Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP's Obamacare Replacement Would Include Changes To Medicare, Taxes On Insurance
The details of House Republicans鈥 plan to replace Obamacare are beginning to emerge. ... The plan, even in its draft stages, touches on all aspects of the healthcare system. It discusses the individual insurance market, updates to Medicaid, and possible changes to Medicare. ... [Rep. John] Fleming said other topics discussed in Thursday鈥檚 meeting included the tax treatment of individual and employer insurance, which would likely be equalized under the GOP plan. ... Medicare changes discussed at the meeting included enhancing Medicare Advantage, the private alternative to traditional fee-for-service Medicare, and raising the Medicare eligibility age. (Owens, 5/12)
Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), the co-chairman of the GOP Doctors Caucus, said the plan Republicans have drafted would address ObamaCare, Medicare and Medicaid. The plan will not be put into legislative text, however, meaning it will be less specific and the cost and effect on coverage levels will be harder to assess. Instead, the plan will be a 鈥渨hite paper,鈥 according to Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.). The proposal will include a version of Speaker Paul Ryan鈥檚 (R-Wis.) long-standing proposal to make Medicare more market-based, giving seniors a kind of voucher to use for private insurance, according to two Republican lawmakers who attended the meeting. (Sullivan and Ferris, 5/12)
A recent study looks at coverage of lower income children following the implementation of the health law 鈥
Bolstered by the federal health care law, the number of lower income kids getting health coverage continues to improve, a recent study found. During 2014, the first full year of the law鈥檚 implementation, 91 percent of children who were eligible for Medicaid or the Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program were enrolled, according to the study by researchers at the Urban Institute. In 2013, that figure was 88.7 percent and only 81.7 percent in 2008. (Andrews, 5/13)
And in insurance marketplace news from Kansas 鈥
Kansas Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer announced Thursday that two companies have filed to sell health insurance plans in Kansas on the individual market, including the federal Affordable Care Act鈥檚 online marketplace. UnitedHealthcare鈥檚 announcement that it would be pulling out of the marketplace in 2017 opened the possibility that Kansans who shop there would be left with only one choice of insurer. (Marso, 5/12)
