President Trump Signs Executive Order That Would Make It Easier For Employers Not To Cover Contraception In Employees’ Health Plans.
NBC Nightly News (5/4, story 2. 1:20, Alexander) reported that on Thursday, President Trump “signed an executive order that waves into the delicate question” of “how government strikes the balance between church and state.”
On ABC World News Tonight (5/4, story 3, 1:40, Vega), ABC News correspondent Cecilia Vega was shown saying the new executive order “promises unspecified relief for organizations that claim a religious objection to an” ACA “mandate, requiring them to cover contraception in their healthcare plans.”
USA Today 
(5/4, Jackson, Groppe) reports the executive order that “aims to make it easier for employers with religious objections not to include contraception coverage in workers’ health care plans, although it would be up to federal agencies to determine how that would happen.” After the order was signed, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price promised to take action to “safeguard the deeply held religious beliefs of Americans
who provide health insurance to their employees.”
Insurers Still Waiting To Find Out If Cost-Sharing Subsidies Will Continue.
Reuters (5/4, Humer) reports that regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s vote on AHCA, insurers still are in the dark as to whether the Administration will “continue to fund the cost-sharing subsidies that help individuals pay for care.” The article says, “Cost-sharing subsidy payments from the government are estimated at $7 billion this year and $10 billion next year. Without them, insurers say they would need to raise rates at least
20 percent next year.” The article also says hospitals are “worried about rising premium costs” especially in “[s]outhern Republican states that did not expand Medicaid [as] they expect the number of patients covered through the exchanges to drop if prices spike in 2018, increasing bad debt.”
CareFirst BCBS Want To Raise Rates By 50 Percent In Maryland.
The Washington Post (5/4, Johnson) reports CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield is “requesting a greater than 50 percent rate increase in Maryland, a 35 percent increase in northern Virginia and a 29 percent increase in D.C.” The company is projecting losses of $600 million since selling policies on the exchange in 2013. Chet Burrell, CEO of CareFirst says the “pool of beneficiaries is becoming sicker, in part because healthier people are not coming in at the
same level we hoped.” The article notes that this request comes one day after Aetna announced it will not be selling individual insurance in Virginia anymore due to financial losses.
The Baltimore Sun (5/4, McDaniels) says other insurers are also asking for significant increases. The article reports, “Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. requested an average 37.36 percent increase, while Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States asked for an average 18.08 percent increase.”
Arkansas Governor Signs Law To Allow State To Seek New Restrictions On Medicaid Hybrid Program.
The AP (5/4) reports Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ratified a law “allowing the state to seek federal approval for...new restrictions to” Arkansas’ hybrid Medicaid “program, which uses Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents.”
Colorado Legislature Strikes Deal On Bill Increasing Medicaid Co-Pays.
The Denver Post (5/4, Eason) reports Colorado legislators reached “a major agreement” on a measure that “would reverse a planned $528 million cut to hospitals, while boosting funding to roads and schools,” and “provide a tax break to small businesses, hike recreational marijuana taxes, increase Medicaid co-pays and lower the state’s spending cap by $200 million.” The piece says the bill was first “viewed as a long
shot,” but that it “now contains a dozen major provisions that touch virtually every top spending priority at the state Capitol.” The piece adds that the bill “has the votes to pass both chambers.”
Illinois Senators Voice Concern Over Governor’s Plans To “Revamp” Medicaid Coverage.
The Peoria (IL) Journal Star (5/4, Finke) reports a number of Democratic senators criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “plan to remake the state’s Medicaid managed care program,” which involves “revamp[ing] the program that provides managed care to Medicaid recipients” by diverting “part of the state’s Medicaid costs...to insurance administrative fees, profits for companies and a tax that must be paid under the Affordable Care Act.”
Indiana Healthcare Program Offering Free Cell Phones.
The Indianapolis Star (5/4, Barth) reports the Healthy Indiana Plan healthcare program, available to people at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, offers policyholders benefits such as free cell phones, which are among “the most popular benefits” in the plan. Such services give “people in isolated rural areas” the ability “to get immediate help,” and connect people with career counseling and substance cessation services.
Analysis: Despite Public Outrage Over Drug Prices, Patients Are Paying Less Out Of Pocket On Average, Study Finds.
In an analysis for the Washington Post (5/4) “Wonkblog,” Carolyn Johnson writes that despite “widespread outrage about soaring drug prices,” people are, “on average, actually paying less for their medications than they did a few years ago,” according to a study by the QuintilesIMS Institute. Although net prices rose 3.5% last year, “patients’ out-of-pocket costs for medicines have declined, from $32 per name-brand prescription in 2013 to $28
today.” Johnson explains that the discrepancy is caused by “the extremes,” as “on the low-end of the average are an increasing number of prescriptions that have zero dollar out-of-pocket costs,” while “on the high-end of the average are the people who are exposed to the ever-rising list prices of drugs through deductibles or coinsurance.”
