By Liora Engel-Smith For the third year in a row, the number of people without health insurance in North Carolina remained roughly the same, the annual U.S. Census Bureau report released earlier this month shows. More than 1 million North Carolinians — or 10.7 percent — did not have health insurance in all of 2018, […]
By Michael Ollove Stateline A couple of years ago, the health insurance exchange in Minnesota – MNsure – was in deep trouble. Health insurance premiums for individual policies had shot up by as much as 67 percent, among the steepest increases in the country. Insurers were abandoning the market, leaving 116,000 Minnesotans with scant choices. […]
By Rose Hoban As Congress returns from its Thanksgiving recess to consider their tax overhaul plan, health care advocates in North Carolina have begun working to oppose several portions of the House bill. Top of mind for some folks is elimination of the medical expense deduction, which allows for taxpayers with large medical bills to […]
By Rose Hoban Senate Republicans took a dramatic step toward fulfilling their promises to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, on Tuesday by approving a motion to begin debate on an overhaul. By a vote of 50-50, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote, the repeal […]
By Sarah Fentem Side Effects Public Media Medicaid spending on three important medications used to treat opioid addiction increased 136 percent nationwide between 2011 and 2016, according to a new report from the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank based in Washington D.C. The increases were much higher in some states—in seven states, rates […]
By Rose Hoban After more than a month of anticipation, the U.S. Senate has presented its version of the bill to undo the Affordable Care Act. The proposal rolled out Thursday has some significant differences with the bill presented in the House of Representatives. The Senate version – crafted in secrecy – would slash Medicaid, […]
A bill to change how the state regulates hospitals and other health care facilities gets an airing at the legislature. By Rose Hoban In a debate that has become an annual ritual at the General Assembly, Senate lawmakers have proposed repealing North Carolina’s certificate of need laws, the suite of statutes that dictates the size […]
Asheville’s Mission Hospital will have a regulation limiting its size and revenue lifted soon. What will happen then? By Rose Hoban Last week, Gov. Pat McCrory put his pen to paper and signed into law Senate Bill 698, a bill that will help several struggling hospitals in their attempts to reopen. Tucked into the bill, […]
By Rose Hoban Not only patients, but hospitals, health care providers and even restaurants, construction companies and retail outlets would benefit if North Carolina expands the Medicaid program, according to a new study from two of the state’s largest health care foundations. In all, 43,000 extra jobs would be created if the General Assembly would […]
Is there a price North Carolina pays for not expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act? By Ann Doss Helms and Tony Pugh Charlotte Observer North Carolina taxpayers could spend more than $10 billion by 2022 to provide medical care for low-income residents of other states while getting nothing in return, a McClatchy Newspapers analysis […]
