The National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, told striking workers that their health coverage would be cut off Aug. 1 absent a deal on a new contract. Tensions have mounted after staff disrupted the union’s convention, at which President Joe Biden had been scheduled to speak ..read more

Health insurance agents who fraudulently enroll consumers in Affordable Care Act health plans could be subject to criminal charges — and civil penalties of $10,000 to $200,000 — under legislation introduced Wednesday by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Wyden first promised the bill in May, when he called on federal regulators to do more to combat sketchy Obamacare enrollment schemes. Often, consumers who are targeted don’t know they’ve been enrolled or that their coverage has been switched to a new plan until they lose access to preferred doctors, lea ..read more

A lo largo de su presidencia, Joe Biden se apoyó en Kamala Harris, la ex fiscal y senadora frontal que eligió como vicepresidenta, para ser la voz de apoyo inquebrantable de la Casa Blanca en favor de los derechos de salud reproductiva. Ahora, mientras los demócratas reconstruyen su candidatura presidencial a pocos meses de las elecciones, se esperaría que, de ser la nueva nominada, Harris adoptase una postura agresiva en apoyo al acceso al aborto, atacando al ex presidente Donald Trump en un tema que podría socavar sus posibilidades de victoria. Biden respaldó a Harris el domingo 21 de julio ..read more

Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, he leaned on the outspoken former prosecutor and senator he selected as his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be the White House’s voice of unflinching support for reproductive health rights. Now, as Democrats rebuild their presidential ticket just a few months before Election Day, Harris would widely be expected to take an aggressive stance in support of abortion access if she became the party’s new presumptive nominee — hitting former President Donald Trump on an issue that could undermine his chances of victory. Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday when he anno ..read more

The Biden administration on Friday put in place stringent curbs aimed at thwarting rogue insurance brokers from switching consumers’ Affordable Care Act plans without their consent. The announcement came in response to mounting complaints from consumers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Friday that, in the first six months of the year, more than 200,000 people reported to the agency that they were either enrolled in Obamacare plans or switched from one plan to another without their permission. KFF Health News began reporting on Affordable Care Act enrollment schemes this s ..read more

Ni una palabra sobre el Obamacare o el aborto. En la Convención Nacional Republicana en Milwaukee esta semana, donde los delegados nominaron oficialmente a Donald Trump como candidato presidencial del partido para 2024, los oradores principales le dieron poco lugar a los temas de atención médica. Este silencio es sorprendente, dado que la atención médica constituye la mayor parte del presupuesto federal, casi $2 mil millones, así como el 17% de la producción económica del país. También muestra un contraste marcado con las prioridades del Partido Republicano cuando nominó a Trump por primera ve ..read more

No talk of Obamacare. Or abortion. At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, where delegates officially nominated Donald Trump as the party’s 2024 presidential candidate, health care issues received little attention from prime-time speakers. The silence is surprising, given health care makes up the largest chunk of the federal budget, nearly $2 trillion, as well as 17% of U.S. economic output. It also stands in stark contrast to the GOP’s priorities when it first nominated Trump. In 2016, the last time Republicans gathered en masse for a presidential convention, repealing t ..read more

Hospital facility fees. They can feel like a charge just for walking in the door. Hospitals say they go toward overhead on facilities with lots of specialized equipment and staff, like emergency rooms. But these fees have grown and become more common in recent years. And as hospitals buy up outpatient facilities, patients are starting to get charged facility fees for routine tests, procedures, and visits to the doctor’s office. In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann speaks with Georgann Boatright, a retired speech pathologist from Oxford, Mississippi, who was told by her loc ..read more

Caitlyn Mai woke up one morning in middle school so dizzy she couldn’t stand and deaf in one ear, the result of an infection that affected one of her cranial nerves. Though her balance recovered, the hearing never came back. Growing up, she learned to cope — but it wasn’t easy. With only one functioning ear, she couldn’t tell where sounds were coming from. She couldn’t follow along with groups of people in conversation — at social gatherings or at work — so she learned to lip-read. For many years, insurers wouldn’t approve cochlear implants for single-sided deafness due to concerns that it wou ..read more

The largest private company that brokers use to enroll people in Affordable Care Act health plans said it’s joining with insurers to thwart unauthorized Obamacare sign-ups and plan switches. HealthSherpa, which has its own sales team, announced the new initiative — called “Member Defense Network” — July 16. It will cut off commissions for unscrupulous insurance brokers believed to be signing up thousands of Americans for health plans they don’t need or switching their coverage without express consent. Federal regulators say at least 90,000 Obamacare customers have complained about unauthorized ..read more