Republicans Face Looming Deadline on Health Law

A fast-approaching deadline for insurers to commit to selling health plans next year under the Affordable Care Act is pressuring Republican lawmakers to decide quickly whether to shore up the law and ease the path for insurers or continue efforts to roll it back.

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California Lawmakers Try Again to Confront High Prescription Drug Prices

Less rowdy than the sputtered push for single-payer healthcare and less fraught than the battle over Obamacare’s future, the concern over the cost of prescription drug prices has been overshadowed for the past year by the marquee healthcare battles gripping Sacramento and Washington.

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McConnell: Path on Healthcare “Murky”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged Monday that Congress's next steps on healthcare are unclear after Republicans failed to repeal ObamaCare. 

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Anthem’s Exit Leaves Thousands With No Choice Of Health Plans

For about 60,000 Covered California customers, choosing a health plan next year will be easier, and possibly more painful, than ever: There will be only one insurer left in their communities after Anthem Blue Cross of California pulls out of much of the state’s individual market.

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Medicare Unveils “Skeletal” Site For Hospice Comparison Shopping

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week released Hospice Compare, a consumer-focused website that lets families compare up to three hospice agencies at a time, among 3,876 nationwide. Following similar websites for hospitals and nursing homes, the site aims to improve transparency and empower families to “take ownership of their health,” according to a press release.

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House Conservatives Hope to Revive Obamacare Repeal Vote

Conservatives in the House hope to revive the failed effort to gut the Affordable Care Act with a long-shot drive to force Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to hold a vote to simply repeal the health-care law without a replacement.

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Return of Health Insurance Tax Will Hike Premiums by 2.6% Next Year, Report Estimates

The return of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance tax—which insurers have long lobbied against—will likely increase premiums by an average of 2.6% in 2018, according to a new analysis.

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Climbing Cost of Decades-Old Drugs Threatens To Break Medicaid Bank

Skyrocketing price tags for new drugs to treat rare diseases have stoked outrage nationwide. But hundreds of old, commonly used drugs cost the Medicaid program billions of extra dollars in 2016 vs. 2015, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows. Eighty of the drugs — some generic and some still carrying brand names — proved more than two decades old.

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Covered California May Let Insurers Recoup 2018 Losses in Future Years

The board that oversees Covered California will consider a plan Thursday to entice health insurance companies to keep selling individual policies on the state exchange even if they lose money next year. 

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Sanders Will Offer “Medicare for All” Bill Soon

 U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders told a group of seniors that the solution to the country's health care crisis is to make Medicare available to all, a proposal he plans to introduce shortly after Congress reconvenes in September.

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