COVID Slams Long-Term Care, But Not LTCI

Johnson& Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine will remain in limbo a while longer after U.S. health advisers told the government Wednesday that they need more evidence to decide if a handful of unusual blood clots were linked to the shot- and if so, how big the potential risk really is. But the government recommended a pause in J&J vaccinations this week, not long after…

BY ABBY G OODNOUGH The New York Times. WASHINGTON- More than 87,000 Americans died of drug overdoses over the 12- month period that ended in September, according to preliminary federal data, eclipsing the toll from any year since the opioid epidemic began in the 1990 s. The preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

The number of uninsured in the United States would fall by 4.2 million if policymakers made a temporary provision in…

Amidst the national euphoria over the COVID-19 vaccines, it's hard to believe that just two years ago, Big Pharma was essentially hated. In a 2019 survey, Gallup found that the public had unfavorable opinions about drug makers by a margin of more than 2-1, landing them at the bottom of the industry rankings. But here's a prediction I'm sure will come true: Hollywood…

America's $1.9 trillion COVID-relief act includes $22 billion to increase premium subsidies available to the millions who buy health insurance through the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. The act helps the estimated 9 million people who already buy through health insurance exchanges more-easily afford their coverage and expands the…

Mark Twain famously responded that a report of his death “was an exaggeration.” At one time or another during his tenure, President Donald Trump declared the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act dead, ended, terminated and obliterated. ” What we really have left is the carcass of Obamacare, “Trump told Fox News a year ago.

Planning for long-term care provides people with choices. And those choices lead to freedom. That philosophy especially rings true in Black and brown households, where family members are more likely to provide care for an aging parent or grandparent. It’s something that Chris Gandy called “the brown tax.”

While Americans may be divided on many issues, they seem to be in agreement on this: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could be doing a better job during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rand Corp. released a survey Monday reporting a decline in public trust for the CDC across all demographics. While low trust in CDC was previously held only by Black…

WASHINGTON, April 2– AARP issued the following news release:. A new analysis from AARP's Public Policy Institute finds that nearly half of older adults purchasing health insurance through the nongroup health insurance market faced unaffordable health coverage in 2019, compared to only 30% of younger adults. “While the Affordable Care Act has greatly reduced…

STANFORD, California, March 31– Stanford University School of Medicine issued the following news release:. A couple of years ago, Joseph Shrager, MD, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford School of Medicine, noticed a statistical anomaly in his practice. He talked it over with his thoracic surgeon colleagues at Stanford who said they were seeing…

Testing and vaccination for the coronavirus is free thanks to laws passed last year. Treatment isn’ t, however, and may be about to get more expensive. A new vaccine is in production, millions of doses are being administered daily and President Joe Biden says there will be enough vaccines for all U.S. adults by the end of May.

Meanwhile, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that she had a recurring feeling of “impending doom” about a potential fourth wave of infections after cases in the U.S. rose 10% over the last week. A new study by the CDC concluded that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 90% effective after two doses, a finding that Walensky…

The committee voted along party lines on Thursday to exclude funding for expansion— which was approved by 53% of Missouri voters last August— from the rest of Gov. Democrats plan to re-introduce the funds into the budget on the House floor. Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government picks up 90% of the tab on expansion— $1.4 billion for Missouri.

SPRINGFIELD- A massive health care reform bill, the fourth and final pillar of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus agenda, passed the state Senate Thursday, the final step before heading to Gov. Mattie Hunter, both of Chicago, is centered around eliminating race-based and other inequities in the state's health care system, and includes provisions to expand…

Mar. 28— The case for expanding Medicaid got a lot stronger this month, to the point that most any reasonable, rationale consideration would conclude that now is the time for Mississippi to do so. In Mississippi, that would mean expanding health insurance coverage to approximately 200,000 to 300,000 people. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated Mississippi…

The Virginia State Corporation Commission issued the following news release:. For Virginians enrolled in a high-deductible health insurance plan, the State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance encourages residents to understand the potential benefits of opening a health savings account. Currently, consumers can contribute annually a maximum…

President Joe Biden sold the twin pillars of his American Rescue Plan and the Affordable Care Act as forging the way toward making affordable health care a right during remarks Tuesday at the James Cancer Hospital on the Ohio State University campus. Speaking on the 11th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act while he served as vice president to…

—President Joe Biden will showcase health insurance cost cuts in a speech in Ohio on Tuesday during what may be the best time for Democrats to talk up the Affordable Care Act since it became law. “The ACA is over a decade old and this is literally the first time that Democrats have been successful at improving it,” said analyst Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser…

—President Joe Biden pledged Tuesday that his $1.9 trillion rescue package would build on the promise of the Affordable Care Act, the hallmark legislation of Barack Obama's presidency that became law 11 years ago. Biden's speech in the capital of a political battleground state is part of a mini-blitz by the White House to highlight the relief package.

Mar. 19— The possibility of a public option to expand health insurance is gone, shelved for the foreseeable future by Congress which never seriously considered it. Right before the election a New York Times Sienna College poll of likely voters found that 67 percent supported a public option compared to 55 percent who said they supported the ACA.

In addition to providing funding to carry out the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response plans, the American Rescue Plan contains what Manatt Health called “the most significant changes to health care coverage and access policies since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.”

