By Wendy Netter Epstein Block grants are all the rage. Take the latest G.O.P. proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act: the Graham-Cassidy bill. It proposes to replace the current system and instead give grants to the states, essentially taking the funds the federal government now spends under the ACA for premium subsidies…
By Aobo Dong As the future of Affordable Care Act (ACA) hangs in the balance amid political deadlock in Washington, more Americans are signing up for Christian health care sharing ministries (HCSMs) – a growing alternative to traditional health insurance. Instead of paying a monthly premium to insurance companies, most members of HCSMs write monthly…
By Wendy Netter Epstein The cost-sharing reduction payments are an essential component of the ACA. These payments reduce out-of-pocket costs for lower income enrollees so that individuals can actually use their insurance coverage and not be prevented from seeking care because of a high deductible or a copay they can’t afford. President Trump has been…
By Matthew J.B. Lawrence Research indicates that one of many challenges in addressing the opioid epidemic is getting people who are theoretically eligible for government-funded drug abuse treatment through CHIP or Medicaid to actually make use of those programs when their sickness or circumstances give them a window of opportunity to try to get help. The…
By Carmel Shachar The latest push to repeal at least some aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) died late into Thursday, July 27, 2017 when John McCain (R-AZ) joined Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) to vote against a much stripped down repeal bill. This dramatic moment has been replayed over and over…
By Abbe R. Gluck I am have always been a partial skeptic about Eskridge and Ferejohn’s “superstatute” theory—their groundbreaking argument that certain statutes are special because they transform and entrench norms beyond the rights embodied in the statute itself. Some of my resistance stems from how hard it has been for scholars to identify and reach…
Crossposted from the Take Care blog. By Rachel E. Sachs Yesterday, the Senate took a key procedural vote in service of the Republicans’ never-ending quest to repeal (or at least partially repeal) the ACA. Fifty Republican senators and Vice President Mike Pence voted to proceed to debate on repeal – without knowing the final product they will vote…
By Rachel Sachs Cross-posted from the Take Care blog. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released the latest draft of his effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As of last night, it appears that this version of the bill is dead, with four Senators declaring that they won’t vote to move it…
By David Orentlicher In today’s New York Times, Kate Zernike reports on the lack of excitement among conservative activists for the Republican health care legislation. As Zernike observes, “President Trump and congressional leaders are getting little support from what were once the loudest anti-Obamacare voices.” Some observers think that activists are disappointed in the failure of…
By Christopher Robertson In a recent story about how the health insurance marketplaces are being destabilized by the Trump administration’s vacillation, the LA Times reports: At one recent meeting, Seema Verma, whom Trump picked to oversee the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, stunned insurance industry officials by suggesting a bargain: The administration would fund the…
