Insights Column
Medicaid Policy And Partisan Politics: A New Dynamic
NOTE: This blog was originally published in Health Affairs on October 15, 2019. On September 18, 2019, Tennessee announced a long-anticipated proposal to block grant its Medicaid program, TennC...
View MoreUptick in Hospital Mergers: A Doubled-Edged Sword for Consumers
Earlier this month, a federal district court judge in Idaho examined whether a merger between a large hospital system, St. Luke’s, and the state’s largest independent network of doctors would crea...
View MoreAlleviating Poverty Doesn’t Come from Slashing Medicaid
Having Medicaid is better than being uninsured—a lot better. But House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s recently released report, War on Poverty: 50 Years Late, claims otherwise. The repo...
View MoreThe State of Enrollment: Health Coverage Options after March 31
Tonight (by midnight) marks the end of the first open enrollment period to get health insurance in the marketplaces. And although this first open enrollment period was a success—more than 6 million ...
View MoreIf the Remaining States Expand Medicaid, Who Would Benefit?
Twenty-two states have chosen not to extend Medicaid coverage, leaving hundreds of thousands of their residents in the health coverage gap. These people—who do not qualify for Medicaid in their stat...
View MoreFour Reasons the Senate Should Reject the American Health Care Act
In early May, Republicans in the House of Representatives rushed through their repeal bill, called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), without taking the usual step of waiting for the CBO report to...
View MoreThree Reasons to Follow Up with Consumers about Their Health Insurance
As we near the end of the third open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act, navigators and assisters are rightly focused on signing up as many people as they can for marketplace coverage bef...
View MoreNew Rule Banning Discrimination Will Promote Health Equity
No one should ever have to worry that they will be discriminated against when seeking the medical care they need. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, it is one of the “most shocking and inhumaneâ...
View MoreFourth Open Enrollment Numbers Reveal High Demand for Affordable Care Act Coverage
Despite the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of consumers signed up for a health insurance plan during open enrollment period that ended January 3...
View MoreTransparency in Health Care Prices and Quality: A Tool for Health System Reform
For today’s health care consumers, the lack of side-by-side information on the price and quality of health care services can be exasperating. Without this information, making an informed decision ab...
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