Election Day was Nov. 6, however outcomes stay undetermined in some races on the state and federal ranges. Nonetheless, it’s already clear that the election might have main implications for well being coverage in 2019.
The present Congress is again in Washington for a lame-duck session, and whereas the funds for the Department of Health and Human Services is about for the fiscal yr that started Oct. 1, different well being payments, together with ones addressing AIDS and bioterrorism, are on the to-do checklist.
This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Ollstein of Politico.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
With the political divide between a Republican Senate and a Democratic House, getting laws handed within the subsequent Congress could show arduous. But bipartisan assist might come up for payments to guard shoppers from shock medical payments and, maybe, to regulate some drug costs. The House will possible spend a lot of its time exercising oversight duties, together with doable probes of the Trump administration’s insurance policies on separating immigrant youngsters from their dad and mom, adjustments in well being legislation guidelines for contraception protection, adjustments in Medicaid and the administration’s determination to not defend the Affordable Care Act in a key courtroom case. Among the problems on state ballots this month was a constitutional modification in Alabama that makes it state coverage to “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.” Although abortion opponents hail such “personhood” measures, they’ve been defeated in different states as a result of they might impinge on infertility remedies, comparable to in vitro fertilization. It’s not clear whether or not the Alabama measure will probably be challenged in courtroom due to that. On the poll in Oregon and Washington had been industry-backed measures that might cease localities from instituting soda taxes. The effort failed in Oregon and handed in Washington. During Congress’ present lame-duck session, members will probably be seeking to move an appropriations invoice for components of the federal government. Although HHS already received its appropriations invoice, different well being measures — such because the renewal of the PEPFAR international HIV initiative, grants for states on bioterrorism and pandemic planning, and adjustments to Medicare’s doughnut gap funding — could possibly be added. A tweet by the National Rifle Association urging docs to maintain out of the gun management debate and “stay in their lane” has provoked a furor from docs, who say they have to cope with the ramifications of a flawed coverage.
Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists advocate their favourite well being tales of the week they suppose it’s best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ “When Hospitals Merge to Save Money, Patients Often Pay More,” by Reed Abelson
Rebecca Adams: The New York Times’ “Something Happened to U.S. Drug Costs in the 1990s,” by Austin Frakt
Kimberly Leonard: Harper’s Magazine’s “Discovery, Interrupted: How World War I Delayed a Treatment For Diabetes and Derailed One Man’s Chance at Immortality,” by Jeffrey Friedman
Alice Ollstein: The Incidental Economist‘s “The Trump Administration Targets the Contraception Mandate,” by Nicholas Bagley
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Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nationwide well being coverage information service. It is an editorially impartial program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which isn’t affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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