Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Calif. Lawmakers Rush To Try To Get Insurance For Immigrants Before Obama Leaves Office
California state legislators and advocates are racing to get federal approval in the waning months of the Obama administration for a proposal to allow immigrants living in the U.S. illegally onto the California insurance exchange. Fearful that a new administration will torpedo their plans, they are working hard to win legislative support in California and clear other hurdles at the state and federal level. California state Sen. Ricardo Lara is carrying a bill to allow people living in the country illegally to purchase health insurance — on their own dime — through the state exchange. (Bartolone, 5/19)
Enrollment in individual health care plans, now dominated by the Affordable Care Act exchanges, fell 15.4 percent in the first quarter for the parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. At the end of March, Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp. had 1.39 million individual members, compared with 1.64 million as of Dec. 31. (Sachdev, 5/18)
Federal data shows West Virginia had the greatest percentage drop among the states over a two-year period for adults without health insurance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the findings this week. West Virginia's rate of uninsured adults ages 18 to 64 was 8.9 percent in 2015, down from 28.8 percent in 2013. (5/19)
Nine out of 10 working-age adults in the United States were covered by health insurance last year, and the number of uninsured continues to decline, according to new figures released by the federal government. (Ba Tran, 5/19)
Indiana's uninsured rate hit a historic low of 14.8 percent in 2015 — a decrease of more than 3 percent from 2014 — according to newly released survey data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Lazerus, 5/19)
And the New York Times examines how the Supreme Court, which has played a major role in reviewing the health law's provisions, is functioning while short a justice -
The Supreme Court has gone into hibernation, withdrawing from the central role it has played in American life throughout Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s decade on the court. The court had leaned right until the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. According to the conventional wisdom, the court is now evenly divided and large numbers of 4-to-4 ties are inevitable. But the truth is more complicated. The court is not deadlocked so much as diminished. The justices will continue to issue decisions in most cases, but many will be modest and ephemeral, like Monday’s opinion returning a major case on access to contraception to the lower courts for further consideration. (Liptak, 5/18)
