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☆ Bright Health set out to disrupt health insurance. Now it's exploring a sale of its remaining insurance business.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Health insurance upstart Bright Health is exploring a sale of its remaining insurance business. Bright Health once had big plans to disrupt the way Americans get their health insurance. Now, it's exploring a sale of its California Medicare Advantage business — its only foot left in the health insurance world. It's happening at a time when it's also winding down its business providing health insurance to people on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. Other insurers, including Clover Health and Oscar Health, have shifted from growing fast to focusing on turning a profit by any means necessary.

☆ Opinion | Religion Has Friends Among Judges in High Places
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Linda Greenhouse | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Emergency room doctors have to help patients who have been in lots of different life situations, including life situations that the doctors might not approve of. If treating a patient makes you feel “complicit” in whatever the patient did to come to the emergency room, being an emergency room doctor is not the job for you. And, I’ll add, it’s remarkable that three federal appellate judges gave these plaintiffs a green light. But another portion of the opinion is a specific and special gift to employers who claim that their opposition to Obamacare’s mandatory coverage provision is motivated by religion. The Affordable Care Act “forces these plaintiffs to choose between purchasing health insurance that violates their religious beliefs and foregoing conventional health insurance altogether,” he wrote.

☆ Opinion: Why Biden has little 2024 Democratic opposition
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( David Axelrod | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —President Joe Biden was the toast of Ireland last week, as he was treated to a hero’s welcome in a pageant-laden return to his ancestral home. Biden, who is expected to formalize his plans next week, has a significant body of achievements on which to run. So is the absence of a real primary challenge simply the luck of the Irish? Perhaps with that primary battle in mind, Biden has worked assiduously to court the progressive wing of the party, from which such Democratic primary challenges generally arise. Finally, there is former President Donald Trump, whose candidacy is a boost to Biden among Democrats.

☆ Explainer: Tax cuts, balanced budget: What's not in Republican McCarthy's debt plan?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Some House Republicans have called for balancing the budget within 10 years, but McCarthy's proposed cuts would almost certainly not hit that goal. McCarthy's plan would not repeal two tax hikes secured by Democrats in last year's Inflation Reduction Act: a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks. It also does not try to make permanent the temporary individual tax cuts contained in the 2017 Republican tax-cut package that are due to expire in 2025. His former budget director, Russell Vought, called for cuts to housing, education and health programs in a proposal released earlier this year. McCarthy's plan would not repeal Obamacare, or roll back enhancements secured by Democrats in 2021 and 2022.

☆ Most Major Insurers to Continue Preventive Care Services
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Preventive healthcare services include mammograms and cancer screenings. Photo: Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune/Getty ImagesThe majority of insurers in the U.S. don’t expect to drop no-cost preventive healthcare services as a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act requirement works its way through the courts, according to a letter to lawmakers from the six trade groups representing the insurance industry. Their decision was outlined Wednesday in a letter by trade groups to House and Senate Democratic health committee leaders, who on April 12 wrote to a dozen of the nation’s largest health insurers and trade associations asking whether they intend to cover all recommended preventive services without cost-sharing until all appellate review in the case is concluded.

But many medical associations have said the law is transphobic and that gender-affirming care can be life-saving. The new lawsuit says depriving transgender youth of medically necessary care will have devastating consequences for them and their families. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three families with transgender children and a Memphis-based doctor who performs gender-affirming procedures. Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the ban into law last month along with a separate measure restricting drag performances in public. Several other U.S. states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, and over the last several weeks groups have sued over laws adopted in Utah, Florida, Indiana and Arkansas.

[1/7] U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on childcare and eldercare costs during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2023. Biden signed the order, which includes over 50 specific actions, in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by family caregivers, people with disabilities, older adults and early childhood and long-term care workers. "The executive order doesn't require any new spending. The executive order was also welcomed by AARP, a major lobbying group for older Americans, and the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor organization. Heather Boushey of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) told reporters that childcare and eldercare shortages and soaring costs limited the ability of many women to work, constraining labor supply and dampening economic growth.

☆ A federal judge who first blocked broad student-loan forgiveness just gave Biden a win by agreeing to pass on a case challenging a debt relief rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A federal judge that blocked student-debt relief agreed to transfer a related case to a different court. The case was challenging a rule to help borrowers who say they were defrauded by their schools. The Education Department said it was filed in the wrong venue, and the Trump-appointed judge agreed in a rare win for the administration. On February 28, CCST filed an 87 page complaint against the Education Department, saying that the department's latest reforms to the borrower defense process creates a "framework with new federal standards, adjudicatory schemes, and evidentiary presumptions." Judge Reed O'Connor, who is in the same district as Pittman, ruled the Affordable Care Act invalid in 2018.

