ACA Outreach Cutbacks, Shorter Enrollment Window Likely To Hurt Vulnerable Populations
The health law sparked some of the biggest gains in coverage for minority populations. But those same populations may be the ones most affected by the administration's decision to slash sign-up efforts.
The New York Times:
A Last Push For Obamacare Sign-Ups — And Worries About Who Got Hurt
Denise English was one of just two employees working six days a week to handle the crowd of people signing up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at a neighborhood health clinic here, as the Friday deadline for open enrollment loomed. Most of the people who sat waiting wanted to speak to her co-worker, who speaks Spanish. But Ms. English — she speaks only “un poquito” — was doing her best, her phone open to Google Translate, as she tried to help clients like Ana Gonzalez and Celso Morales, who moved here from Puerto Rico in April, sign up for a subsidized health plan. (Zernike and Pear, 12/15)
The Associated Press:
Sign-Ups Show Health Law's Staying Power In Trump Era
A deadline burst of sign-ups after a tumultuous year for the Obama health law has revealed continued demand for the program's subsidized individual health plans. But the Affordable Care Act's troubles aren't over. On the plus side for the overhaul, official numbers showed a sizable share of first-time customers, 36 percent, were among those rushing to finish HealthCare.gov applications in the run-up to Friday's enrollment deadline. One new challenge comes from the GOP tax bill, which repeals the law's requirement that people have health insurance or risk fines. (12/18)
Politico:
How Blue States Might Save Obamacare's Markets
The looming demise of Obamacare’s individual mandate is spurring talks in a handful of blue states about enacting their own coverage requirements, as state officials and health care advocates fear repeal will roil their insurance markets. Republicans in Congress are poised to kill off the individual mandate in their sweeping tax overhaul, knocking out one of Obamacare's most unpopular features — but one that health experts have said is essential to making the law's insurance marketplaces function. (Pradhan, 12/17)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times:
Uproar Over Purported Ban At C.D.C. Of Words Like ‘Fetus’
The Department of Health and Human Services tried to play down on Saturday a report that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been barred from using seven words or phrases, including “science-based,” “fetus,” “transgender” and “vulnerable,” in agency budget documents. “The assertion that H.H.S. has ‘banned words’ is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,” an agency spokesman, Matt Lloyd, said in an email. “H.H.S. will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans. H.H.S. also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions.” (Kaplan and McNeil, 12/16)
Stat:
After Report On CDC's Forbidden Words Draws Outrage, HHS Pushes Back
A spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department said Saturday the agency remains committed to the use of outcomes data and scientific evidence in its decisions, pushing back on the characterization of a Washington Post report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now banned from using words like “science-based” and “transgender” in budget documents. The spokesman, Matt Lloyd, didn’t respond to follow-up questions about whether the policy might apply more broadly, now or in the future, to other HHS agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Health. (Mershon, 12/16)
The Washington Post:
‘We Feel Like Our System Was Hijacked’: DEA Agents Say A Huge Opioid Case Ended In A Whimper
After two years of painstaking investigation, David Schiller and the rest of the Drug Enforcement Administration team he supervised were ready to move on the biggest opioid distribution case in U.S. history. The team, based out of the DEA’s Denver field division, had been examining the operations of the nation’s largest drug company, McKesson Corp. By 2014, investigators said they could show that the company had failed to report suspicious orders involving millions of highly addictive painkillers sent to drugstores from Sacramento, Calif., to Lakeland, Fla. Some of those went to corrupt pharmacies that supplied drug rings. (Bernstein and Higham, 12/17)
The Washington Post:
New Drug Law Makes It ‘Harder For Us To Do Our Jobs,’ Former DEA Officials Say
A new law supported by opioid distributors and manufacturers is making it increasingly difficult to hold companies accountable when they run afoul of the nation’s drug laws, according to recently retired Drug Enforcement Administration investigators on the front lines of the war against opioids. They join a chorus of voices — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, 44 state attorneys general and the head of the DEA office that regulates pharmaceuticals — who are calling for changes to the law. (Higham and Bernstein, 12/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Prosecutors Treat Opioid Overdoses As Homicides, Snagging Friends, Relatives
After Daniel Eckhardt’s corpse was found on the side of a road in Hamilton County, Ohio, last year, police determined he died of a heroin overdose. Not long ago, law enforcement’s involvement would have ended there. But amid a national opioid-addiction crisis fueling an unprecedented wave of overdose deaths, the investigation was just beginning. Detectives interrogated witnesses and obtained search warrants in an effort to hold someone accountable for Mr. Eckhardt’s death. The prosecutor for Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati and its suburbs, charged three of Mr. Eckhardt’s companions, including his ex-wife and her boyfriend, with crimes including involuntary manslaughter, an offense carrying a maximum prison sentence of 11 years. (Walker, 12/17)
The New York Times:
In Opioid Battle, Cherokee Want Their Day In Tribal Court
Cherokee children were disappearing. At weekly staff meetings, Todd Hembree, the attorney general of the Cherokee Nation, kept hearing about babies in opioid withdrawal and youngsters with addicted parents, all being removed from families. The crush on the foster care system was so great that the unthinkable had become inevitable: 70 percent of the Cherokee foster children in Oklahoma had to be placed in the homes of non-Indians. (Hoffman, 12/17)