Breaking News in Healthcare Reform
Snippets of news & commentary with a special focus on
health policy, Medicare for All & California
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“Now, squeezed by medical costs and inflation, more than 100 million Americans have medical debt and roughly the same proportion report avoiding a prescription because of it.”
‘Don’t Get Sick. It’s Too Expensive’: Medical Debt Is Putting More Americans in Financial Crisis
The Guardian | Jessica Glenza | December 11, 2023
“…a substantial portion of medical debt arises from managing chronic conditions.”
Health Care Costs Make Americans Sick
Post Register | Mark Garro | December 9, 2023
“Obamacare wasn’t intended to lower premiums for everyone…. Its primary objective was providing access to more affordable, comprehensive health insurance for Americans who lacked access to employer-based group insurance.”
GOP Candidates’ Criticisms of ACA Premiums Leave Out Key Pieces of Health Care Puzzle
PolitiFact | Samantha Putterman | December 8, 2023
“In spite of our various insurance programs, supposedly made universal by Obamacare, health care consumers are facing ever greater health care debt that they are no longer able to manage and causes them to forgo further essential care.”
Implosion of Commercial Health Insurance
Health Justice Monitor | Don McCanne | December 7, 2023
“From facility closures to compromised care, it’s now a familiar story: Private equity buys out a hospital, saddles it with debt, and then reduces operating costs by cutting services and staff — all while investors pocket millions. Before the dust settles, the private-equity firm sells and leaves town, leaving communities to pick up the pieces.”
Senators Launch Bipartisan Probe of Private Equity’s Growing Role in U.S. Health Care
NBC News | Gretchen Morgenson | December 6, 2023
“Advocates have long complained that some insurers are improperly charging women or denying coverage of some birth control methods….”
Democrats Urge Biden to Ensure Broader Access to Free Birth Control
Axios | Tina Reed | December 6, 2023
“…the private insurers that sponsor Medicare Part D are artificially inflating the costs of certain generic drugs by overpaying pharmacies … if a patient pays 30% as a copayment for a drug, that 30% would be applied to the inflated price….”
Medicare is Overpaying for Generic Drugs: Study
University of California San Diego | December 5, 2023
“This is just not an insurable risk that is possible to address through a private market. This is not car insurance. This is not even health insurance.”
Seniors Aren’t Getting Enough Financial Support to Afford Home-Based Care
Home Health Care News | Joyce Famakinwa | December 5, 2023
“Nearly two years into Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $12 billion experiment to transform California’s Medicaid program into a social services provider for the state’s most vulnerable residents, the institutions tasked with providing the new services aren’t effectively doing so….“
California’s Ambitious Medicaid Experiment Gets Tripped Up in Implementation
California Healthline | Angela Hart | December 5, 2023
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