As state policymakers consider expanding their Medicaid programs under the ACA, they should study the experiences of other states.

Insurers participating in Medicare Advantage will be able to negotiate directly with drugmakers in an effort to lower the cost of prescription medications under a new policy announced by the Trump administration.

Last Thursday, the Trump administration came out with a new rule that requires hospitals to post online the prices they charge for medical procedures.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a proposed rule that would overhaul the Medicare Shared Savings Program, an ACA program under which the vast majority of Medicare’s Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) operate.

Congress in 2014 ordered the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop a new payment system for the more than 400 million clinical laboratory tests that Medicare pays for each year so that prices would be more closely aligned with those paid by private insurers.

The Trump administration on Monday approved a request from Maine to set up a program to help moderate rising health insurance costs. CMS said in a letter to the state that it will approve a reinsurance program from January 2019 to Dec. 31, 2023.

CMS has approved Wisconsin’s plan to launch a state reinsurance program from 2019 to 2023 to help reduce individual state premiums and control the growth of state health care spending.

Maryland is now the fourth U.S. state in recent years to contemplate a “single payer” government health plan. In California, the cost of creating a single-payer system was an enormous political obstacle.

 

Even if Congress were to double what it collects in individual and corporate income taxes, there still wouldn’t be enough money added to the federal coffers to finance the costs of Medicare for All.

A new study argues that Congress’ repeal of the individual mandate and a Trump administration rule that would expand the sale and renewal of short-term policies will have a devastating effect on 2019 premiums.But a comparison of the “sabotage” estimates with preliminary 2019 rate filings in cities in 17 states compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests they vastly overestimated the effects of these policy changes on premiums.