WinnDems News

A federal judge in Texas has dealt a big setback to the Affordable Care Act. The same judge who tried in 2018 to declare the entire ACA unconstitutional has now ruled that the law’s main provisions for preventive care are unconstitutional and, therefore, unenforceable nationwide. Also this week, North Carolina became the 40th state to expand Medicaid under the ACA. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. http://dlvr.it/SlmK2d

Spending the money effectively and equitably is a tall order for state and local governments, and a lack of transparency in the process is already leading to fears of misuse. http://dlvr.it/SljchF

Republican state Sen. Roger Niello wants to know whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth before spending more. Yet the fiscal conservative from the suburbs of Sacramento sees opportunities for bipartisanship on mental health. http://dlvr.it/SlfdGL

A federal lawmaker has introduced a House bill that would close one of a laundry list of oversight gaps revealed in a recent KHN investigation of the system regulators use to ban fraudsters from billing government health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. http://dlvr.it/SlbfGD

The study analyzed Colorado kids’ responses to how quickly they could get their hands on a loaded gun without their parents’ knowledge. More than 1 in 10 said they could do so within 10 minutes. http://dlvr.it/SlYcjH

It’s about the money — on both sides — as arguments swirl about patient safety, rising prices, and paying back on-the-job training. http://dlvr.it/SlXt3J

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among college students. Contrary to conventional wisdom, athletes aren’t immune from the risk factors. Players at Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and other colleges are learning how to protect their mental health and ask for help after their teammates killed themselves. http://dlvr.it/SlXfvR

The White House gathered the people who helped pass the Affordable Care Act 13 years ago — partly to congratulate themselves but also to emphasize that they still have much work to do to make health care affordable. http://dlvr.it/SlQZ4Z

The ranks of community-based behavioral health providers in Montana have diminished amid rising costs, greater need, and stagnant Medicaid reimbursement rates. Now, as state lawmakers debate solutions, providers are hoping just to cover their costs. http://dlvr.it/SlPVy0

The Vermont independent and former presidential candidate was all fire and brimstone at his first hearing on drug prices as head of the Senate HELP Committee. He also pursued a more modest goal of covid vaccine price reductions. It isn’t clear whether Sanders will succeed in even that, but he has put affordability front and center. http://dlvr.it/SlNVP4

Medicare Advantage, the private-sector alternative to original Medicare, now enrolls nearly half of all Medicare beneficiaries. But it remains controversial because — while most of its subscribers like the extra benefits many plans provide — the program frequently costs the federal government more than if those seniors remained in the fully public program. That controversy […] http://dlvr.it/SlMxjx

A year after private equity-backed Noble Health shuttered two rural Missouri hospitals, a slew of lawsuits and state and federal investigations grind forward. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently confirmed an “ongoing” investigation as former employees continue to go unpaid and cope with unpaid medical claims. http://dlvr.it/SlLTqq

Fresh produce prescription programs are getting a boost in Montana as a way of helping people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The approach may be a model for other rural states to promote healthy eating in food deserts. http://dlvr.it/SlLTlx

The May 11 expiration of the federal government’s pandemic emergency declaration will affect patient care across a broad range of settings, including telemedicine, hospitals, and nursing homes. http://dlvr.it/SlHWx2

Gov. Gavin Newsom is making a bold push for Medicaid health plans to provide more housing support. He argues it’s cheaper to pay for rent than to allow homeless people to fall into crisis, which requires costly care in hospitals, nursing homes, and jails. http://dlvr.it/SlHWsM

A recent report detailing problems with Florida’s patchwork mental health system had reached conclusions nearly identical to those of a similar report from more than 20 years ago. The echoes between the findings are unmistakable. And Florida isn’t the only state struggling with the criminalization of mental illness, a lack of coordination between providers, and insufficient access to treatment. http://dlvr.it/SlHWm0

In-person mental health care is hard to arrange in rural nursing homes, so video chats with faraway professionals are filling the gap. http://dlvr.it/SlDSDp

Mobile clinics that provided covid-19 testing and vaccines at the peak of the pandemic are now being used to provide a range of health services in hard-to-reach communities. A law passed late last year allows qualified health care centers to use federal grants to expand the fleets. http://dlvr.it/Sl9QrC

A U.S. District Court case is being widely followed because the judge’s decision could overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone two decades ago. With abortion rights polling well even in red states, anti-abortion activists are increasingly turning to the courts to achieve their aims. http://dlvr.it/Sl9Qn3

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who blasted pharmaceutical companies for gouging Californians, is moving ahead with state-branded insulin. He’s also eyeing other generic drugs. http://dlvr.it/Sl5X2h

