Today’s headlines include a story noting that insurers say about 80 percent of new enrollees have paid their first premiums for new insurance coverage under the health law.
Kaiser Health News: Need A Doc? These Companies Will Hook You Up In A Hurry
Kaiser Health News staff writer Daniela Hernandez, working in collaboration with Wired, reports: “Grand Rounds is one of many healthcare startups bringing on-demand, concierge-like services once reserved for the ultra-rich to the middle class – similar to what tech outfits like Google, Amazon, Uber, and Lyft have done for personal shopping and transportation. These budding companies offer basic access to medical advice, appointments and other assistance. Some operate regionally, others nationally. Their services and prices vary substantially-;but all aim to fill gaps in the existing health care system, in part by using the Internet†Hernandez, 5/7). Read the story.
Kaiser Health News: Employers Eye Moving Sickest Workers To Insurance Exchanges
Kaiser Health News staff writer Jay Hancock, working in collaboration with The Daily Beast, reports: “Can corporations shift workers with high medical costs from the company health plan into online insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act? Some employers are considering it, say benefits consultants. ‘It’s all over the marketplace,’ said Todd Yates, a managing partner at Hill, Chesson Woody, a North Carolina benefits consulting firm. “Employers are inquiring about it and brokers and consultants are advocating for it’†(Hancock, 5/7). Read the story.
Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Chemo Costs In U.S. Driven Higher By Shift To Hospital Outpatient Facilities
Now on Kaiser Health News’ blog, Roni Caryn Rabin writes: “The price of cancer drugs has doubled in the past decade, with the average brand-name cancer drug in the U.S. costing $10,000 for a month’s supply, up from $5,000 in 2003, according to a new report by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, a health information, services and technology company†(Rabin, 5/6). Check out what else is on the blog.
The New York Times: Insurers Say Most Who Signed Up Under Health Law Have Paid Up
Most of the people choosing health plans under the Affordable Care Act -; about 80 percent -; are paying their initial premiums as required for coverage to take effect, several large insurers said Tuesday on the eve of a House hearing about the law. But the health insurance industry said the total of eight million people who signed up included “many duplicate enrollments†for consumers who tried to enroll more than once because of problems on the website (Pear, 5/6).
The Washington Post: D.C. Council Approves Broad New Tax On Health Insurance To Cover City’s Exchange
The D.C. Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a broad tax on all health-related insurance products sold in the nation’s capital to solve a big money problem faced by its online health insurance exchange. Under the measure, which will take effect on an emergency basis but eventually face congressional review, the exchange will fund its operating costs through a 1 percent tax on more than $250 million in insurance premiums paid annually by those who live and work in the District (Davis, 5/6).
The Wall Street Journal: D.C. Council Approves Tax To Aid Health Exchange
The city council of Washington, D.C., voted Tuesday to allow a tax on all health insurers selling inside the district to fund its Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace. The plan, submitted by the city’s DC Health Link insurance exchange, gives the city the power to tax all health-insurance carriers inside the district for exchange funding. The council opted for taxing all carriers, not just those selling in the exchange, to make the levy lower, according to a copy of the approved resolution (Radnofsky, 5/6).
NPR: Big Ambitions And Flawed Technology Tripped Up State Exchanges
Among the states that looked to expand health coverage to nearly all their citizens, Massachusetts was an early front-runner. The state passed its own health care law back in 2006 mandating near-universal insurance coverage. That law became a model for federal action. And after the Affordable Care Act went through in 2010, Massachusetts had a head start in bringing health coverage to the uninsured (Hensley, 5/6).
The Associated Press: NC Lawmaker Wins GOP Senate Nomination
North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis captured the Republican nomination to oppose imperiled Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan Tuesday night, overcoming anti-establishment rivals by a comfortable margin in the first of a springtime spate of primaries testing the strength of a tea party movement that first rocked the GOP four years ago. … Hagan is among the Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbents in a campaign season full of them, a first-term lawmaker in a state that is ground zero in a national debate over the health care law that she and the Democrats voted into existence four years ago. Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has run about $7 million worth of television commercials criticizing Hagan for her position on the law (5/6).
The Washington Post‘s The Fact Checker: New Obamacare Attacks: A Round-Up
We are going to do a quick round-up of two recent claims about the Affordable Care Act. We can’t always get to them, and indeed the quote above was first spotted by our colleagues at PolitiFact. But it is simply too good to pass up. We also regret not finding the time to fact check the radio ad by Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), which claimed that GOP hopeful Thom Tillis (R) had said that Obamacare was a “great idea†(Kessler, 5/7).
The New York Times: Chamber Of Commerce Makes Ad Buy Supporting Pro-Business Republicans
Though the ads range in topic, President Obama’s signature health care law figures significantly into several of the commercials. The ad for Mr. Heck, a doctor, warns that the Affordable Care Act has led to “higher taxes, increased premiums and fewer choices†(Parker, 5/6).