Eliminating the cost-sharing payments (CSRs) to insurers to hold down out-of-pocket costs for low-income people who purchase individual health plans may wind up actually increasing overall federal spending by driving up premium subsidies to cover higher price plans.
Shards of a bipartisan effort to stabilize the individual health insurance markets emerged. They focused mostly on resurrecting the ACA cost-reduction payments and giving states flexibility to come up with their own ideas, like reinsurance, for shoring up the troubled individual market.
State tort reforms have all but relegated the malpractice crisis to the history books. But there’s good news for those of you into all things retro: The House of Representatives just voted to fix the malpractice crisis by a 222–197 margin.
States are facing unsustainable health care costs, and prescription drugs for Medicaid beneficiaries and state employees are the reason. From 2009 to 2013, the consumer price index (CPI) for prescription drugs increased about 11% vs. 8% for the overall CPI.
This is not meant to be “the 10 most important” people in health care policy. It’s a sample from a larger group, and a different group of 10 might have been selected and would have been just as worthy—kind of like admission to a selective college.
Business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business have long endorsed AHPs as a way to give employers more options beyond the strictures of the ACA.
Now it’s the Senate’s turn and there’s a good chance that much of what the House put in the American Health Care Act will be left by the wayside. Keep an eye on some key players such as Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who heads the Senate Health Care Working Group.
