KHN’s ‘What the Well being?’: ACA in Peril With Ginsburg’s Seat in Play

What The Well being? · ACA in Peril With Ginsburg Seat in Play

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The demise of Supreme Courtroom Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — and the insistence of President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Senate to fill that emptiness this yr — might have main implications for well being care. The excessive court docket will hear yet one more case difficult the constitutionality of the Inexpensive Care Act the week after the November election, and a protracted record of instances involving ladies’s reproductive rights, together with each abortion and contraception, are working their approach by decrease federal courts.

In the meantime, scandals on the Division of Well being and Human Companies proceed to floor, such because the case of a media spokesperson for the Nationwide Institutes of Well being who criticized his boss’s dealing with of the pandemic through a conservative web site. And the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention continues to battle with its credibility, after posting after which taking down one other set of tips, this one regarding whether or not the COVID-19 virus is unfold by aerosol particles.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg Information, Kimberly Leonard of Enterprise Insider and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Name.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s podcast:

• The Supreme Courtroom’s upcoming ACA case was introduced by Republican state officers in search of to invalidate the regulation primarily based Congress’ elimination of the penalty for not having insurance coverage, a provision that the court docket as soon as used to uphold the regulation as a result of it was thought-about a part of Congress’ proper to impose taxes.
• Many authorized specialists imagine that even when the excessive court docket had been to resolve that the lack of the penalty invalidates the person mandate to get insurance coverage, different elements of the regulation ought to be capable to stand. Nevertheless it’s not clear conservatives on the court docket will agree.
• With a lot emphasis on the ACA’s insurance coverage market, the growth of the Medicaid program for low-income individuals and protections for individuals with preexisting circumstances, many customers don’t notice that the regulation touches practically all features of well being care, together with ensures of preventive providers, insurance coverage practices and even necessities for calorie counts on restaurant menus.
• Ginsburg’s demise might additionally affect efforts to undermine abortion rights. Two instances are already earlier than the court docket, one involving the flexibility of docs to remotely prescribe medicine that may finish a being pregnant and a Mississippi ban on abortions after the fifteenth week of being pregnant.
• Because the nation marks greater than 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the “What the Well being?” panel seems to be at issues within the U.S. effort to combat COVID-19, together with flip-flops on the necessity for masks, inconsistent messaging from totally different elements of presidency and the politicization of science.
• The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s resolution to take away steering on the coronavirus’s capability to unfold by the air created extra considerations in regards to the politicization of the federal authorities’s scientific research. The controversy over the company’s work is a stark change from the previous, when the CDC was thought-about among the many least politicized elements of the federal government.
• It could take years after these coronavirus controversies for the CDC to revive its credibility with the general public, regardless of who’s elected president.
• Trump has touted his efforts to decrease prescription drug costs, and final week The New York Occasions reported that the administration tried unsuccessfully to get drugmakers to ship a $100 reward card to all seniors to assist cowl the prices of their medicines. The businesses objected as a result of, amongst different causes, they had been fearful the transfer might be seen as an effort to assist the Trump marketing campaign.

This week, Rovner additionally interviews KHN’s Sarah Jane Tribble, whose new podcast, “The place It Hurts,” drops Sept. 29. The podcast chronicles what occurs to a small rural group in Kansas after its native hospital closes.

Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists advocate their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they suppose you must learn too:

Julie Rovner: KHN’s “Battle Rages Inside Hospitals Over How COVID Strikes and Kills,” by Robert Lewis and Christina Jewett

Anna Edney: The New Yorker’s “A Younger Kennedy, in Kushnerland, Turned Whistle-Blower,” by Jane Mayer

Kimberly Leonard: The Wall Road Journal’s “Medicare Wouldn’t Cowl Prices of Administering Coronavirus Vaccine Authorised Beneath Emergency-Use Authorization,” by Stephanie Armour

Mary Ellen McIntire: The New York Occasions’ “Many Hospitals Cost Extra Than Twice What Medicare Pays for the Identical Care,” by Reed Abelson

Different tales mentioned by the panelists this week:

The New York Occasions’ “A Deal on Drug Costs Undone by White Home Insistence on ‘Trump Playing cards,’” by Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman

The Every day Beast’s “A Infamous COVID Troll Truly Works for Dr. Fauci’s Company,” by Lachlan Markay

Politico’s “Trump Administration Shakes Up HHS Private Workplace After Tumultuous Hires,” by Dan Diamond

The Washington Publish’s “Pentagon Used Taxpayer Cash Meant for Masks and Swabs to Make Jet Engine Components and Physique Armor,” by Aaron Gregg and Yeganeh Torbati

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