Uninsured Rate Hits Record Low, But Pace Of Progress Drastically Slows
The National Health Interview Survey shows that about 1.3 million fewer people were uninsured the first three months of 2016 but those numbers are far lower than expected.
The Wall Street Journal:
Percentage Of Uninsured Historically Low
The number of uninsured people in the U.S. remained at a historic low in early 2016, according to a federal survey that found 8.6% of respondents without health coverage at the time of the interview. That translates to about 27.3 million people who lacked medical insurance when they were asked about it between January and March as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey. The previous survey, covering the whole of 2015, had put the figure at 9.1%, or about 1.3 million more people. CDC officials said the latest reduction wasn’t statistically significant. (Radnofsky, 9/7)
In other national health care news —
The Hill:
Officials To Test Tightening ObamaCare Sign-Up Rules
The Obama administration said Tuesday that it is planning to test out further steps to tighten the rules for ObamaCare sign-up periods that have drawn insurer complaints. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said that it will launch a pilot program in 2017 to test ways to put in place a “pre-enrollment verification system,” meaning a way to check documentation to make sure enrollees are actually eligible to sign up for ObamaCare through an extra sign-up period. (Sullivan, 9/6)
The New York Times:
Senate Democrats Block Zika Bill Over Planned Parenthood Provisions
As Congress returned from a seven-week recess on Tuesday, Senate Democrats again stymied a $1.1 billion plan to fight the Zika virus, demanding that Republicans drop an effort to block Planned Parenthood from receiving money to combat the mosquito-borne disease. Democrats, who had essentially blocked the same legislation in late June, had enough votes Tuesday to prevent Congress from moving emergency funding public health experts say is desperately needed as they prepare for the possibility that Zika will spread to other states along the gulf coast. The vote was 52 to 46, and Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill. (Hutteman and Tavernise, 9/6)
Bloomberg:
Cigna Can’t Sign Up New Medicare Customers Due To U.S. Probe
Health insurer Cigna Corp. won’t be able to sign up new customers for its private Medicare plans during the fall enrollment season this year because of an investigation by U.S. regulators. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in January that it found “widespread and systemic failures” in Cigna’s private Medicare business. On Tuesday, the Bloomfield, Connecticut-based insurer said in a regulatory filing that it probably can’t fix the problems in time for the enrollment season for private health insurance and drug coverage plans, which starts next month. (Tracer, 9/6)
The New York Times:
Why Your Toothpaste Still Has Triclosan
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration effectively banned the antibacterial chemical triclosan from soaps. But you can you still find it in your toothpaste. That’s because the best-selling toothpaste brand, Colgate Total, convinced the F.D.A. that the benefit of triclosan in toothpaste outweighs any risks. (Saint Louis, 9/7)