Source: Los Angeles Times Most Americans enrolled in health plans through the Affordable Care Act are happy with their coverage, despite persistent attacks on the health law by Republicans, including presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. But consumers are increasingly concerned about their monthly premiums and deductibles, reflecting rising anxiety among all Americans about their medical […]
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Source: CNBC Obamacare plan customers should brace for sticker shock when the administration posts insurers’ preliminary rate requests for 2017 this week. Health plans are asking for sharp price increases, after suffering big losses on exchanges in the last two years. Regulators caution that these are preliminary requests and final rates could look a lot […]
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Source: STAT Skyrocketing drug prices are forcing states to take unprecedented measures to rein in health care spending. Vermont just became thenation’s first state to require prescription drug pricing transparency. The New York and Massachusetts attorneys general have launched investigations into major pharmaceutical companies’ and insurers’ drug pricing policies and strategies. These are important steps. […]
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Source: STAT However, he noted that these increases do not reflect any rebates or discounts. After taking those price breaks into account, in fact, Risinger estimated that the actual “net price growth” was slightly less than half of the increases in the list prices. What is unclear, however, is how much of those rebates and […]
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Source: California Healthline California lawmakers are lining up in support of a bill that would require health plans to provide information about patient-assistance programs for expensive prescription drugs to enrollees who drop or lose their coverage. The programs are funded by pharmaceutical companies and offer people financial aid for brand-name drugs. They provide the aid […]
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Source: The Hill Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Thursday sought to calm the nerves of health insurers increasingly in doubt about the fate of the ObamaCare marketplace. Burwell struck an upbeat tone on stage at the administration’s inaugural insurers summit, designed to showcase ObamaCare success stories among insurers. “I remain […]
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Source: Los Angeles Six years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, the health reform law has gained acceptance from a majority of California voters, but the cost of getting healthcare remains a major concern, eclipsing worries about having insurance, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. The widespread worry about costs […]
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Source: STAT Drug makers are sick and tired of coming under attack for high prices. And they’re spending tens of millions to try to make it stop. “We’re under unprecedented pressure because there really is profound misunderstanding out there,” Acorda Therapeutics CEO Ron Cohen, who chairs the industry trade group Biotechnology Innovation Organization, told a […]
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Source: The New York Times The Geisinger Health Plan, run by one of the nation’s top-rated health care organizations, foresees medical costs increasing next year by 7.5 percent for people buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act. So when Geisinger requested a rate increase of 40 percent for 2017, consumer advocates were amazed. And Kurt […]
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Source: California Healthline As health care consolidation accelerates nationwide, a new study shows that hospital prices in two of California’s largest health systems were 25 percent higher than at other hospitals around the state. Researchers said this gap of nearly $4,000 per patient admission was not due to regional wage differences or hospitals treating sicker […]
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