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President Donald Trump tried to alter the topic from his impeachment investigation by going to Florida to unveil modifications to the Medicare program earlier than an viewers of seniors. The modifications consist largely of enhanced advantages in non-public Medicare Advantage plans, which Republicans have lengthy championed as replacements for government-run Medicare advantages.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration this week additionally issued steering permitting states so as to add “wellness” packages to plans on the person insurance coverage market. The program, a part of the unique Affordable Care Act, was by no means applied by the Obama administration. However, quite a few studies have shown that wellness packages that elevate or decrease premiums based mostly on participation or well being targets neither get monetary savings nor enhance well being considerably.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
Trump’s speech Thursday comes amid the backdrop of his fierce opposition to the Affordable Care Act and is seen as an effort to spotlight the administration’s aim to advertise non-public Medicare well being plans. But Democrats and different administration critics level out that these Medicare Advantage insurance policies are dearer than conventional Medicare and tighten restrictions on docs and hospitals. Trump’s speech additionally has the potential to remind voters that the administration has been combating to overturn the ACA in courtroom, which might upend lots of its client protections, together with the assure of protection for individuals with preexisting medical issues. The administration proposal on wellness packages has raised issues amongst some client teams that the packages may make insurance coverage dearer for some individuals who can’t meet the well being requirements in these packages. Federal officers are redistributing funding for the Title X program after Planned Parenthood and a few state well being departments pulled out. Those companies objected to the administration’s rule that taking part organizations couldn’t refer girls for abortions. But discovering new teams to take the cash could show troublesome since not many are in a position to deal with the work or the big numbers of shoppers that Planned Parenthood as soon as did. With a number of state challenges to abortion rights working their means via the courtroom system, it appears doubtless that the Supreme Court will adjudicate an abortion case in the course of the 2020 presidential marketing campaign season. A federal courtroom in California is weighing a swimsuit by immigration advocates to overturn the Trump administration’s rule that will hamper authorized immigrants’ efforts to realize citizenship if they’ve used authorities advantages like Medicaid or meals stamps.
Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Cara Anthony, who wrote the most recent KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” characteristic a few biopsy that was dearer than anticipated. If you’ve gotten an outrageous medical invoice you want to share with us, you are able to do that here.
Plus, for further credit score, the panelists suggest their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they suppose it is best to learn too:
Julie Rovner: NPR’s “Workers Are Falling Ill, Even Dying, After Making Kitchen Countertops,” by Nell Greenfieldboyce
Alice Miranda Ollstein: AL.com and ProPublica’s “These Sheriffs Release Sick Inmates to Avoid Paying Their Hospital Bills,” by Connor Sheets
Kimberly Leonard: The Los Angeles Times’ “The FDA Tried to Ban Flavors Years Before the Vaping Outbreak. Top Obama Officials Rejected the Plan,” by Emily Baumgaertner
Rebecca Adams: The Washington Post’s “With the Affordable Care Act’s Future in Doubt, Evidence Grows That It Has Saved Lives,” by Amy Goldstein
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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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