HealthCare: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security

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Catch me up

Data: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Map: Axios Visuals 📈 Obamacare enrollment is surging, especially in red states, Axios' Jason Millman reports. 📺 Jon Stewart will host "The Daily Show" again, but only on Mondays, Axios' Sara Fischer reports. 🚙 The UAW endorsed President Biden for re-election after holding out for months over concerns about his EV policies, Axios' Nathan Bomey reports.

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🗺 Mapped: Obamacare enrollment surged in red states

Data: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Map: Axios Visuals Texas enrollment in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces increased by more than 1 million to 3.5 million this year. Driving the news: A record 21.3 million people signed up for Obamacare this year, with the largest enrollment increases tallied in red states, according to enrollment figures released by federal health officials last week. The 30.7% annual increase in ACA sign-ups comes as former President Trump's renewed calls for repeal have again raised doubts about the law's future, writes Axios' Jason Millman. Zoom in: Some of the enrollment surge can likely be attributed to a portion of the millions who've recently lost Medicaid coverage moving to the marketplaces. About 1.8 million Texans lost their health insurance since the state started removing people from Medicaid as federal pandemic rules ended, per KFF. About 68% of those removals were for clerical reasons. By the numbers: States with the largest year-over-year increase in sign-ups include West Virginia (80.2%), Louisiana (75.9%), Ohio (62.2%), Indiana (59.6%) and Tennessee (59.5%), according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the marketplaces. Texas is among the seven other states that had increases of 45% or more.

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Wall Street Wants To Keep Your Drug Prices High

As the Biden administration launches a long-awaited fight to lower prices of life-saving drugs developed with public funding, a formidable industry opponent of the effort has emerged: venture capital firms.

https://www.levernews.com/wall-street-wants-to-keep-your-drug-prices-high/?

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📝 Doctors add more fees for paperwork

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

Doctors are increasingly charging their patients a fee for responding to emails, signing documents or writing notes to verify an illness, Axios' Tina Reed writes. "Basically, physicians are saying, 'The things that I used to do for free, I can't afford to do it now,'" Stanford University professor Robert Pearl told Axios. 🩺 Between the lines: A lot of patients started bombarding their doctors with emails during the pandemic, experts said. Charging for an answer allows doctors to monetize more of their time and may nudge patients to think twice about some of their less-urgent questions. More employers are also demanding doctors' notes from workers who take sick days, upping physicians' paperwork burden even more.

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Scientists have used cells from amniotic fluid to grow mini lungs and other organs Scientists have created miniorgans from cells floating in the fluid that surrounds a fetus in the womb – an advance they believe could open up new areas of prenatal medicine. Read more.

Why this matters: Miniorgans, or “organoids,” are tiny, simplified structures that can be used to test new medical treatments and study how real organs work. Researchers envision their approach could help doctors monitor and treat congenital conditions before birth and develop personalized therapies for a baby in the womb.   The tissue-specific stem cells collected were shed by the fetus, as normally happens during pregnancy. Collecting cells from amniotic fluid gets around regulations about taking stem cells directly from fetal tissue, allowing scientists to get cells into the latter part of pregnancy.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Why Missouri currently doesn’t allow pregnant women to be legally divorced   Mississippi passes quicker pregnancy Medicaid coverage to try to reduce deaths of moms and babies   Study raises questions about plastic pollution’s effect on heart health

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Pharma’s Secret Middlemen Are Poisoning Health Care

Following a lobbying blitz, Congress might punt all efforts to stop shadowy pharmacy benefit managers from inflating drug prices and killing small pharmacies.

https://www.levernews.com/pharmas-secret-middlemen-are-poisoning-health-care/?

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Blood tests could become a new option to screen for colon cancer A new blood test, examined in a study published Wednesday, is already for sale in the U.S. for $895, but it has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and most insurers do not cover it. The maker of the test, Guardant Health, anticipates an FDA decision this year. Read more.

