Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Tribal Leaders Warn Repeal Efforts Could Cut Health Funding To 'Catastrophic' Levels
Native Americans,聽Alaska Natives and a bipartisan group of their allies 鈥 including current and former Arizona lawmakers 鈥 are worried that repeal of the聽Affordable Care Act聽will also eliminate a non-controversial portion of that law that commits federal funding for聽tribal health care around the country, a move that the National Indian Health Board聽warns would be 鈥渃atastrophic.鈥 ... Arizona Democratic Reps. Raul Grijalva and Tom O鈥橦alleran are both writing letters to Republican leadership in an attempt to convince them to keep the law. (Collins, 1/24)
Like any college student, Vanessa Ramirez never expected chemotherapy would be part of her busy school schedule. "I don't have any history of cancer in my family, so it wasn't something I was on the lookout for," Ramirez says, sitting outside the library of her alma mater, Arizona State University, in Tempe. Ramirez was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was 23. Now, more than a decade later, she's healthy and so are her children. "But there are also emergencies that happen," Ramirez says, explaining the priority she places on health insurance. (Stone, 1/24)
The sprint to dismantle the Affordable Care Act has Houston's hospital leaders worried about a potential fallout that could sweep beyond the poor if the uninsured rate rises again. Texas already leads the nation with more than 4鈥夆塵illion uninsured, with Harris County topping the state at about 740,000. A recent analysis by the Urban Institute predicts that the Texas uninsured rate could climb to as high as 6.9 million by 2019 should the law also known as Obamacare be repealed without a swift and comparable replacement. (Deam, 1/24)
People are still signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act despite its uncertain future. During an enrollment event at the University of South Florida on Tuesday people were worried about losing their health care. Peter Hill was one of them. He needs health insurance in order to live a normal life. The 26-year-old USF student was born with a movement disorder called myoclonic dystonia that caused his body to jerk uncontrollably. (Ochoa, 1/24)