☆ Clover Health, which bet its technology would disrupt health insurance, will outsource health-plan operations and cut jobs to help it turn a profit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Clover Health bet its technology would disrupt health insurance, but it's struggled with losses. Now it's cutting jobs and it plans to outsource some health-plan operations to lower its costs. Clover Health, an insurance upstart that bet its technology could transform healthcare for seniors, now plans to outsource basic functions like paying medical claims. The Tennessee-based health insurer said Monday that it will shift the responsibility of its core operations to UST HealthProof, a company that handles administrative operations for health plans. It's not unusual for small health insurers to outsource some health-plan operations.

☆ Private school vouchers are shaping up to be huge part of the 2024 election as GOP candidates work to 'one up' each other on the issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The GOP movement toward "school choice" is gaining momentum in many states. GOP presidential candidates have promised to send more public money to private schools. While battles over how classrooms should teach about race and LGBTQ topics have fired up the GOP base, the expansion of school vouchers is taking hold in red states. Spar said vouchers amounted to "using taxpayer money to go to private schools and home schools with practically no accountability." As Congress then turned its attention toward COVID pandemic relief, at least one bill that didn't pass had funding for private schools and homeschooling.

☆ DACA ‘Dreamers’ Would Be Eligible for Government Healthcare Under New Rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A demonstration in Washington last year to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. WASHINGTON—Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will become eligible for government-subsidized healthcare benefits, including the Affordable Care Act, under a new Biden administration initiative announced Thursday. A proposed regulation, published by the Department of Health and Human Services, would make recipients of the program—immigrants in the country illegally who were brought as children—eligible for programs including Medicaid, the children’s health insurance program and subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change has long been encouraged by Democrats and opposed by many Republicans.

☆ Biden seeks expanded health insurance access for DACA participants
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Leah MillisWASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is seeking to allow immigrants illegally brought to the United States as children greater access to health insurance through federal programs, the White House said on Thursday. The proposal would allow participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to access to health insurance under Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges, it said. I've worked hard to get more Americans health insurance than ever before," President Joe Biden said on Twitter, adding the move would give "Dreamers the same opportunities." About 580,000 people were enrolled as of last year in the Obama-era 2012 DACA program, which grants protection from deportation and work permits. Eight U.S. states have already expanded state insurance access to health coverage regardless of immigration status, according to data from the healthcare policy organization Kaiser Family Foundation.

April 7 (Reuters) - The federal judge who on Friday suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is a former Christian legal activist whose small courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, has become a go-to destination for conservatives challenging Biden administration policies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, had a long track record of opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2019 to a life-tenured position as a federal judge. FAVORED VENUESince then, his courthouse has become a favored venue for conservative legal activists and Republican state attorneys general pursuing lawsuits seeking to halt aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda - often with success. In October, Kacsmaryk vacated Biden administration guidance requiring employers to allow transgender workers to dress and use bathrooms consistent with their gender identities. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot and Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Pool via REUTERSApril 8 (Reuters) - The federal judge who on Friday suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is a former Christian legal activist whose small courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, has become a go-to destination for conservatives challenging Biden administration policies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, had a long track record of opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2019 to a life-tenured position as a federal judge. When anti-abortion groups in November filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's more than two-decade old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, they filed in Amarillo, guaranteeing the case would be heard by Kacsmaryk. FAVORED VENUESince then, his courthouse has become a favored venue for conservative legal activists and Republican state attorneys general pursuing lawsuits seeking to halt aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda - often with success. While the district's chief judge could order cases be reallocated, he has not.

☆ Devoted Health quietly blew past other insurance upstarts in the red-hot market for seniors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

While last year was a bloodbath for some young health insurers, Devoted Health ended 2022 relatively unscathed. Several newly public health insurers have struggled with losses, and some have been forced to retrench to stay afloat. Devoted has won more Medicare Advantage members in 2023 than competitorsExecutives of Devoted Health's rivals. Clover Health; Bright Health; Oscar Health; Olivia Reaney/Business InsiderInsider's analysis of the latest federal enrollment data found that Devoted had 126,287 Medicare Advantage members as of March 1. Bright had 122,371 Medicare Advantage members at the two California health plans it owns, while Alignment Healthcare had about 109,221 Advantage members, according to Insider's analysis.

☆ Judge Strikes Down Some Affordable Care Act Rules on Preventive Health Services
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Under the ACA, health plans must generally provide access to no-cost preventive care. WASHINGTON—A federal judge in Texas struck down a major part of the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most insurers cover certain preventive health services, in a ruling that applies nationwide and will likely be appealed. Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued on Thursday a nationwide injunction striking down the requirement that most commercial insurers fully cover dozens of preventive-care services and screenings recommended by a federal task force with no out-of-pocket consumer costs.

