Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Majority Want Congress To Act If Supreme Court Knocks Down Subsidies, Poll Finds
A majority of Americans say Congress should make sure Obamacare subsidies to buy health insurance are available nationwide if the Supreme Court rules that the payments in at least 34 states are illegal, according to a poll released on Tuesday. The Kaiser Family Foundation poll surveyed 1,200 people from June 2 to June 9 in both English and Spanish. (Gumpert, 6/16)
Asked whether lawmakers should pass a law "so that people in all states can be eligible for financial help," just one-quarter of those surveyed said no, according to the poll by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. The legal challenge, brought by conservative activists, argues that a strict reading of the health statute makes subsidies available only in states that established their own insurance marketplaces through the law, something that just 13 states and the District of Columbia did. (Levey, 6/16)
The Supreme Court is set to issue a ruling in a major Affordable Care Act case that could force millions off their health insurance this June. But if you're like most Americans, you're pretty much clueless about it. That's right: More than seven in 10 people have heard "nothing at all" or "only a little" about King v. Burwell, a lawsuit brought by conservative and libertarian activists that seeks to eliminate Obamacare's health insurance subsidies for 6.4 million people in 34 states, according to survey results published Tuesday by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The share of Americans saying they'd heard nothing -- 44 percent -- about this latest challenge to Obamacare's survival outnumber those who have heard "a lot" or at least "something" by almost two to one. (Young, 6/16)
Nearly three in four Americans say the costs of prescription drugs are 'unreasonable,' with most putting the blame on drugmakers, according to a poll released Tuesday. The survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 74 percent of those taking prescription drugs find the costs unreasonable, as do 72 percent of those not taking such drugs. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) (Galewitz, 6/16)
Drug companies take nearly all the blame from U.S. consumers when it comes to the high prices of pharmaceuticals, with insurers mostly left off the hook, a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds. Nearly three-quarters of the 1,200 people surveyed said drug costs are unreasonable. And when asked whether the problem was insurance companies requiring excessive co-pays or pharmaceutical companies setting prices too high, 76 percent put the onus on pharma. (Karlin, 6/16)