Category: The Commonwealth Fund
A Judge Blocked a Medicaid Work Requirement. The White House Is Undeterred
Trump administration officials, whose push to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries was dealt a blow by a federal judge in June, say they have found a way around the ruling and will continue to allow states to put the restrictions in place…
Short-term Health Insurance Policies Quickly Run into Headwinds
Efforts to allow health insurers to market short-term medical plans as a cheap alternative to the ACA are already running into headwinds, with state insurance regulators resisting the sales and state governments moving to restrict them. State insurance…
Medicare Advantage Change May Lower Part B Drug Prices
CMS will allow Medicare Advantage plans to require that patients try low-cost generics before stepping up to more expensive therapies. Late Tuesday, the CMS announced that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans can now impose step therapy on Part B drugs. Step …
Administration Sinks Teeth into Paring Down Drug Prices, on Five Key Points
Three months after President Donald Trump announced his blueprint to bring down drug prices, administration officials have begun putting some teeth behind the rhetoric. Many details have yet to be announced. But experts who pay close attention to feder…
Trump Forces Pharma to Face More Medicare Drug-Price Negotiation
Drugmakers will be required to negotiate on prices for more medications paid for by Medicare, the latest step in the Trump administration’s campaign to rein in prescription costs. Starting next year, private insurers that provide coverage to about 20 m…
Quotable
“We suffered one blow in a district court in litigation. We are undeterred. We are proceeding forward. We are fully committed to work requirements and community participation requirements in the Medicaid program.”—Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health a…
Administration Proposes Further Dismantling of Affordable Care Act Through Medicare
The Trump administration is proposing to restrict an innovation in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that was intended to improve Medicare and slow spending in the vast federal insurance system for older Americans. Health care researchers have hailed the m…
ACA Subsidies Cost More Per Person Than Medicaid. Is That Sustainable?
Government spending on Obamacare premiums has raced past its per-person spending on Medicaid expansion, and the gap is poised to increase—a trend that has some policy experts shaking their heads over the long-term economic picture and at least one majo…
