create the emptiness on the prime of the Department of Veterans Affairs and complex efforts to fill it.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest their favourite well being tales of the week they suppose it’s best to learn, too.
Julie Rovner: Bloomberg News’ “Is There a Doctor Aboard? Airlines Often Hope Not,” by Ivan Levingston
Joanne Kenen: The Atlantic’s “Ambien Doesn’t Cause Racism,” by Olga Khazan
Rebecca Adams: ProPublica’s “Why Your Health Insurer Doesn’t Care About Your Big Bills,” by Marshall Allen
Paige Winfield Cunningham: The New York Times’ “Origins of an Epidemic: Purdue Pharma Knew Its Opioids Were Widely Abused,” by Barry Meier
Also: The New Yorker’s “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain,” by Patrick Radden Keefe
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