Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Congressional Republicans Ask Administration To Reject Calif. Request On Immigrants' Insurance
Several California congressional Republicans want the Obama administration to block the state鈥檚 request to sell health insurance to undocumented immigrants on the state鈥檚 exchange. The move comes after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill earlier this month authorizing California to formally request a waiver from the Affordable Care Act provision that bars undocumented immigrants from any of the law鈥檚 benefits. ... Nine of California鈥檚 14 Republican representatives have signed a letter to cabinet officials appealing to them to deny this waiver. The representatives called California鈥檚 request 鈥渁 brazen attempt to circumvent the will of Congress.鈥 (Aliferis, 6/29)
If California is granted such a waiver, it would be the first state granted the ability to offer insurance on its exchange to undocumented immigrants. Under the Affordable Care Act, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to purchase health insurance from states鈥 exchanges. ... The letter was signed by California Republicans Darrell Issa, Tom McClintock, Ken Calvert, Dana Rohrabacher, Duncan Hunter, Doug LaMalfa, Paul Cook, Ed Royce, and Mimi Walters. (McIntire, 6/29)
Sen. Lamar Alexander says he's more than happy to strike deals with Democrats 鈥 even on Obamacare. "Whoever the president is in January, we're going to have to take a good, hard look at Obamacare," the powerful chairman of the Senate HELP committee told POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast. "It can't continue the way it is." "I don't think Republicans can go another four years, whether we have a Republican president or not, and say just give us a couple more Republicans and we'll repeal Obamacare," he added. (Diamond, 6/29)
The Obama administration next month will highlight three of the country's best delivery system reform models in an attempt to show off how Obamacare has begun to transform the health care system in measurable ways. HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell will visit three health systems or programs that the administration says are delivering better or more efficient health care. The Obama administration earlier this year marked that 20 million Americans had gotten insurance coverage through the health law 鈥 addressing the key problem of access to insurance. (Haberkorn, 6/29)
One week after the first pair of transition enrollment fairs drew just one attendee, Connecticut鈥檚 health insurance exchange announced Wednesday it plans to keep future fairs open for an additional hour and will consider scheduling new ones. The decision, which was announced by Access Health CT in an email Wednesday morning, comes after nobody attended its first fair in Danbury last Wednesday and only one person attended the second fair in Waterbury on Thursday. As many as 14,000 low-income parents will lose their state-sponsored Medicaid health insurance coverage after July. (Constable, 6/29)