December
5, 2019 Julie Rovner Kaiser
Health News @jrovner
Mary Agnes Carey Kaiser
Health News @MaryAgnesCarey
Joanne Kenen Politico
@JoanneKenen
Kimberly Leonard
Washington Examiner @leonardkl
Health
spending in the U.S. grew to $3.6 trillion in 2018, according to a new report
from the federal government. The rate of growth — 4.6% — was up slightly from
2017’s 4.2%, despite the fact that nearly a million more Americans lacked
insurance.
Meanwhile,
Congress has less than two weeks to finish a year’s worth of work, including
the spending bills required to keep the government running and promised
legislation to address “surprise” medical bills and prescription drug prices.
This
week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Kimberly Leonard of
the Washington Examiner, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Mary Agnes Carey of
Kaiser Health News.
Among
the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
·
The share of the economy spent on health care actually declined
slightly from 2017 to 2018 — from 17.9% to 17.7%. But that will come as small
solace to consumers, for whom costs seem to be ever-rising. And it is
consumers’ concerns driving the political health debate.
·
Congress does not appear likely to pass individual spending
bills before the current federal spending bill expires Dec. 20. It appears they
may have another temporary bill that would likely fund the government until
February or March.
·
That temporary bill is a tempting target for people advocating
for the permanent repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s Cadillac tax on generous
health plans or a measure to help consumers avoid surprise medical bills when
they get unexpected care from a doctor or hospital that is not in their
insurer’s network of providers.
·
Democrats running for president have focused much of their
health debate on whether to move toward a “Medicare for All” plan or some other
government option, such as allowing people to join Medicare if they lack
insurance. But even that scaled-back notion could be extremely disruptive to
the employer insurance market. Then again, that’s what opponents of the ACA
predicted, too, yet the law did not cause employers to drop coverage in large
numbers.
·
Recent reports have documented a tense relationship between
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Seema Verma, the head of the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It’s not just personal — the
disputes are having a very real impact on the work of the department.
·
A Senate committee this week approved the nomination of Stephen
Hahn to be the head of the Food and Drug Administration. Although some senators
raised questions about the White House’s apparent step back from banning
flavored vaping products, it appears that Hahn’s nomination is likely to be
approved by the full Senate.
Also
this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Markian Hawryluk, who wrote the latest
KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month”
installment about the high cost of removing a doll shoe from a toddler’s nose.
If you have an outrageous medical bill you would like to share with us, you can
do that here. Plus,
for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories
of the week they think you should read, too:
Julie
Rovner: The New York Times’ “How a Divided Left Is Losing the
Battle on Abortion,” by Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer
Joanne
Kenen: The BBC’s “How a wrong injection helped cause Samoa’s measles
epidemic”
Kimberly
Leonard: The Los Angeles Times’ “Their kids died on the psych ward.
They were far from alone, a Times investigation found,” by Soumya
Karlamangla
Mary
Agnes Carey: The Washington Post’s “How a fight over health care
entangled Elizabeth Warren — and reshaped the Democratic presidential race,”
by Annie Linskey, Jeff Stein and Dan Balz
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