Why this matters: The test looks for DNA fragments shed by tumor cells and precancerous growths and, in the study, caught 83% of such cancers. But it did not spot many of the precancerous growths that would be found by a colonoscopy, the gold standard for colon cancer screening.   Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the third worldwide. “The best test is the one someone will actually complete,” said Dr. Douglas Corley, chief research officer for Kaiser Permanente, who was not involved in the study.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ A new strategy to attack aggressive brain cancer shrank tumors in early tests   50 years later, Tommy John surgery remains a game-changer   U.S. federal officials are investigating a massive health care hack

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State Medicaid offices target dead people’s homes to recoup their health care costs

Sandy LoGrande thought it was a mistake when, a year after her father’s death, the state of Massachusetts billed her $177,000 for her father’s Medicaid expenses and threatened to sue for his home if she didn’t pay up quickly.    But it wasn’t a mistake. It was part of the federal government’s routine process that requires every state to recover money from the assets of dead people who relied on Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded health insurance for the poorest Americans. Read more.

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This New Lawsuit Could Rescind Your Health Care Benefits

Right-wing federal appeal judges signal they support repeal of the no-cost preventive care mandate, all but guaranteeing a Supreme Court showdown.

https://www.levernews.com/this-new-lawsuit-could-rescind-your-health-care-benefits/?

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The New War Over Generic Drugs

As the price of prescription medications rises, generic drugs offer a way for consumers to save money. Although generics have the same active ingredients as brand-name drugs and result in the same clinical effect, they typically cost up to 85 percent less. 

https://www.levernews.com/the-new-war-over-generic-drugs/?

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💊 Mental health's drug puzzle

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Despite decades of research and millions of dollars in investment, one-size-fits-all treatments for complex psychiatric disorders are coming up short. Why it matters: There's been limited success treating depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other disorders — and the burden of these conditions on society has continued to grow, Axios' Caitlin Owens and Alison Snyder report. 👀 What we’re reading: A study published this week in JAMA Psychiatry looked at patterns in the prevalence of treatment resistant depression among the entire population of Taiwan. It found those with a family history of this type of depression were at an increased risk of having it and disorders. The findings underscore something neuroscientists and researchers have recognized for some time: Mental health disorders manifest differently in people, and more effective treatments may hinge on better understanding their biology rather than just their symptoms. 🔭 What’s next: Small biotechs and larger drug companies alike are investing in precision psychiatry, which aims to develop and match drugs to specific patients who will benefit from them.

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FACT SHEET: 80% of House Republicans Release Plan Targeting Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act, Raising Costs, and Cutting Taxes for the Wealthy

On Wednesday, the Republican Study Committee – which represents 100% of House Republican leadership and nearly 80% of their members – just proposed yet another budget that would cut Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act , as well as increase prescription drug, energy, and housing costs – all while forcing tax giveaways for the very rich onto the country. Their plan would even raise the Social Security retirement age.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/21/fact-sheet-80-of-house-republicans-release-plan-targeting-medicare-social-security-and-the-affordable-care-act-raising-costs-and-cutting-taxes-for-the-wealthy/

New GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson has proposed trillions in cuts to Social Security and Medicare

The newly elected Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has previously proposed trillions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and suggested that slashing the programs should be the top priority of Congress.

https://www.salon.com/2023/10/26/new-speaker-mike-johnson-has-proposed-trillions-in-cuts-to-social-security-and-medicare_partner/

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The Patterson Test

Before 2017, I would have struggled to pick out Jim Patterson in the Alabama House of Representatives.

https://alabamareflector.com/2024/04/15/the-patterson-test/?

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A Doctor at Cigna Said Her Bosses Pressured Her to Review Patients’ Cases Too Quickly. Cigna Threatened to Fire Her.

Cigna tracks every minute that its staff doctors spend deciding whether to pay for health care. Dr. Debby Day said her bosses cared more about being fast than being right: “Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you hit your numbers,” Day said.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-medical-director-doctor-patient-preapproval-denials-insurance?