First Edition: November 17, 2014
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Insurance Exchanges Launch With Few Glitches
A Los Angeles furniture store worker who had never had health insurance enrolled in a plan for $75 a month that will cover both him and his son. An unemployed accountant in Charlotte, N.C., who tried and failed to sign up last year found coverage for $11.75 a month. A self-employed house contractor from West Palm Beach, Fla., found a health plan that will cost him nothing. They were among more than 100,000 Americans who signed up for coverage Saturday through the Affordable Care Act’s online insurance exchanges. (Galewitz and Gorman, 11/17)
Kaiser Health News:
You Paid What? How Negotiated Deals Hide Health Care’s Cost
As Americans begin shopping again for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, they’ll be wrangling with premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket costs and other vague and confusing insurance-speak. Believe it or not, that’s the easy part compared to figuring out what the overall cost of health care is. (Mack, 11/17)
Kaiser Health News:
State Health Insurance Exchanges Hope To Woo Urban Minorities
Two very successful state health insurance exchanges, Connecticut’s and California’s, are both intent on reaching people who avoided signing up last year – especially young Latinos and African-Americans. "The big takeaway for us last year was that the uninsured were really pocketed in a couple of key, large cities," says Jason Madrak, the chief marketing officer of Access Health CT, in Connecticut. In light of that, he says, the exchange has changed its ad strategy. "We’ve dialed up some of the more locally-focused efforts while we’ve dialed down some of the broader efforts," he says. (Cohen and Demboskey, 11/14)
The New York Times:
Some Hiccups, But Federal Health Exchange Website Is In Good Health
The Obama administration said Sunday that 100,000 people had signed up for health insurance on the first day of open enrollment, and it offered practical advice to consumers who had been locked out of their accounts. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, cited the 100,000 applications as evidence that the refurbished website for the insurance marketplace was working for most users. (Pear, 11/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Health-Care Web Site Users Have Few Problems
The second year of Affordable Care Act insurance enrollment, which began Saturday, didn’t have the type of widespread technical meltdowns that frustrated consumers last year. More than 500,000 people successfully logged into HealthCare.gov on Saturday, and about 100,000 people submitted insurance applications to the site, federal health officials said. Pockets of problems, however, did emerge. Some previous users who returned to HealthCare.gov had trouble submitting or resetting passwords, locking them out of accounts. A handful of state-run exchanges, such as those in Washington and Vermont, grappled with technology gaffes over the weekend that at times stalled enrollment. (Armour, Radnofsky and Wilde Mathews, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
HealthCare.gov Opens Without Major Problems For Second Enrollment Period
HealthCare.gov and online insurance marketplaces in more than a dozen states opened for a second year on Saturday without the widespread computer troubles that frustrated consumers and the Obama administration when the exchanges debuted 13 months ago. ... Not all customers had smooth experiences. Some had forgotten their passwords for online accounts they created a year ago. Others discovered that they still couldn’t find affordable plans. And one state-run exchange — Washington state’s — took down its enrollment system within hours of its launch after discovering it was spitting out incorrect subsidy amounts. (Goldstein and Millman, 11/15)
Politico:
Obamacare’s Second Season Opens With Minor Enrollment Snags
The weekend opening deflects attention from the considerable challenges of the law’s second season, which loom in the weeks and months to come. One is a significant new technical hurdle that the website must clear; another is the strategy that will be needed to reach a public skeptical or confused about the law. And there are challenges that threaten Obamacare politically as well as legally — a hostile GOP-controlled Congress and a Supreme Court case that could deal a huge blow to the financial subsidies the law provides many low- and moderate-income Americans. (Norman and Wheaton, 11/16)
The New York Times:
Some New Frustrations As Health Exchange Opens
The health insurance marketplace opened for business on Saturday and performed much better than last year, but some consumers reported long, frustrating delays in trying to buy insurance and gain access to their own accounts at HealthCare.gov. Thousands of people attended hundreds of enrollment events around the country at public libraries, churches, shopping malls, community colleges, clinics, hospitals and other sites. Insurance counselors and federal, state and local officials said they were trying to juggle two tasks — enrolling more of the uninsured and renewing coverage for those who already had it. (Pear and Goodnough, 11/15)
The Associated Press:
States Working To Fix Hobbled Health Care Websites
