The Open Enrollment Mixing Bowl

The Host

Autumn is for pumpkins and raking leaves — and open enrollment for well being plans. Medicare’s annual open enrollment started Oct. 1 and runs by way of Dec. 15. It is going to be adopted shortly by the Reasonably priced Care Act’s annual open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1 and runs till Jan. 15 in most states. However what was a reasonably easy annual process — renewing an present well being plan or selecting a brand new one — has change into a complicated, time-consuming mess for a lot of, because of our convoluted well being care system.

In the meantime, Ohio would be the subsequent state the place voters will determine whether or not to guard abortion rights. These on each side of the talk are gearing up for the November vote, with anti-abortion forces hoping to interrupt a dropping streak of state poll measures associated to abortion for the reason that 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being and Politico, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Submit.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• The U.S. Home of Representatives has been with out an elected speaker since Oct. 4. Which means lawmakers can’t conduct any legislative enterprise, with a number of essential well being payments pending — together with renewal of the favored worldwide HIV/AIDS program, PEPFAR.
• Open enrollment isn’t just for folks seeking to change medical health insurance plans. Plans themselves change, and those that do nothing danger persevering with in a plan that now not meets their wants.
• A brand new spherical of lawsuits has sprung up associated to “abortion reversals,” a controversial apply wherein a affected person, having taken the primary dose of a two-dose abortion medicine routine, takes a excessive dose of the hormone progesterone fairly than the second medicine that completes the abortion. In Colorado, a Catholic-affiliated well being clinic says a state legislation banning the apply violates its non secular rights, whereas in California, the state lawyer normal is suing two faith-based chains that function being pregnant “disaster facilities,” alleging that by promoting the process they’re making “fraudulent and deceptive” claims.
• The newest survey of employer medical health insurance by KFF reveals annual household premiums are once more escalating quickly — up a mean of seven% from 2022 to 2023, with even bigger will increase anticipated for 2024. It’s not clear whether or not the already excessive price of offering insurance coverage to staff — an annual household coverage now averages just below $24,000 — will dampen firms’ enthusiasm for offering the profit.

Additionally this week, Rovner interviews KFF Well being Information’ Arielle Zionts, who reported and wrote the newest KFF Well being Information-NPR “Invoice of the Month” function in regards to the huge price variation of chemotherapy from state to state. In case you have an outrageous or inscrutable medical you’d wish to ship us, you are able to do that right here.

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

Julie Rovner: NPR’s “How Fuel Utilities Used Tobacco Techniques to Keep away from Fuel Range Rules,” by Jeff Brady.

Lauren Weber: KFF Well being Information’ “Medical doctors Abandon a Analysis Used to Justify Police Custody Deaths. It May Reside On, Anyway,” by Markian Hawryluk and Renuka Rayasam.

Joanne Kenen: The Washington Submit’s “How Lunchables Ended Up on College Lunch Trays,” by Lenny Bernstein, Lauren Weber, and Dan Keating.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: KFF Well being Information’ “Pregnant and Addicted: Homeless Girls See Hope in Avenue Drugs,” by Angela Hart.

Additionally talked about on this week’s episode:

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