The bipartisan price range deal that handed Congress this week contains sufficient well being coverage modifications to maintain reporters and analysts busy for months.
In addition to renewing funding for Community Health Centers for 2 extra years, the invoice extends funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program for 4 years past the six accepted final month; repeals the controversial (however by no means applied) Independent Payment Advisory Board for Medicare and completely repeals Medicare’s caps on sure sorts of outpatient remedy.
Also, the ultimate enrollment numbers for particular person insurance coverage bought underneath the Affordable Care Act got here out this week. Spoiler: They are greater than most analysts anticipated.
Plus, Andy Slavitt, former appearing head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services underneath President Barack Obama, talks about his new group, “The United States of Care.”
This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
The price range invoice signed by President Donald Trump on Friday supplies a number of funding for well being applications, nevertheless it additionally takes cash away from others. It takes a giant chunk of funding out of the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund and raises premiums for some wealthier Medicare beneficiaries. That invoice may make various modifications to how Medicare works, together with some new guidelines for accountable care organizations and extra flexibility in telemedicine guidelines. Trump’s proposed price range for subsequent 12 months, which comes out Monday, will provide various choices to deliver down drug costs. Some of them may be doable by means of the regulation course of fairly than requiring congressional motion. A knowledge evaluation this week of the ACA market enrollment numbers factors out large variations amongst states. The panel takes on a listener’s query concerning the chance that states may let insurers cost greater premiums to market prospects who didn’t have insurance coverage earlier than. In the latest debate concerning the administration’s approval of labor necessities for some Medicaid enrollees, officers typically discuss “able-bodied” adults. That time period has little definition and goes again to Elizabethan England. Email Sign-Up
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Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists advocate their favourite well being tales of the week they assume you must learn, too.
Julie Rovner: Vox.com, “Why a Simple, Lifesaving Rabies Shot Can Cost $10,000 in America,” by Sarah Kliff.
Alice Ollstein: The New York Times, “In Sweeping War On Obesity, Chile Slays Tony The Tiger,” by Andrew Jacobs.
Joanne Kenen: Politico, “Trump’s Controversial New Health Care Idea,” by Sarah Karlin-Smith.
Margot Sanger-Katz: Harvard Business Review, “What Could Amazon’s Approach to Health Care Look Like,” by Robert S. Huckman.
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Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nationwide well being coverage information service. It is an editorially unbiased program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which isn’t affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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