Healthcare

“As the latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act dies in Congress, the Trump administration isn’t slowing down its efforts to undermine Americans from signing up for health insurance… the administration has announced that healthcare.gov, the website most Americans use to sign up for insurance through the marketplaces put in place by Obamacare, would be down for maintenance for 12 hours every Sunday in the middle of the upcoming open-enrollment period.”  More …

“Senate Republicans are discussing whether to use their next budget reconciliation measure to target the health law.”  More …

“Faced with competition, some pharmaceutical companies are cutting deals with insurance companies to favor their brand-name products over cheaper generics. Insurers pay less, but sometimes consumers pay more. Adderall XR, a drug to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, is a case in point.”  More …

“In the spring and summer of 2015, the state switched more than 13,000 children out of a highly respected program called Children’s Medical Services, or CMS, a part of Florida Medicaid. Children on this plan have serious health problems including birth defects, heart disease, diabetes and blindness. The state moved the children to other Medicaid insurance plans that don’t specialize in caring for very sick children.”   More …

“Some have suggested that allowing interstate sales of health insurance policies will make coverage more affordable and available. In reality, interstate sales of insurance will allow insurers to choose their regulator, the very dynamic that led to the financial collapse that has left millions of Americans without jobs. It would also make insurance less available, make insurers less accountable, and prevent regulators from assisting consumers in their states. ”  More …

“The GOP is attempting to expose millions of Americans to the kind of financial ruin that Steve Scalise has avoided—for now.”  More …

“Senate Republicans included a provision that exempts members of Congress and their staff from part of their latest health care plan. This exemption could have the effect of ensuring that members of Congress have coverage for a wider array of benefits than other Americans who purchase their own coverage.”  More …

“The GOP’s policy push is no longer about repealing Obamacare or even really trying to make its individual insurance markets, which they repeatedly criticize as ‘failing,’ work better. Instead, they are trying to ram through a Medicaid cut and tax cut bill into law, under the guise of calling it ‘Obamacare repeal.'”  More …

“Long viewed as guardians of safe spaces for children, library staff members like Kowalski have begun taking on the role of first responder in drug overdoses. In at least three major cities — Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco — library employees now know, or are set to learn, how to use the drug naloxone, usually known by its brand name Narcan, to help reverse overdoses. Their training tracks with the disastrous national rise in opioid use and an apparent uptick of overdoses in libraries, which often serve as daytime havens for homeless people and hubs of services in impoverished communities.”  More …