Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

For the week of Mar 24-31, 2023

Author

Gregg S. Margolis, PhD
March 31, 2023

Health policy impacts everyone, but it can be hard to know what is important. If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

NBC News: Judge Strikes Down Obamacare Provisions Requiring Insurers Cover Some Preventive Care Services In the decision, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor mentioned his previous ruling on the structure of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which was created under Obamacare and helps determine preventive services coverage, saying it violates the appointments clause of the Constitution and therefore its related preventive care mandates are unlawful. (Shabad, 3/30)

The Washington Post: Medicaid Benefits Ending For Millions As Pandemic Protections Unwind At the end of this week, states will begin to sever an anticipated 15 million low-income Americans from Medicaid rolls that ballooned to record heights because of a pandemic-era promise that people with the health insurance could keep it — a federal promise that is going away. The end to the temporary guarantee that preserved the safety-net health coverage for the past three years saddles every state with an immense undertaking: sorting out which Medicaid beneficiaries actually belong. Around the country, officials have been preparing for months, but the result is a bumpy landscape consisting of states that vary in how ready they are for this daunting work. (Goldstein, 3/29)

AP: N. Carolina Governor Signs Medicaid Expansion Bill Into Law North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday signed a Medicaid expansion law that was a decade in the making and gives the Democrat a legacy-setting victory, although one significant hurdle remains before coverage can be implemented, thanks to a Republican-backed provision. At an Executive Mansion ceremony attended by hundreds, Cooper celebrated passage of expansion legislation, which he’s ardently sought since being first elected governor in 2016. It took Republicans in charge of the General Assembly all this time to come around to the idea and agree to offer coverage to more low-income adults, with federal coffers paying for most of it. (Robertson, 3/27)

For a Deeper Dive...

Axios: Don't Expect Big Changes To Insurance, Yet Thursday's federal court ruling against the Affordable Care Act's preventive services requirement won't bring a seismic shift to employer-sponsored health care. But experts say it could well add new costs for the approximately 100 million privately insured people who use such services. The big picture: The ruling immediately removes a legal requirement of no-cost coverage for certain skin and lung cancer screenings, statins for heart disease, medications that prevent HIV and other services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim writes. (Reed, 3/31)

The Boston Globe: Advocates Cheer OTC Approval For Narcan, But Questions Remain About Price And Insurance Traci C. Green, professor and director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandies University, was thrilled by the news. “It’s about time,” said Green. “This is the best news you could possibly hear. It wasn’t all that long ago, naloxone wasn’t even covered [by insurance]. It took a lot of advocacy to shift that.” Green envisions naloxone being sold at restaurants, highway rest stops, even vending machines. (Freyer and Mohammed, 3/29)

The New York Times: In Mississippi, A Choice To Forgo Medicaid Funds Is Killing Hospitals Since its opening in a converted wood-frame mansion 117 years ago, Greenwood Leflore Hospital had become a medical hub for this part of Mississippi’s fertile but impoverished Delta, with 208 beds, an intensive-care unit, a string of walk-in clinics and a modern brick-and-glass building. But on a recent weekday, it counted just 13 inpatients clustered in a single ward. The I.C.U. and maternity ward were closed for lack of staffing and the rest of the building was eerily silent, all signs of a hospital savaged by too many poor patients. (LaFraniere, 3/28)

Bloomberg: Private Medicare Insurance Drives Up Costs, Senator Elizabeth Warren Says Big insurers who manage private Medicare plans are driving up seniors’ health costs, US Senator Elizabeth Warren said, urging the Biden administration to finalize new rules that would rein in how much the program pays companies. (Tozzi, 3/28)

KHN: A Progress Check On Hospital Price Transparency For decades, U.S. hospitals have generally stonewalled patients who wanted to know ahead of time how much their care would cost. Now that’s changing — but there’s a vigorous debate over what hospitals are disclosing. Under a federal rule in effect since 2021, hospitals nationwide have been laboring to post a mountain of data online that spells out their prices for every service, drug, and item they provide, including the actual prices they’ve negotiated with insurers and the amounts that cash-paying patients would be charged. They’ve done so begrudgingly and only after losing a lawsuit that challenged the federal rule. How well they’re doing depends on whom you ask. (Andrews, 3/29)

Stat: Health Insurers Fight Proposed Changes To Medicare Advantage For the past two months, the health insurance industry has attempted to scare older adults and the public into thinking the federal government is slashing Medicare benefits next year. Op-eds, ads, and industry-backed reports have warned of cuts to prized perks and increases to premiums for Medicare Advantage, the growing alternative to traditional Medicare run by private health insurers. Since any changes to Medicare are politically unpopular, health insurers are hoping the pressure will force the Biden administration to retreat from its February proposals that would specifically change how Medicare Advantage plans are paid. Final regulations are due to come out April 3. (Herman, 3/27)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Sues Pharmacy Benefit Managers Calling them "modern gangsters," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Monday accused pharmacy benefit managers of illegally driving up drug prices for patients who rely on insulin and other key medications. “Medications shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, metaphorically or literally,” Yost said in a written statement. “Insulin is just a symptom of the problem; PBMs are the disease.” (Bischoff, 3/27)

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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?

-Gregg S. Margolis, PhD