Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Gallup Poll Details Rapid Changes In Nation's Health Coverage Picture
When the Affordable Care Act took effect in October 2013, there were 14 states in which more than 1 in 5 adults lacked health insurance; today only Texas remains, according to data released Monday. At the other end of the scale, only five states' populations were so well-insured in 2013 that fewer than 1 in 10 adult residents lacked insurance. Today, more than half the states have achieved that goal. (Lauter, 8/10)
Democrats seized on a new Gallup analysis showing that the number of Americans without medical coverage remains low as evidence that more people are benefiting from the controversial health care law. Several Democrats re-tweeted the mid-year Gallup Inc. report released Monday, which said about 11.7 percent of people in the United States did not have health coverage in the first half of 2015. That's down sharply from about 18 percent of residents at the start of 2014, when the health care law鈥檚 major coverage expansions took effect. (Adams, 8/10)
In other news related to the health law -
Female employees of religious nonprofits should not be given insurance coverage for birth control if their employers object to certain contraceptives on religious grounds, according to a brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton鈥檚 鈥渇riend of the court鈥 brief was filed Monday in support of a lawsuit brought by East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University against the federal government over a provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring some employers to offer health plans that include contraceptive coverage. (Ura, 8/10)
Becky Cowdery's family received two blessings in 2015. The first, she said, was when surgeons removed a cancerous tumor from her husband's esophagus. The second was when strangers helped pay the bills. Six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation, two surgeries and a 19-day hospital stay had left the Tampa family more than $15,000 in debt. But it wasn't long before checks from across the country started arriving in their mailbox, some accompanied by notes of prayer and encouragement. (McGrory, 8/10)
