The year in health policy has already begun: The Trump administration Thursday released a long-awaited regulation aimed at making it easier for small businesses and others to form 鈥渁ssociation health plans.鈥� Now advocates and opponents will be able to weigh in with more specific recommendations.
Meanwhile, in December, the health policy focus was on the tax bill and its repeal of the Affordable Care Act鈥檚 鈥渋ndividual mandate鈥� penalty for most people who don鈥檛 have health insurance. But some recent key court decisions could reshape the benefits millions of people receive as part of their health coverage.
This week鈥檚 鈥淲hat the Health?鈥� guests are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times.
They discuss these topics, as well as the prospects for pending health legislation on Capitol Hill.
Among the takeaways from this week鈥檚 podcast:
- The Trump administration鈥檚 decision to expand association health plans faces a number of obstacles, including the lack of good oversight in many states and the poor track record of many past plans.
- Consumer advocates fear that growth of association plans could leave many consumers without adequate benefits because some plans will not cover the same essential benefits that Obamacare plans guarantee. They also are concerned that healthy customers will migrate to the new plans and leave the ACA鈥檚 marketplace plans with an abundance of enrollees who are ill.
- The prospects of the bill to stabilize the individual insurance market sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) appear to be dimming.
- Two federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration rule to change the ACA鈥檚 contraception mandate. The decisions, though, are not based on the policy but on faulty rule-making.
- In another highly watched court case, a federal judge has ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has until 2019 to set new rules on what employers can require of workers in their wellness programs.
Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥� the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week that they think you should read, too.
Julie Rovner: The New York Times鈥� 鈥�,鈥� by Jordan Rau (of Kaiser Health News).
Paige Winfield Cunningham: The New York Times鈥� 鈥�,鈥� by David Segal.
ALSO: Bloomberg News鈥� 鈥�,鈥� by Fred Schulte and Elizabeth Lucas (of Kaiser Health News).
Alice Ollstein: ProPublica鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Marshall Allen.
Margot Sanger-Katz: The New York Times鈥� 鈥�,鈥� by Nellie Bowles.
To hear all our podcasts,听click here.
And subscribe to What the Health? on聽,听听辞谤听.