BOSTON, Massachusetts, March 17– Northeastern University issued the following news:. “The broad trend seems to be that people want to go back to the office, but they also want to remain working from home at least two or three days a week,” says Barbara Larson, executive professor of management at Northeastern, who conducts research on virtual and remote work.

Many in the insurance industry are holding their collective breath as things get back to normal. A major worry is that deferred care will come crashing through the system by this summer, representing a flood of claims once people are willing to see a doctor again.

The $1.9 trillion legislation signed by President Joe Biden on Thursday includes among its dozens of provisions the biggest expansion of health insurance tax credits under the Affordable Care Act in a decade. But it affects people in each of those groups in a different way, according to a summary released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or…

An Enfield woman who allegedly billed Medicaid nearly $150,000 in services from unlicensed individuals or provided no services at all, was arrested Monday afternoon. Marcy L. Taliceo, 45, was charged with health insurance fraud and first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community after billing the government insurance program for around $142,000 in…

The cost of President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package is on track to double if popular provisions like an expansion of the child tax credit are made permanent, which is exactly what Democrats say they plan to do. “Overall, we could be looking at the cost of this package doubling from $2 trillion to $4 trillion over the decade,” said Brian Riedl, a…

Betting the U.S. will rebound from one of its“ darkest” periods, Mr. Biden said increased production of three vaccines will allow governors who’ ve tightly controlled eligibility to fling open the gates within six weeks. “That’ s much earlier than expected,” Mr. Biden said.“ That doesn’ t mean everyone will have that shot immediately but it means you’ ll be able to get in line…

The employer sponsored insurance system “has been popular and resilient” and is here to stay, a policy think tank expert told attendees at America’s Health Insurance Plans’ virtual National Health Policy Conference on Thursday. But he added that it needs to be improved to ensure preservation.

With Democrats holding a razor thin majority in Congress, and with some Democrats having misgivings on expanding the government’s role in health care, there is not enough support in Congress for a public option or Medicare buy-in, a consultant said during America’s Health Insurance Plans’ virtual National Health Policy Conference.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, along with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, launched the Vaccine Community Connectors initiative.

Some items in the American Rescue Plan impact health care and have not attracted as much attention as other provisions, such as $1,400 stimulus checks.

“Around the beginning of the Trump administration, the conversation was about repealing the Affordable Care Act,” said Krutika Amin, an associate director at Kaiser Family Foundation. The federal stimulus bill approved by the Senate on March 6 bolsters that safety net by increasing the size of marketplace tax credits and expanding who is eligible for one in…

Mar. 9— A bill that would impose a tax on many New Mexicans' health insurance premiums to help offset coverage for lower-income people has cleared the state House of Representatives. Debbie Armstrong and Javier Martínez, Albuquerque Democrats, would increase the 1 percent surtax on insurance premiums to 2.75 percent to create the Health Care Affordability…

Mar. 8— CHEYENNE— With new federal incentives being offered to the 12 states that have declined Medicaid expansion over the last decade, a bill to expand coverage in Wyoming to the state's low-income residents was advanced by a legislative committee Monday morning. In Wyoming, that amount totals roughly $20 million in the initial biennium of implementation.

–Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the latest results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans. In February, corporate pension funding improved by $67 billion thanks to a 26- basis-point increase in the monthly discount rate, from January’s 2.62% to 2.88% as of…

HAMPTON ROADS, Va.– More than 200,000 Americans have signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans during the extended enrollment period that runs through May 15. President Joe Biden ordered the enrollment period because so many people have lost their jobs to the pandemic, along with their health coverage. No one will contact you– either by phone, text or email– to…

President Biden wants to expand Obamacare with his coronavirus relief package, saying subsidies for higher earners and sweeteners for a dozen states that refused to expand Medicaid would lift people out of the pandemic doldrums. That is giving plenty of ammo to Republicans who say Democrats are using the relief package to push through a liberal policy wish…

The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by Genworth Financial, concluded that setting the LTCi caps exceeds the insurance commissioner’s rulemaking authority. The fallout could be felt throughout an industry struggling to accommodate insurers’ requests for repeated rate hikes to stabilize LTCi blocks.

The landmark 2010 health-care legislation colloquially known as“ Obamacare” was effective in reducing the number of uninsured Americans, the primary goal of the law, and a wish for Democrats going back decades. As a candidate for president, Joe Biden pledged to build on the successes of Obamacare, and his administration has been making good on that promise, with…

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported Wednesday that 3,796 Oklahomans selected health insurance plans between Feb. 15 and Feb. 28. President Joe Biden signed an executive order last month to reopen enrollment through healthcare.gov from Feb. 15 through May 15. In previous years, special enrollment periods were only open to people who had a…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization to Johnson& Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday, and California Gov. But it's not clear whether the millions of residents still waiting to be inoculated will get to select from among the new Johnson& Johnson vaccine and the ones from Pfizer and Moderna that have been in use since…

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27– The Association for Community Affiliated Plans issued the following news release on Feb. 26, 2021:. A new report developed by Wakely, a leading actuarial consulting firm, and commissioned by the Association for Community Affiliated Plans, analyzes the effect of a proposed change to the Affordable Care Act which would change the benchmark…

While the new coronavirus was still an intangible threat in most of the nation, Louisiana reported one of the fastest growing outbreaks in the world. In Nashville, Saint Patrick's Day parties at Vanderbilt University spread the virus across the campus. Memorial Day celebrations launched a summer surge in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee.