Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Beyond Preexisting Conditions: GOP's Change To Essential Benefits Would Affect Nearly Everyone
Critics of the Republican health care plan the House passed last week mostly have focused on how it might harm Americans with pre-existing health conditions and poor and disabled people who rely on Medicaid 鈥 two vulnerable, but limited, populations. But another change might have more far-reaching effects: eliminating the Affordable Care Act鈥檚 鈥渆ssential health benefits,鈥 or EHBs. That shift could affect almost everybody, including the 156 million Americans who receive health coverage through their employers. (Ollove, 5/9)
If it becomes law, the American Health Care Act will have the biggest effects on people who buy their own insurance or get coverage through Medicaid. But it also means changes for the far larger employer health system. About half of all Americans get health coverage through work. The bill would make it easier for employers to increase the amount that employees could be asked to pay in premiums, or to stop offering coverage entirely. (Sanger-Katz, 5/9)
ch of the focus on the potential impact of the health care overhaul plan that Republicans in the House of Representatives passed last week has focused on people who purchase insurance on the individual market through the health insurance exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act. But the effects of the American Health Care Plan were it to become law, would also be felt by people who enjoy employer-sponsored coverage, or who earn too much money to qualify for subsidies under the ACA. (Garver, 5/8)
Ryan Lennon Fines seems like a typical 2-year-old. He and his parents, Scott Fines and Brianna Lennon, flip through a picture book of emergency vehicles. Ryan is looking for the motorcycle, but a photo of an airplane catches his dad's eye. "That's an air ambulance," Fines tells him. "You've been on one of those." (Sable-Smith, 5/8)
Health Secretary Tom Price took his star turn on NBC鈥檚 鈥淢eet the Press鈥 on Sunday to defend the House health care bill鈥檚 treatment of Americans with pre-existing conditions, calling the Obamacare repeal a 鈥渂etter way鈥 to cover those illnesses. Pressed by Andrea Mitchell on a coalition of health groups and other advocates who oppose the measure, Price said it said it would allow 鈥渇or every single person to get the access to the kind of coverage that they want.鈥 (Bluestein, 5/8)
More than one-third of American voters oppose the new Republican legislation aimed at repealing and replacing ObamaCare, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll released Monday. Forty-four percent oppose the new legislation, while 31 percent favor the GOP plan. A quarter of those polled were unsure. 聽(Shelbourne, 5/8)