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New report: Here are the people who are hurt by NC’s failure to expand Medicaid
With one of the largest uninsured populations in the country, North Carolina is home to far too many people who lack the regular health care access and financial security that comprehensive health care coverage provides. In an economic landscape in which employers consider health outcomes in their location and expansion decisions, North Carolina’s 10.7 percent uninsured rate—the 10th highest in the nation—makes us less competitive.
Skimpy health insurance plans & pre-existing conditions are back under new Trump rule
Today the Trump administration issued a final rule allowing insurers to sell “short-term, limited-duration” health insurance policies that can last up to three years instead of the maximum allowable three months under current rules. In the rule, administration officials contort their words to explain what otherwise looks like an alternative fact: “This final rule recognizes […]
Blue Cross’ 2019 premiums would be 18 percent lower if not for ACA sabotage
For the first time in 25 years, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is seeking to lower its premiums for individual health insurance coverage. Yesterday the company announced that it filed a request with state regulators for an average rate reduction of 4.1 percent across all health insurance plans that it will offer on […]
Another act of health care sabotage over the weekend from the Trump administration
On Saturday, the Trump administration announced it would temporarily suspend a program that helps health insurers in the individual market cover the costs of high-risk enrollees, injecting uncertainty into the health insurance markets that could lead to higher premiums and fewer insurers offering coverage. Sound familiar? It should, as it’s just the latest of many […]
Latest state legislative Medicaid proposal may be too harsh to get approved by Trump administration
The public just learned that lawmakers are rushing to consider adding new rules to North Carolina Medicaid that would make people uninsured if they cannot prove they’re working a minimum number of hours each month. This proposal to add red tape and bureaucracy is bad policy, plain and simple. But there are other reasons that […]
Comments due Monday on Trump’s scheme to bring back health plan bars to pre-existing conditions
While last year’s legislative repeal-and-replace proposals were rejected resoundingly by the American public and by a slim majority in the Senate, the Trump administration has been moving on its own to implement changes to the current health care landscape. The latest proposal from the administration would enable insurers to sell “short-term” health insurance policies that […]
Record ACA profits for Blue Cross NC in 2017, but uncertainty remains due to Trump’s health care sabotage
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina announced today that it turned an unexpectedly high profit in 2017, earning $734 million in net income, largely in part due to a profitable line of business in its Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans. In 2016, the company turned an overall profit, but experienced a small loss on […]
Too big to barter? Why the marriage between UNC Health Care and Carolinas Healthcare System raises real concerns
For most North Carolinians, the planned “marriage” between two of their state’s largest hospital systems, UNC Health Care and Charlotte-based Atrium Health (until recently known as Carolinas Healthcare) probably seems like a distant and incomprehensible arrangement involving giant conglomerates and corporate bigwigs.
The radical Trumpcare scam hidden in the Senate tax reform bill
Republicans in Congress are rushing to advance a tax reform bill that balloons the federal deficit so that they can give corporations permanent tax breaks. And now Senate Republicans have decided to turn their already awful tax bill into a secret Trumpcare bill by including a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
Make no mistake: Trump decision spurred Blue Cross Blue Shield rate hike
President Trump is rarely right about much, but he was correct earlier this year when he observed that health care is complicated and that fixing it is hard. Sadly and ironically, however, these difficult truths are now conspiring to confuse some observers as they try to report on Trump’s recent efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and the rate hikes they have spurred for consumers.
CBO report contradicts Tillis on Trumpcare and pre-existing conditions
During a Facebook Live Q&A session on May 11, Senator Thom Tillis told North Carolinians that he is comfortable with letting states decide whether to protect people with pre-existing conditions from pricing discrimination. His rationale? No state would want to take up the American Health Care Act’s (AHCA) waivers from those protections. Well, the experts […]
Congress changes Trumpcare in dead of night to allow insurers to cap coverage and deny care
Shortly before 11 PM last night, the Republican House of Representatives amended their Trumpcare bill. Following the House’s delay of a planned floor vote on the American Health Care Act yesterday, Republican leadership made the change to persuade hardline conservatives in the Freedom Caucus to vote for the bill. Zachary Tracer from Bloomberg explains how this […]