Health

Washington Post: “Republican-led states that expanded Medicaid are sticking with the change, despite qualms and intense political pressure within the GOP about embracing a key part of President Obama’s health-care law.”

“GOP governors and legislators have balked at repealing expansion partly because of the benefit of providing federally funded health insurance to large numbers of constituents, analysts say.”

“They also wish to keep the billions of dollars of federal funds that … gives states that broaden Medicaid.”

“Of the 10 states in which Republican governors expanded Medicaid, none has backed out in the face of frequent efforts by GOP legislators to reverse the decision.

“’Once you step over the threshold and have tens or hundreds of thousands of people getting coverage, it’s very hard to go backward, which is why for opponents it’s a battle to the death to make sure it doesn’t happen in the first place,’ said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University.”

The Hill: “The uninsured rate has fallen to a new low of 9 percent, marking 16.3 million more people with health insurance since ObamaCare’s coverage expansion took effect in 2013, according to data released Thursday.”

“The survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that the uninsured rate was 9 percent in the first six months of the year, corresponding to 28.5 million people, ticking down from 9.2 percent in the first three months of the year.”

“But those changes seem major when compared to previous years. The 9 percent figure is down from 11.5 percent uninsured in 2014 and 14.4 percent in 2013.”

“That corresponds to 7.5 million more people with insurance compared to 2014 and 16.3 million more compared to 2013.”

Gallup: “Americans’ satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and is lower among those with employer-paid and self-paid insurance. Americans with no health insurance are least satisfied of all.”

“Americans who get their health insurance through government-sponsored or assisted plans, such as Medicare and Medicaid or veterans insurance, are more likely to be satisfied with the way the healthcare system is working for them than those who have employer-paid insurance or who pay for insurance themselves. There may be a number of reasons for this, such as government plans being more inclusive and having a lower direct cost to the insured person than employer plans or personally paid-for plans. Additionally, the question asks about healthcare generally, and not cost specifically. Therefore, other aspects of the government plans such as access to more specialists, the availability of different services or ease of scheduling appointments may also factor into the higher satisfaction levels.”

Politico: “Matt Bevin won the Kentucky governorship on a vow to dismantle Obamacare, but the obstacles he faces rolling back a law that covers nearly one in 10 Kentuckians offers a preview of the struggles that a Republican president would face living up to a ‘repeal and replace’ pledge in 2017.”

Morning Consult: “Premiums are slated to rise steeply next year for health plans across the board.  Yet almost half of voters who have health coverage under Obamacare say they will keep their current plan through 2016, according to a new Morning Consult online poll.”

“The findings could be a worrying sign for the Obama administration, which is urging people who buy their insurance on state or federal exchanges to shop around for new plans to avoid premium increases. But the results could also be seen as a positive sign for Obamacare, generally. Half of enrollees are satisfied with their current plan and another one-third are comfortable enough with the online exchanges to look for cheaper coverage, as intended.”

“There has also been a significant drop in the number of voters who plan to visit an Obamacare exchange website this enrollment season. The new poll found that only 24 percent of respondents said they plan to visit an exchange site within the next few months … In Nov. 2013, 65 percent of respondents said they planned to visit HealthCare.gov or a state online exchange during the first enrollment season.”

Talking Points Memo: Federal officials Monday approved Montana’s application to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, the AP reported.

“‘This agreement will bring much needed access to health care coverage to more than 70,000 low-income Montanans,’ said Health and Human Service Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement. ‘The administration looks forward to working with other states to expand Medicaid by designing programs that meet state’s needs while providing needed services to residents and significant economic benefits to states.’”

Washington Post: “Although the Affordable Care Act put in place a parity requirement that care for depression or schizoprenia be covered, advocates worry about inequalities that could be exacerbated as insurers grow larger and face less competition.”

Margot Sanger-Katz: “Two years into Obamacare, clear regional patterns are emerging about who has health insurance in America and who still doesn’t.”

Kaiser Family Foundation: “This month’s Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that the affordability of prescription drugs continues to be at the top of the public’s priority list for the President and Congress, with ‘making sure that high-cost drugs are affordable to those who need them’ and ‘government action to lower prescription drug prices’ picked as top priorities by majorities across political parties. Issues specific to the ACA, such as repealing provisions of the law or repealing the law entirely, fall much lower on the list. For example, while the public generally opposes the Cadillac tax, a provision of the health care law that has received a lot of attention recently, relatively few (30 percent) say it should be a top priority.”

National Journal: “Only about 15 per­cent of un­in­sured Amer­ic­ans—and 17 per­cent of the gen­er­al pub­lic—know when open en­roll­ment be­gins, des­pite health in­sur­ance mar­ket­places kick­ing off the third open sea­son this Sunday, ac­cord­ing to the Oc­to­ber Kais­er Health Track­ing Poll.”

“Earli­er this month, the Health and Hu­man Ser­vices De­part­ment an­nounced that it an­ti­cip­ated 10 mil­lion Amer­ic­ans will likely have cov­er­age and pay their premi­ums by the end of 2016—a mod­est es­tim­ate that in­cluded 2.8 to 3.9 mil­lion un­in­sured in­di­vidu­als. HHS noted those without in­sur­ance may be harder to reach since it’s the third go-around for open en­roll­ment, and the Kais­er Fam­ily Found­a­tion poll sheds light on just how dif­fi­cult the task may be.”

“Out of those who are un­in­sured, roughly 2 in 10 have been con­tac­ted about the Af­ford­able Care Act in the past six months. About 51 per­cent of those without health in­sur­ance haven’t had cov­er­age for at least two years. Yet those sur­veyed in­dic­ated a will­ing­ness to sign up for cov­er­age; al­most half, when asked if they plan to get in­sur­ance in the next few months, said yes, ac­cord­ing to the poll, which in­ter­viewed 1,203 adults from Oct. 14-20.”