The ACA Turns 14 – KFF Health News

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The Inexpensive Care Act was signed into legislation 14 years in the past this week, and Well being and Human Providers Secretary Xavier Becerra joined KFF Well being Information’ Julie Rovner on this week’s “What the Well being?” podcast to debate its accomplishments to date — and the challenges that stay for the well being legislation.

In the meantime, Congress seems on its solution to, lastly, ending the fiscal 2024 spending payments, together with funding for HHS — with out lots of the reproductive or gender-affirming well being care restrictions Republicans had sought.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Mary Agnes Carey of KFF Well being Information, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• The Supreme Courtroom will hear oral arguments subsequent week in a case that might determine whether or not the abortion capsule mifepristone will stay simply accessible. The case itself offers with nationwide restrictions fairly than an outright ban. However, relying on how the courtroom guidelines, it may have far-reaching outcomes — for example, stopping individuals from getting the drugs within the mail and limiting how far into being pregnant the therapy can be utilized.
• The case is about greater than abortion. Drug firms and medical teams are involved in regards to the precedent it will set for courts to substitute their judgment for that of the FDA concerning drug approvals.
• Abortion-related poll questions are in play in a number of states. The whole quantity finally relies on the success of citizen-led efforts to gather signatures to realize a spot. Such efforts face opposition from anti-abortion teams and elected officers who don’t need the questions to succeed in the poll field. Their concern, primarily based on precedents, is that abortion protections are inclined to move.
• The Biden administration issued an government order this week to enhance analysis on girls’s well being throughout the federal authorities. It has a number of parts, together with provisions supposed to extend analysis on diseases and ailments related to postmenopausal girls. It additionally goals to extend the variety of girls collaborating in medical trials.
• This Week in Medical Misinformation: The Supreme Courtroom heard oral arguments within the case Murthy v. Missouri. At subject is whether or not Biden administration officers overstepped their authority when asking firms like Meta, Google, and X to take away or downgrade content material flagged as covid-19 misinformation.

Plus, for “further credit score,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week that they assume it’s best to learn, too:

Julie Rovner: The Washington Submit’s “Arizona Lawmaker Tells Her Abortion Story to Present ‘Actuality’ of Restrictions,” by Praveena Somasundaram. (Full speech right here.)

Alice Miranda Ollstein: CNN’s “Why Your Physician’s Workplace Is Spamming You With Appointment Reminders,” by Nathaniel Meyersohn.

Tami Luhby: KFF Well being Information’ “Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Costing Taxpayers Hundreds of thousands Regardless of Low Enrollment,” by Andy Miller and Renuka Rayasam.

Mary Agnes Carey: The New York Occasions’ “When Medicaid Comes After the Household Dwelling,” by Paula Span, and The AP’s “State Medicaid Places of work Goal Useless Folks’s Properties to Recoup Their Well being Care Prices,” by Amanda Seitz.

Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:

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