Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

The Washington Post: One-Third Of Americans Skip Meals Or Other Needs To Afford Health Care Americans are driving less, skipping meals and putting off big life moves, like buying homes or having children, to keep up with health care costs, according to two Gallup polls released Thursday. Roughly one-third of Americans are cutting back on daily spending to cover medical costs, and about half of middle-income households said they have delayed a major life event because of the same expenses, the polls found, as premiums rise and the federal government cuts Medicaid spending. (Wu, 3/12)

Capital & Main: A Year After USAID’s Termination: The Impact Has Been ‘Devastating’ “Heartbreaking.” “Devastating.” “Difficult and challenging.” Such are the words used by health care workers, government officials and former U.S. Agency for International Development employees to describe the impact of the agency’s dissolution last year. (Baram, 3/11)

Politico: The Surgeon General Nominee Can’t Get People To Stop Asking Her About Vaccines Casey Means, President Donald Trump’s pick for surgeon general, has achieved an unlikely feat: uniting vaccine skeptics and mainstream medical advocates against her nomination. Activists in both camps are now urging senators to vote her down. (Friedman and Paun, 3/6)

A Deeper Dive...

Stat: Medicare Advantage Overpayments To Hit $76 Billion This Year This year, the federal government is expected to pay 14% more to cover people in a Medicare Advantage plan than if those same people were enrolled in traditional Medicare — a $76 billion surplus for health insurance companies, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission said in its new annual report released Thursday. (Herman, 3/12)

For the Visual Among Us...

A few years ago I started a weekly e-mail for friends and colleagues who want to keep up on major federal health policy developments but did not have time to plod through all the minutiae--they were busy doing important things like running organizations and taking care of patients! Much to my surprise, it became pretty popular. I have now converted to a weekly newsletter format so you can manage your own subscription preferences and forward to others that might be interested.

These summaries represent my judgement on health policy issues that may not on the front pages, but are relevant to clinicians, administrators, and educators. I monitor many news sources and clipping services to identify content for this newsletter and I try hard to be as factual, balanced, and non-partisan as possible. While the articles are written by others (with credit attributed), the choice of what to include is entirely mine. If you are interested in receiving a daily summary of health policy news, you might consider signing up for the KHN Morning Briefing. If you enjoy podcasts, I suggest What the Health? and Tradeoffs.

-Gregg S. Margolis, PhD