Lifestyle

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: SCOTUS Punts On ACA Case — For Now

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The Supreme Court has declined to take up instantly a case out of Texas that would overturn your complete Affordable Care Act. But that’s not prone to cease the case from turning into a serious political difficulty within the 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns.

Meanwhile, the American College of Physicians, which represents internists, grew to become one of many first main physician teams to endorse “Medicare for All” — though the group additionally endorsed a considerably much less sweeping public possibility.

And the 47th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, prompted exercise on either side of the contentious difficulty, together with a change in coverage from the Trump administration.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Caitlin Owens of Axios.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

The uncertainty concerning the ACA’s future is a reminder that Republicans have promised to have a backup plan for customers if the regulation is struck down in its entirety, however there isn’t a indication that they’ve settled on an possibility. In truth, Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, lately instructed an interviewer that administration officers usually are not prioritizing the event of such a plan. The endorsement by the American College of Physicians of a single-payer, Medicare for All plan — or, as an alternative, a public possibility provided to customers — factors to main demographic modifications for docs: Where as soon as the occupation was made up of largely white, older males working in particular person practices, as we speak many extra main care physicians are girls and folks of coloration and work for practices owned by hospitals or different outdoors teams. The coronavirus outbreak in China, which has sickened practically 600 folks, is elevating fears about whether or not the United States is ready for a serious contagion. Some of the well being business’s monetary incentives don’t essentially assist: They usually are not geared towards growing vaccines or antibiotics. The ACA’s mandate for medical insurance to cowl contraceptives is getting one other date within the Supreme Court. This time, the justices will decide whether or not the Trump administration’s new guidelines give extra latitude to employers to chop such protection if they’ve ethical or non secular objections to contraception. In one other improvement in reproductive well being information, the administration instructed Texas on Wednesday — the anniversary of the Roe determination — that it might probably once more get federal funds for its household planning packages, although it particularly excludes Planned Parenthood amenities as a result of the group supplies abortions at some facilities.

Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists suggest their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they assume you need to learn too:

Julie Rovner: The Atlantic’s “America’s Most Powerful Medical-Debt Collector,” by Jared Bennett and Olga Khazan

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times’ “In Oval Office Meeting, Trump Expresses Regret of Vaping Policy,” by Maggie Haberman

Margot Sanger-Katz: Tradeoffs Podcast’s “The Price of Innovation,” by Dan Gorenstein

Caitlin Owens: Axios’ “Employers, Not Patients, Have the Most Health Insurance Choices,” by Caitlin Owens

To hear all our podcasts, click here.

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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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