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Open enrollment for 2020 well being protection underneath the Affordable Care Act is midway over. So far, sign-ups look like lagging behind final 12 months’s, however not dramatically.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and Congress nonetheless say they need to do one thing in regards to the teen vaping epidemic, the excessive value of pharmaceuticals and “surprise” medical payments. But it’s Thanksgiving week, and official Washington has not a lot to indicate for any of these points.
And Democrats look like shifting additional into the abortion-rights camp than ever — though whether or not that can assist them in additional conservative elements of the nation is much from clear.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner from Kaiser Health News, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
Although common premium prices for the ACA’s market plans have declined barely, many consultants suspect that general enrollment for subsequent 12 months might dip, too. That’s as a result of there may be much less outreach from the administration, deductibles are nonetheless excessive, and the penalty for not having insurance coverage was canceled as a part of the 2017 GOP tax reduce invoice. One state to observe on enrollment is California. Officials there have expanded subsidies to extra middle-income households. California additionally has an extended enrollment interval and is spending $100 million on enrollment advertising and marketing. The Trump administration might wait to situation its long-promised plan to control vaping merchandise till after the Senate acts on the nomination of Dr. Stephen Hahn to be the subsequent chief of the Food and Drug Administration. Trump had promised to ban flavored vaping merchandise however is reportedly having second ideas. In a marked shift, the Democratic presidential candidates usually agree there must be just about no restrictions on abortions. That’s a giant step from the place Democrats have been a couple of a long time in the past, once they instructed that abortion must be “safe, legal and rare.”
Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists suggest their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they assume you must learn too:
Julie Rovner: New Hampshire Public Radio’s “Regulators Allege Christian-Based Health Care Provider Broke State, Federal Rules,” by Todd Bookman
Paige Winfield Cunningham: Kaiser Health News’ “The Startlingly High Cost Of The ‘Free’ Flu Shot,” by Phil Galewitz
Kimberly Leonard: The Philadelphia Inquirer’s “He Didn’t Know He Had a Preexisting Condition — Until His Insurer Rejected His $35,000 Hospital Bill,” by Sarah Gantz
Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times’ “University to Students on Medicaid: Buy Private Coverage, or Drop Out,” by Sarah Kliff, and The Salt Lake Tribune’s “BYU-Idaho Will Allow Students to Use Medicaid, Apologizes for Causing ‘Turmoil’” by Courtney Tanner
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