The Massachusetts website, designed by the same contractor that worked on the troubled federal website, performed so poorly it prompted a public apology from Gov. Deval Patrick and forced health care officials to adopt a series of manual workarounds, creating a backlog of more than 50,000 paper applications. Massachusetts was one of several states where the ambition of running their own health insurance marketplace inside a new federal system ran into a harsh reality. Some, like Oregon and Nevada, folded and decided to go with the federal exchange for the second round of open enrollment, which began Saturday. Others, like Maryland and Massachusetts, fired their technology contractors and are hoping for better results this time. It hasn't been cheap. (LeBanc, 11/16)
Politico:
Obamacare's 'Burwellian' Rollout
Sylvia Mathews Burwell was brought in to run HHS with one big goal: make sure the second round of Obamacare goes a whole lot better than last year’s disaster. After months of distractions — Ebola, a border crisis, an unusual enterovirus that sickened hundreds of children — the new HHS secretary will be the person who either pays the price or wins the praise when HealthCare.gov reopens Saturday for business and potentially millions of people look to enroll in health insurance. President Barack Obama hired her not for her political savvy or public profile but because she is thought of as one of the most skilled technocrats in the bureaucracy. (Haberkorn, 11/15)
The New York Times:
Cost Of Coverage Under Affordable Care Act To Increase In 2015
The Obama administration on Friday unveiled data showing that many Americans with health insurance bought under the Affordable Care Act could face substantial price increases next year — in some cases as much as 20 percent — unless they switch plans. ... An analysis of the data by The New York Times suggests that although consumers will often be able to find new health plans with prices comparable to those they now pay, the situation varies greatly from state to state and even among counties in the same state. (Pear, Abelson and Armendariz, 11/14)
The New York Times:
Where Federal Health Exchange Rates Will Rise (Graphic)
In about a fifth of the counties in states using the federal insurance exchange, premiums for the lowest-priced silver plans will increase by 10 percent or more. But rates for the same plans will decrease in all of Maine, Montana and New Hampshire, and most parts of Mississippi and South Dakota. (11/14)
The Washington Post:
Post Analysis: Health Plan Choices And Premiums Increase On HealthCare.gov
People shopping on the HealthCare.gov marketplaces that reopened Saturday have more options this year than they did last year, but the options usually will be costlier. Twenty-five states using the federal enrollment portal on average have higher premiums this year for the most popular level of health insurance plans — called “silver” plans — while nine states on average have lower prices this year for that level of coverage, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal data. New plans are typically slightly more expensive than existing ones, the analysis showed. (Keating and Millman, 11/15)
The Associated Press:
Q&A: What's Covered, What's Not In Health Overhaul
As the federal government and states launch a second round of enrollment under the health care law, consumers should be aware of what's covered and what's not when buying health coverage through insurance marketplaces. Plans cover essential health benefits, pre-existing conditions and preventive care, but dental and vision benefits vary. (Lin, 11/15)
Politico:
Obama: We Didn’t Mislead On Health Care
President Barack Obama denied Sunday that his signature health care reform law was deceptively marketed, rejecting statements by a consultant on the plan who said aspects of Obamacare were designed to take advantage of the “stupidity” of voters. “The fact that an adviser who was never on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with in terms of the voters is not a reflection on the actual process that was run,” Obama declared at a press conference here, speaking for the first time about the comments by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber. (Gerstein, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
Obama Dismisses Renewed Criticism Of Health-Care Law In Wake Of Gruber Video
President Obama dismissed renewed criticism of his signature health-care law Sunday and disputed an assertion from a former adviser involved in its creation who said the administration had deceived lawmakers. ... “We had a year-long debate,” Obama told reporters Sunday. “Go look back at your stories. One thing we can’t say is that we didn’t have a lengthy debate over health care in the United States. Every press outlet here should go back and pull up every clip and every story. It’s fair to say there is not a provision in the health-care law that was not extensively debated and was not fully transparent.” (Nakamura, 11/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Obama Dismisses Consultant’s Remarks On Health Law
President Barack Obama and the secretary of Health and Human Services disputed the comments of a consultant on the president’s health-care law who said it passed in part because of the “stupidity” of the American people. Jonathan Gruber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was a paid consultant to HHS on the health law, sparked a furor with remarks that a lack of transparency and the stupidity of American voters was a political advantage in passing the bill. (Zumbrun and Patterson, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
What Exactly Was Gruber’s Role In The Creation Of The Health Law?