A state law says giving false information to patients about covid-19 constitutes unprofessional conduct for which regulators can discipline doctors. Vaccine skeptics, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., join civil liberties groups and others in arguing that it violates free speech. http://dlvr.it/Sl2HQc

Missouri is considering making it a felony to jack up temporary health care staffing prices during a statewide or national emergency. It’s one of at least 14 states looking to reel in travel nurse costs, after many hospitals struggled to pay for needed staffers earlier in the covid pandemic. http://dlvr.it/Sl2HJy

Any day now a conservative federal judge in Texas could upend the national abortion debate by requiring the FDA to rescind its approval of mifepristone, a drug approved in the U.S. more than 20 years ago that is now used in more than half of abortions nationwide. Meanwhile, a controversial study on masks gets a clarification, although it may be too late to change the public impression of what it found. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too. http://dlvr.it/Sl0t5M

American women are more likely to deliver their babies prematurely than women in most developed countries. It’s a distinction that coincides with high rates of maternal and infant death, billions of dollars in costs, and even lifelong disabilities for the children who survive. http://dlvr.it/SkzDdK

Medical debt in America pushes families to the edge. Ariane Buck and his wife, Samantha, were denied care at their doctor's office because of an unpaid bill of less than $100. A trip to the emergency room added thousands of dollars to their health care debt, which topped $50,000 by the time they filed for bankruptcy. http://dlvr.it/SkzDRn

The FDA’s interest in the AGGA dental device follows a KHN-CBS News investigation, according to a former agency official. http://dlvr.it/Skyxkc

The state wants to stop paying Kaiser Permanente for treating severely mentally ill Medi-Cal patients in Sacramento and Solano counties and force the counties to take on the task. The counties’ leaders say they can’t afford it. http://dlvr.it/Skw8Zp

With their brains still developing and poor impulse control, teens who carry firearms might never plan to use them. But some do. http://dlvr.it/Sks6j6

The federal government wants to change the way health insurers use prior authorization — the requirement that patients get permission before undergoing treatment. Designed to prevent doctors from deploying expensive, ineffectual procedures, prior authorization has morphed into an unwieldy monster that denies or delays care, burdens physicians with paperwork, and perpetuates racial disparities. New federal rules may not be enough to tame it. http://dlvr.it/Skp6JH

Very little in the proposed budget released by the Biden administration is likely to become law, particularly with Republicans in charge of the U.S. House. Still, the document is an important statement of the president’s policy priorities, and it’s clear health programs are among those he feels are important. Meanwhile, five women who were denied abortions when their pregnancies threatened their lives are suing Texas. Shefali Luthra of The 19th, Victoria Knight of Axios, and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Harris Meyer, who reported and wrote the two latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” features. Both were about families facing unexpected bills following childbirth. http://dlvr.it/SkjlD7

Bills being considered by Montana lawmakers would allow people to refuse routine vaccinations based on their conscience, along with setting new rules for schools, courts, and businesses. http://dlvr.it/SkgCG7

Big Pharma may be moving on from squeezing diabetes patients on insulin prices, but it’s the arbitrators that jack up prices for those who can least afford them. http://dlvr.it/SkcF2h

AMARILLO, Texas — On the vast Texas Panhandle, raked by wind and relentless sun, women might drive for hours to reach Haven Health, a clinic in Amarillo. One of more than 3,200 federal family-planning clinics nationwide, Haven serves both English and Spanish speakers, providing contraception, testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and cervical cancer […] http://dlvr.it/SkYCYB

Consumer and patient advocates push for new federal rules to protect Americans from debt collectors and force hospitals to make financial assistance more accessible. http://dlvr.it/SkV3DF

The FDA has long blocked the importation of cheap medicine, agreeing with pharmaceutical manufacturers that it opens the door to opioids. The agency’s own data shows that rarely happens. http://dlvr.it/SkR6Jj

Today’s public service announcements on gun safety feel somewhat sanitized. It’s time to act with the same kind of visceral public campaign that helped de-glorify smoking. Would filmmakers commit to making action movies without guns, just as filmmakers stopped making smoking glamorous in films? http://dlvr.it/SkJ1xt

States take drastically different approaches to recovering Medicaid money from deceased participants’ estates. Demands for repayment of Medicaid spending can drain the assets a person leaves behind, depending on where they lived. http://dlvr.it/SkDtL7

As many lower-income Americans prepare to lose pandemic-era access to Medicaid, President Joe Biden vowed to stop Republicans from making deeper cuts to lower the national debt. Other changes may still be up for discussion. http://dlvr.it/Sk9qgj