Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Administration Again Takes Aim At ACA Subsidies — Restricting Access, Removing Enrollees
A new draft regulation would tighten access to health insurance exchange subsidies as federal agencies continue implementing President Donald Trump’s tax law. The IRS issued a proposed rule Wednesday that would set stricter definitions of who qualifies for tax credit subsidies, toughen eligibility verification requirements and narrow access to financial assistance for noncitizens. This regulation would complement pending rules from the Health and Human Services Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Early, 10/14)
The Trump administration has cut health subsidies for 189,000 people on the Affordable Care Act exchanges after it said it found duplicate beneficiaries on Medicaid and Medicare, and enrollees who were deceased. Removing those subsidies will save $738 million in improper payments this year, CMS officials said at a Wednesday press conference. Officials said they plan to remove subsidies for another 3,500 people by the end of the month, as the Trump administration continues its crackdown of the ACA exchanges. (Hughes, 10/14)
The Trump administration is delaying by 90 days a federal rule that could prevent Americans from obtaining prescription drugs from licensed international pharmacies. (Silverman, 10/14)
Three former Food and Drug Administration chiefs lit into the Trump administration Wednesday, criticizing the now former FDA officials who oversaw a massive staffing exodus and saying they robbed the agency of institutional knowledge that will take years to restore. (Cirruzzo, 10/14)
The cost of living adjustment, or COLA, for next year will be the largest since 2023. Retirees will see the extra money in their benefit checks starting in January. (Miller, 10/14)
On the immigration crisis —
They were victims, not abusers. That’s what they told police officers, attorneys, visitors and anyone else who would listen. It didn’t matter. The women were all taken to a sprawling immigration detention center in the woods of west Michigan and handed thin jumpsuits — red, to mark them as a high security risk. Inside the North Lake Processing Center, they talked about the men whose calls to police landed them there. The boyfriends or husbands who threatened to get them deported and cut them off from their children. The men, or sometimes women, who hit them, pulled their hair or choked them, bruising their throats. (Sanchez and Clark, 10/14)
The woman looked down at her lunch and, as hungry as she was, knew she couldn’t eat it. The chicken at the ICE immigrant camp was pink, cold and watery, the vegetables overcooked and falling apart. She placed a hand on her expanding belly and worried, as she did every day — would she be able to nourish her baby inside? (Johnson, 10/14)
