Health Law’s Future Post-Obama Depends On Ability To Evolve
Even supporters say it has structural and technical problems. And both presidential candidates have made clear they would seek to change at least some aspects of the law. In other news, the administration gives up the fight over bare-bones plans
The New York Times:
Ailing Obama Health Care Act May Have To Change To Survive
The fierce struggle to enact and carry out the Affordable Care Act was supposed to put an end to 75 years of fighting for a health care system to insure all Americans. Instead, the law’s troubles could make it just a way station on the road to another, more stable health care system, the shape of which could be determined on Election Day. Seeing a lack of competition in many of the health law’s online insurance marketplaces, Hillary Clinton, President Obama and much of the Democratic Party are calling for more government, not less. (Pear, 10/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Obama Administration Ends Drive To Ban Bare-Bones Health Plans
The Obama administration has ended a bid to ban the sale of bare-bones health plans after losing a court fight on the issue this summer. Government lawyers told a federal court earlier this month they would accept its decision that they had overstepped by seeking to effectively end so-called fixed indemnity plans, which are low-cost but pay out only set cash amounts for medical events such as a hospital visit or prescription purchase. (Radnofsky, 9/30)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Insider Q&A: A Front-Row Seat For The Drug Pricing Battle
Dr. Steve Miller, the chief medical officer of Express Scripts, sits at the center of the storm over rising drug prices. ... Miller has watched super-sized drug prices infuriate patients and strain the health care system with growing frequency, starting when a new hepatitis C drug hit the market at $84,000 for a course of treatment and continuing through the recent revelation that the price of Mylan's EpiPen rose more than 500 percent since 2007. (10/2)
The Associated Press:
Consider A Second Opinion On That Medical Bill
If a medical bill shows up, don’t pay it right away. At least that’s the advice of some experts who say you should closely review all your medical billing information for any errors first. The American Medical Association estimates that 7.1 percent of bills paid by commercial health insurers contain errors, while others estimate errors are far more common than that.(Sell, 10/2)
The Washington Post:
Nobel Prize In Medicine Awarded To Japan’s Yoshinori Ohsumi For Work On ‘Cell Recycling’
Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for discovering and elucidating a key mechanism in our body's defense system that involves degrading and recycling parts of cells. Known as autophagy, this process plays an important role in cancer, Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes, birth defects from Zika virus and numerous other devastating diseases. (Cha, 10/3)
The Washington Post:
There’s A Reason Many Antiabortion Leaders Support Trump: His Running Mate
In January, Marjorie Dannenfelser and nine other antiabortion activists urged Iowa voters to support anyone but Donald Trump. Now she is fully backing the Republican nominee, chairing the pro-life coalition of a man the activists said “cannot be trusted.” The dramatic about-face for Dannenfelser and other religious and social conservatives who were once leery of supporting a brash, thrice-married New Yorker who supported abortion rights and called Holy Communion a “little cracker” is due in large part to one man: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. (Zezima, 10/1)