Health-Exchange-Alert

The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday (May 1) said moving to a single-payer health care system could significantly affect the entire economy and laid out key issues for lawmakers to consider when crafting legislation that could affect one-sixth of the gross domestic product, but CBO did not provide a cost estimate or spell out specific recommendations.

The House Rules Committee debated the potential costs, burden and benefits of transitioning to a Medicare for All system during the first-ever Capitol Hill hearing on the proposal.

The House Ways & Means Committee will soon hold a hearing on Medicare for All, marking the first time in decades that one of the two main health care committees of jurisdiction will hold a hearing on the hot-button single-payer issue.

S&P analysts conclude that health care legislation addressing surprise billing and anti-competitive pharmaceutical practices have a high chance of passing prior to the 2020 elections, but that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, a transition to Medicare For All and aggressive drug-pricing reforms are unlikely to be implemented in the new few years.

Reversing the Trump administration's rule expanding the scope of short-term plans could save the federal government $8.9 billion and decrease nongroup premiums by 1%, but it would increase the number of uninsured people by 500,000, the Congressional Budget Office found.

Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee on Sunday (April 28) signed a bill passed by the legislature April 27 creating a standardized health care option, known as Cascade Care, that the state aims to offer in the Washington Health Benefit Exchange by 2021.

House and Senate lawmakers in Washington state unveiled Friday (April 26) the final conferenced version of legislation establishing a state version of a public option, dubbed Cascade Care, that would require the state’s exchange to contract with one or more issuers to sell standardized bronze, silver and gold plans by January 2021.

A federal judge granted a request from New Hampshire to intervene on the side of CMS in defending the state’s plan to enact Medicaid work requirements.

A federal judge in Washington state on Thursday (April 25) issued a nationwide injunction blocking a Trump administration rule that bars federal funds from going to clinics providing, or referring patients for, abortions, and which many conservatives say targeted Planned Parenthood.