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Congress is lastly getting all the way down to actual work on laws to finish “surprise” medical payments, which sufferers get in the event that they inadvertently obtain care from an out-of-network well being suppliers or use one in an emergency. But medical doctors, hospitals, insurers and different well being care payers can’t appear to agree on who ought to pay extra so sufferers will pay much less.
Meanwhile, the struggle over girls’s reproductive rights continues in each Washington, D.C., and the states. This week, governors in three states — Vermont, Illinois and Maine — signed payments to make abortions simpler to acquire. At the identical time, the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives took up a spending invoice for the Department of Health and Human Services that also contains the “Hyde Amendment,” which bans most federal abortion funding — even supposing most House Democrats oppose the restriction. House Democratic leaders concern that the struggle to eradicate the restriction would jeopardize the remainder of the spending invoice within the GOP-controlled Senate and on the White House.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner from Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
Republicans on Capitol Hill and on the White House are simply as keen as Democrats are to decide on laws that will preserve customers from getting shock medical payments. It would supply a pleasant counterpoint throughout the upcoming marketing campaign to Democrats’ costs that the GOP has been undermining well being care with its opposition to the Affordable Care Act. A federal choose in Texas has struck down the ACA’s provision that well being plans should cowl contraception. That is at odds with one other choose in Pennsylvania who earlier this yr blocked the Trump administration’s plans to loosen the contraception mandate. State insurance coverage regulators are elevating issues about well being care sharing ministries, which provide plans that present protection for some medical bills. But customers typically don’t understand that the plans could not cowl many well being prices, together with these from preexisting situations.
Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists advocate their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they suppose you need to learn too:
Julie Rovner: The Washington Post’s “In Alabama — Where Lawmakers Banned Abortion for Rape Victims — Rapists’ Parental Rights Are Protected,” by Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times’ “Planned Parenthood to Host Women’s Health Forum for 2020 Democrats,” by Lisa Lerer
Stephanie Armour: NPR’s “You May Be Stressing Out Your Dog,” by Rebecca Hersher
Kimberly Leonard: Politico’s “Lost in Translation: Epic Goes to Denmark,” by Arthur Allen
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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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