☆ The former CEO of Aetna shares how he plans to turn around the struggling health insurer Oscar
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Oscar Health struggled to upend the entrenched health insurance industry. Oscar Health has been trying and struggling to upend the US health-insurance industry and the entrenched giants that dominate it for the past 10 years. Oscar Health incoming CEO Mark Bertolini Bridgewater AssociatesLast year, Oscar lost a $60 million contract with its first client, Health First Health Plans. Bertolini wants Oscar to disrupt health-insurance giantsMario Schlosser, founding CEO of Oscar Health Eduardo Munoz/ReutersDespite losing the Health First deal, Bertolini is betting that Oscar will disrupt the insurance industry through partnerships. Oscar has developed health plans with health systems in the past.

☆ Judge strikes down Obamacare coverage of preventive care for cancers, diabetes, HIV and other conditions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A federal judge on Thursday struck down an Obamacare mandate that required most private health insurance plans to cover preventive care such as certain cancer screenings and HIV prevention drugs. You can find the full list of covered preventive services the judge struck down here. Judge Reed O'Connor in U.S. Northern District of Texas struck down those coverage requirements and blocked the federal government from enforcing them. The Affordable Care Act mandated free coverage of health services recommended by an independent panel of experts called the Preventive Services Task Force. They had also sought to overturn the federal mandate that requires Obamacare compliant plans to cover birth control with no out-of-pocket costs.

The decision propelled Israel into a national crisis with massive protests that forced Netanyahu to delay the move on Monday. "We haven't taken a hands-off approach," said a senior administration official. Dennis Ross, a veteran U.S. peace negotiator between Israelis and Arabs, said the Biden administration had expressed its misgivings about Israel’s judicial proposals but had done so privately where possible. Halie Soifer, chief executive officer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said the way the Biden administration has handled this crisis thus far is in keeping with Biden's commitment to the U.S.-Israel partnership. But, keeping a distance from Netanyahu, Biden has yet to invite him to visit the White House since the Israeli began his sixth term as prime minister in December.

☆ Wyoming abortion ban blocked due to Obamacare-era amendment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Abortion is legal in Wyoming again, oddly enough as the result of a state constitutional amendment pushed by conservatives opposed to Obamacare more than a decade ago. Anti-abortion lawmakers in Wyoming have tried to work around the 2012 amendment in passing the ban on abortion. The state's sweeping ban, dubbed "Life is a Human Right Act," claims that abortion is not a form of health care. It's unclear whether the court will ultimately agree that the anti-Obamacare amendment prohibits a state abortion ban. For instance, a judge in Ohio in October temporarily blocked the state's abortion ban because of a constitutional provision adopted in 2011 as a backlash to Obamacare.

☆ Biden touts expanded Medicaid at ACA event
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Reuters Editorial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PoliticsBiden touts expanded Medicaid at ACA eventPostedUnited States President Joe Biden marked the 13th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act in the White House on Thursday (March 23), touting greater coverage.

☆ Biden's approval slips to 38%, near the lowest of his presidency, new poll says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Emma Kinery | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

President Joe Biden's approval rating dipped in a new poll released Thursday, approaching an all-time low for that survey as Americans give the Democrat poor marks on how he has handled the economy. Only 38% of respondents said they approve of the job Biden is doing, versus 61% who said they disapprove, according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Less than a third of Americans, 31%, approve of Biden's handling of the economy, according to the poll. It's a leap from Republicans though: Only 4% approve of what Biden is doing as president, and 3% approve his handling of the economy. Biden's all-time low approval of 36% in the AP-NORC poll was in July of last year.

☆ The Rise of Jazz Singer Samara Joy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Nancy Pelosi on Crafting a Career With PurposeIn 35 years on Capitol Hill, the former top Democrat made history as the first female speaker of the House, shepherding the Affordable Care Act and passing the biggest climate bill to date. She discusses her path to the top and advice for women in any occupation.

☆ Nancy Pelosi to Take Stage at Journal Forum on Women’s Leadership
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Katherine Finnerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Nancy Pelosi made history as the first woman to be named speaker of the House. After more than two decades at the helm of the Democratic Party, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) announced late last year that she was stepping down from leadership, but would remain in Congress. Mrs. Pelosi, who made history as the first woman to be named speaker of the House, played a central role in the passage of the Affordable Care Act, response to the Covid-19 pandemic and opposition to Republican former President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, she joins The Wall Street Journal’s Editor in Chief Emma Tucker in New York for an interview about her career and next chapter of Capitol Hill, the future of the Democratic Party and the state of American politics.

☆ Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey, who is worth $75 million, says that business is 'judged and attacked' by society. 'We are the real value creators in the world.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey thinks business is "judged and attacked" by society. Mackey spoke at a conference, in one of his first appearances since stepping down as Whole Foods CEO. "I always felt that business is misunderstood by society," Mackey said during the presentation, according to industry publication Baking Business. "Entrepreneurs are the true heroes in a free-enterprise economy, driving progress in business, society, and the world," he wrote. Now, he plans to start a chain of health restaurants in Southern California called Love.Life!, according to Baking Business.

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