The Trump administration’s new HRA rule undoes an Obama administration action that forbade workers from using HRA funds to purchase health insurance policies offered outside their workplace.

Thousands of Louisiana residents dropped their private coverage to enroll in Medicaid under the expansion. The count is between 3,000 and 5,000 people a month, and that doesn’t count those who enrolled in Medicaid first, then dropped private coverage.

Surprise medical billing typically comes from providers who refuse to join insurance networks so they can charge astronomical fees. Surprise billing ought to be addressed, but the solution isn’t to rely on an omnipotent arbitrator. The ideal solution is to require hospitals, doctors, and insurers to clean up their own mess wherever possible.

Two efforts are underway in the Senate to compile bipartisan packages aimed at lowering and bringing transparency to health care costs, with the goal of merging them on the Senate floor this summer. Neither package will include one singular big thing to lower health care costs for consumers. Instead, they'll be full of smaller proposals that legislators say together could help move the needle on prices. 

Medicare Advantage and Part D applications were up 87% during the open enrollment period compared to last year, according to a new report from eHealth. During the first three months of this year, the average MA premium dropped 33% from $12 to $8 from 2018, and average out-of-pocket limits decreased 11%.