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The Fiscal Times
Last year, the federal government spent $576 billion on Medicaid coverage, and that total is projected to steadily rise in the coming years. Knowing that budget cuts are likely, the pressure is on the states that are responsible for managing their Medicaid programs to find ways to lower their costs.
One way to do that is by changing from a fee-for-service healthcare model to a managed care system. Today, 42 states have privately managed Medicaid, and 73 percent of the 81 million beneficiaries are now covered by private managed-care health plans, according to Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC). By comparison, just 55 percent of beneficiaries were in managed care programs in 2012.
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The Hill
Congress will recess for two weeks without taking any action on healthcare, putting Republicans in a difficult position as they head home to face tough questions about why they haven't repealed Obamacare. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) warned lawmakers they could be called back early from recess to vote on repeal if a deal was reached.
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Forbes
Several states led by Republican governors or GOP legislatures are still balking at Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act despite new life to increase coverage for the poor after their party’s failed "repeal-and-replace" attempt on the ACA. Efforts to expand Medicaid have died in at least four states after state legislatures in Kansas and Virginia couldn't overcome GOP opposition last week. And in Georgia and Idaho, legislatures adjourned without considering Medicaid expansion proposals. Meanwhile, South Dakota's Republican governor refused to call a special session to consider Medicaid expansion, media reports there say.
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The Hill
The House's debate over repealing Obamacare has had an unintended effect: Republicans are now defending key elements of President Barack Obama's health law. Many House Republicans are now defending Obamacare's protections for people with pre-existing conditions, in the face of an effort by the conservative House Freedom Caucus to repeal them. Some Republican lawmakers are also speaking out in favor of Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid and its mandates that insurance plans cover services such as mental health and prescription drugs.
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Kaiser Health News
The pharmaceutical industry is teaming up with advocacy groups that are training and even paying for patients who need their medicines to promote their causes in Washington. National polls identify high drug prices as Americans' No. 1 healthcare complaint, and President Donald Trump has declared that pharmaceutical companies are "getting away with murder."
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The News & Observer
Four Republicans in the North Carolina House have filed a bill to extend Medicaid health-insurance coverage to more adults, and to charge hospitals to help pay for it. It's the first time prominent North Carolina Republican legislators have sought to add adults who now don't qualify to the government health insurance program.
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Miami Herald
Medicaid recipients in Florida could soon have to meet work requirements and pay a premium to stay in the government-funded healthcare program. The Florida House is moving ahead with a plan to force able-bodied Medicaid recipients to prove they are employed, participating in job training or searching for work in order to receive benefits, the same requirements the state puts on welfare recipients. The House also wants to require most Medicaid recipients pay $10 or $15 a month, depending on their income.
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The Oklahoman
Low-income Oklahomans will have limited access to a range of health care services if the state Medicaid agency moves forward with a slew of cuts to the publicly funded healthcare program. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which oversees Oklahoma's Medicaid program, announced Monday that, as the agency prepares for whatever money the Legislature provides, the authority will consider provider rate cuts of up to 25 percent to balance the agency's budget.
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
One debate over healthcare reform in Virginia has ended, but another one is just about to begin. Gov. Terry McAuliffe's latest bid to expand Virginia's Medicaid program died on a party-line vote in the House of Delegates on Wednesday. But Republican opponents left open the option of finding ways to improve healthcare for uninsured Virginians in impending discussions by a new joint legislative subcommittee.
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The Associated Press via U.S. News & World Report
Republicans on the House budget-writing committee Wednesday questioned the spending growth in Louisiana's Health Department, taking aim at plans to pump another $2 billion in federal money into Medicaid. Gov. John Bel Edwards proposes spending $14.2 billion on the Health Department in the financial year that begins July 1, nearly half the money allocated in the state operating budget. More than $10 billion of the health spending is federal money.
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Pacific Standard
Of all the prescriptions doctors wrote for opioid painkillers in 2014, only 1 percent were for methadone. Yet methadone was involved in 23 percent of fatal prescription painkiller overdoses in America that year.
These striking numbers come from a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that tackles a problem that's long been known by specialists in the field: Among the opioid pain relievers, methadone can be especially dangerous. But because it’s much cheaper than similar medicines, methadone often finds its way to America's low-income patients, subsidized by Medicaid. That leaves poorer Americans disproportionately likely to overdose on methadone, presumably some of them simply from taking the medicines they were prescribed.
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