Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

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

The Top Three...

KFF Health News: At Trump’s GOP Convention, There’s Little To Be Heard On Health Care No talk of Obamacare. Or abortion. At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, where delegates officially nominated Donald Trump as the party’s 2024 presidential candidate, health care issues received little attention from prime-time speakers. The silence is surprising, given health care makes up the largest chunk of the federal budget, nearly $2 trillion, as well as 17% of U.S. economic output. (Galewitz, 7/19)

Newsweek: US Health Care Now Unaffordable For Nearly Half Of Americans This is the warning of the latest report from the Healthcare Affordability Index, which tracks how many in the U.S. have been forced to avoid medical care or haven't been able to fill their prescriptions in the last three months—and how many would struggle to pay for care if it was needed. Affordability has fallen six points since 2022, down to a record low of 55 percent since the index was launched back in 2021. (Randall, 7/17)

Modern Healthcare: The Chevron Deference Ruling's Impact On Healthcare Policy Lawsuits are expected from all corners of the healthcare industry after the Supreme Court overturned decades of deference to federal agencies, adding uncertainty into the regulatory landscape. The high court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo weakened the executive branch’s authority to interpret laws and enhanced the judiciary’s power to resolve disputes about congressional intent. ... Insurers disadvantaged by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ changes to Medicare Advantage audits and the risk-adjustment program may use the new legal standard to challenge unpopular regulations. (7/15)

For a Deeper Dive...

Modern Healthcare: What A Trump Win Would Mean For Medicare, Medicaid, ACA When Republican National Convention meets in Milwaukee this week to nominate Donald Trump for another term in the White House, the party is not expected to reveal a detailed healthcare platform. But the former president's record and his allies' ambitions offer significant insight into what health policy might look like under a unified GOP government. (McAuliff, 7/15)

Stat: What To Know About Trump VP Pick J.D. Vance’s Health Care Views And Investments Sen. J.D. Vance, who was tapped to be former President Trump’s running mate on Monday, has a history of investing in health care companies — and of pursuing health care policies that are sometimes at odds with his party’s base. (Zhang and Owermohle, 7/15)

Stateline: In The 10 States That Didn't Expand Medicaid, 1.6M Can't Afford Health Insurance Nearly 1 of every 5 uninsured working-age adults across the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are, according to a new analysis, stuck in a health care limbo known as a “coverage gap.” That means they earn too much money to receive Medicaid but not enough to qualify for financial help to purchase their own plan on the marketplace. In Alabama and Mississippi, more than a quarter of uninsured working-age adults are left with no affordable pathways to health coverage, according to the analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank that researches federal and state budget policies. (Chatlani, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth Reports High Medicaid, Change Healthcare Expenses Fallout from the Change Healthcare cyberattack continues to affect UnitedHealthGroup, with the healthcare giant nearly doubling its estimates of how much the incident will financially disrupt business operations this year. High Medicaid and Medicare Advantage medical expenses contributed to high costs in the second quarter, executives said during a Tuesday earnings call. (Tepper, 7/16)

KFF Health News: The Nation’s 911 System Is On The Brink Of Its Own Emergency Just after lunchtime on June 18, Massachusetts’ leaders discovered that the statewide 911 system was down. A scramble to handle the crisis was on. Police texted out administrative numbers that callers could use, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu gave outage updates at a press conference outlining plans for the Celtics’ championship parade, and local officials urged people to summon help by pulling red fire alarm boxes. (Armour, 7/17)

NBC News: In States With Strict Abortion Policies, Simply Seeing An OB/GYN For Regular Care Can Be Difficult The chances that a woman can see a doctor while pregnant — or during a time when she might become pregnant — have fallen significantly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a new report released Thursday. The findings, from The Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health care research foundation, show that women living in states with a history of health disparities — often in the Southeast — are affected the most. They are not only less likely to be able to afford a doctor’s appointment; they’re less likely to be able to find an OB/GYN in their area. (Edwards, 7/18)

CNN: After ‘Historic Backslide’ During Pandemic, Global Childhood Immunization Rates Stall, New Data Shows Although the Covid-19 pandemic saw unprecedented speed in the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines, experts say it was also marked by a significant and concerning drop in the rate of routine vaccinations. New data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund shows the world has yet to recover. (Davis, 7/14)

AP: Can A Medicaid Plan That Requires Work Succeed? First Year Of Georgia Experiment Is Not Promising By now, Georgia officials expected their new Medicaid plan, the only one in the nation with a work requirement, to provide health insurance to 25,000 low-income residents and possibly tens of thousands more. But a year since its launch, Pathways to Coverage has roughly 4,300 members, much lower than what state officials projected and a tiny fraction of the roughly half-million state residents who could be covered if Georgia, like 40 other states, agreed to a full Medicaid expansion. (Thanawala, 7/14)

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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