Author: Kalup Alexander
The House of Representatives began the process of dismantling the Affordable Care Act on Friday, approving a budget resolution on a mostly party line vote.
President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid.
UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest and most diversified health insurance companies in the United States, said on Monday that it planned to buy Surgical Care Affiliates, a chain of outpatient surgery centers, for about $2.3 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2017.
Six years ago, federal health officials were confident they could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually by auditing private Medicare Advantage insurance plans that allegedly overcharged the government for medical services.
The Obama administration on Tuesday starkly warned Republicans against a "repeal-and-delay" strategy on Obamacare as it announced that more than 11.5 million Americans have signed up for health insurance coverage on government-run marketplaces this enrollment season — a slight increase from last year.
Giving Medicare authority to negotiate drug prices is the best way to keep those spiraling costs under control for the program’s recipients, departing Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Monday.
Republicans eager to scrap the 2010 health-care law are wrestling with whether to immediately cut off the tax revenue it brings in.
The Republican strategy of repealing the Affordable Health Care Act before devising a replacement plan has the support of only one in five Americans, a poll released Friday finds.
By nearly any measure, Obamacare has failed: It didn’t lower costs, it didn’t increase choice, middle-class families continue to lose health plans they were promised they could keep, and Americans continue to call for Obamacare’s repeal.
Republicans will work on unraveling and replacing the health care law at the same time, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday as GOP leaders struggled to align their zeal to rapidly erase one of President Barack Obama's proudest achievements with Congress' legislative and political pitfalls.