Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hospitals To Bear Financial Brunt Of Obamacare Alternative Policy Experiments
At least 80 hospitals have closed nationally since 2010, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. In that time, six hospitals have closed in Georgia and about 10 more are in jeopardy of closure, says Jimmy Lewis, CEO of the rural hospital group聽Hometown Health. Republican control of the White House and Congress next year opens聽the door to new approaches to health care聽financing that could turn states into the "laboratories of democracy" the late liberal Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote they should be in 1932. (O'Donnell, 12/22)
With the potential for major changes in federal health care policy looming, hospital leaders are watching closely, worried especially that cuts to Medicaid could bring a big financial hit and that a repeal of Obamacare could raise the number of uninsured Connecticut residents. (Levin Becker, 12/23)
