Tag Archives: health insurance

Ars Technica reports: Health insurance companies cannot use algorithms or artificial intelligence to determine care or deny coverage to members on Medicare Advantage plans, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified in a memo sent to all Medicare Advantage insurers. The memo—formatted like an FAQ on Medicare Advantage (MA) plan rules—comes just months after patients filed lawsuits claiming …

The Daily Beast reports: Bernie Sanders said he will not release a plan to pay for his Medicare for All proposal. In an interview broadcast Tuesday, CNBC’s John Harwood noted that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is “producing plans,” including one to pay for Medicare for All. “You’ve identified revenue sources for about half of it,” Harwood said to the Vermont senator. …

The New York Times reports: Nearly three years into President Trump’s aggressive efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, prices for the most popular type of health insurance plan offered through the health law’s federal marketplace will actually drop next year, and the number of insurers offering plans will go up. Administration officials credited Mr. Trump with the resiliency of …

Axios reports: Do a quick search for health insurance, and you’ll find plenty of ads for “Trumpcare” plans that cost $59 or less per month. But there’s a catch: Trumpcare doesn’t exist, and many of these advertised plans offer bare-bones coverage. Why it matters: For people who buy health insurance on their own instead of receiving it through an employer, …

The Miami Herald reports: A South Florida company that collected more than $100 million in premiums selling sham health insurance “for smart people” through a network of deceptive websites, including one called trumpcarequotes.com, was ordered by a federal judge to temporarily shut down following consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission. Simple Health Plans, based in Hollywood, lured “tens of …

The Washington Post reports: Pharmacy giant CVS Health has agreed to buy Aetna in a $69 billion blockbuster acquisition that could rein in health care costs and transform its 9,700 pharmacy storefronts into community medical hubs for primary care and basic procedures, people familiar with the deal said Sunday. The pharmacy chain agreed to buy Aetna for about $207 per …

Joshua Peck writes at Medium: The Trump administration recently announced that they were cutting the outreach and education budget for Obamacare by 90 percent, from $100 million to $10 million. As the person in charge of how that money was spent last year, I decided to crunch the numbers to figure out what that would mean for enrollment this year. …

The Associated Press reports: Six physician groups are condemning a Trump administration decision to halt payments to insurers under the Obama-era health care law. Their statement Friday calls on Congress to act immediately to restore the payments to prevent what it called “dramatic, if not catastrophic, increases in premiums across the country” and millions of Americans losing coverage. The groups …

From Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: Trumpcare doesn’t replace the Affordable Care Act, it forces millions of Americans to pay more for less care. This plan would cut and cap Medicaid, defund Planned Parenthood, and force Americans, particularly older Americans, to pay more out of pocket for their medical care all so insurance companies can pad their bottom line. It …

The Huffington Post reports: Republicans are plowing forward this month with repealing the Affordable Care Act, and Democrats, with little ability to stop them, have plans to make it as politically damaging for them as possible. On Monday night, Senate Democrats plan to stay up late, delivering floor speeches and Facebook Live broadcasts attacking the Republicans’ drive to dismantle President …

Everything is fine: Repealing ObamaCare would increase the budget deficit by $350 billion over 10 years, according to a new study. The analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) finds that repealing the law’s spending on providing coverage would save $1.55 trillion, but that would be canceled out by repealing $800 billion in tax increases and $1.1 …

Back in February, Aetna reported $2.7 billion in earnings for 2015, a 15% increase over the previous year. But that’s not enough to keep them in Obamacare. CNN Money reports: In the latest blow to Obamacare, Aetna is vastly reducing its presence on the individual exchanges in 2017. The insurer will stop offering policies on the exchanges in 11 of …

CNN reports: A federal judge ruled Thursday against the administration in a challenge to a portion of the Affordable Care Act brought by the House of Representatives. At issue is the “cost sharing” provision in the law that requires insurance companies offering health plans through the law to reduce out-of-pocket costs for policy holders who qualify. The government offsets the …