What was Jonathan Gruber’s role in putting together the Affordable Care Act? ... While it is probably overstating things to describe Gruber as an “architect” of the law, as so many recent reports have, he was also no ordinary adviser — as evidenced by the fact that he was paid nearly $400,000 by the administration for his work. And his advice was important at critical moments when the bill’s survival was in jeopardy. (Tumulty, 11/16)
The New York Times:
Affordable Care Act Supporter Ignites Fury With A Word: ‘Stupid’
Gruber, a health care expert who helped develop Mitt Romney’s health care plan in Massachusetts and later was a consultant for Mr. Obama’s Affordable Care Act, was no stranger to the pundit circuit, and repeatedly called attention to the similarities between the two plans — a politically helpful fact for the Obama 2012 campaign. They’re the same bill,” Mr. Gruber declared once, adding an expletive before the word “bill.” But now, Mr. Gruber’s bluntness is clearly less appreciated by those in the West Wing. (Shear, 11/14)
Politico:
GOP Preps New Attack Plan For Obamacare
The Republican Congress is getting ready to ramp up the Obamacare hearings, firing up enough investigations to keep Obama administration officials visiting hearing rooms on both sides of the Capitol for the next two years. They’ll shine the spotlight on everything from cable-friendly scandals to tried-and-true complaints about the law’s side effects. They’re going to investigate premium increases for individuals and small businesses, the impact on the federal deficit, payments to insurance companies that attract too many sick people, and the threat of huge tax headaches for some Obamacare customers next spring. (Nather, 11/14)
The Associated Press:
Challenge To Obamacare On Contraceptives Rejected
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a path devised by the Obama administration that allows religious nonprofit groups to avoid paying for contraception under the president's health care law. In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a challenge by the groups, which claimed that the accommodation still imposes a substantial burden on their expression of religion. (Yost, 11/14)
The New York Times:
Tip On Medicare Spurs Insider Trading Investigation
Today, the email from Height Securities is at the center of a broad investigation into possible insider trading that stretches from within the walls of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the halls of Congress and onto the sleek trading floors of Wall Street hedge funds. The issue: Did employees inside Medicare as well as congressional staff members pass along nonpublic information that wound up in the hands of investment firms that used it to make a profit? (Creswell, 11/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Nebraska Hospital Officials: Ebola Doctor Still 'Extremely Critical'
A surgeon who was transported to the U.S. for treatment after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone was still in "extremely critical" condition Sunday, according to a Nebraska Medical Center spokesman. No further details were immediately available on the patient, identified by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ as Dr. Martin Salia, 44. Salia is a member of the church and was working as a surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in Freetown. He is a citizen of Sierra Leone and has family in the U.S., according to a church spokesman. (Pearce, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
New Ebola Patient In Nebraska In Critical Condition
A 44-year-old surgeon under treatment for Ebola in Omaha, Neb., is in extremely critical condition, the hospital said Sunday. Martin Salia was admitted on Saturday to the Nebraska Medical Center’s biocontainment unit after he was evacuated from Freetown, Sierra Leone. (McKay and Calvert, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
A Doctor's Mistaken Ebola Test: 'We Were Celebrating ... Then Everything Fell Apart'
When Martin Salia’s Ebola test came back negative, his friends and colleagues threw their arms around him. They shook his hand. They patted him on the back. They removed their protective gear and cried. But when his symptoms remained nearly a week later, Salia took another test, on Nov. 10. This one came back positive, sending the Sierra Leonean doctor with ties to Maryland on a desperate, belated quest for treatment and forcing the colleagues who had embraced him into quarantine. (Sieff, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
In Ebola Fight, Private Foundations Provide Critical Financial Aid
The U.S. emergency response team working on Ebola in Kemena, Sierra Leone, was stuck. The vehicle they had been using to transport patients, deliver oral rehydration packets and do other critical work had two flat tires. It was early October, a time when things seemed to be spiraling out of control in the epicenter of the crisis, and there wasn’t a moment to waste. The stranded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers knew just where to call for help: a little-known nonprofit — the CDC Foundation — that received millions of dollars in donations in recent months from Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and other philanthropists. (Cha, 11/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Disability System For Veterans Strays Far From Its Official Purpose
[T]he real culprit was the broad eligibility criteria of the [veterans] disability system itself. The contractor had played by the rules for benefits and, as many Washington lawmakers know, those benefits cover ailments from sports injuries to bullet wounds, resulting in disability payouts that totaled $58 billion this fiscal year — up from $49 billion last year. Routinely criticized in government reviews as out of touch with modern concepts of disability, the system has strayed far from its official purpose of compensating veterans for their lost earning capacity. Yet lawmakers are unwilling to support reforms — or even to criticize the system publicly. (Zarembo, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
VA Secretary: ‘We’ve Got To Design This Organization So It Doesn’t Depend On My Cellphone’
[T]he Federal Eye asked for [Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald's] personal cellphone number, and he gave it out. In front of a roomful of reporters. On live television. And we published it. Since then, he has received about 900 phone calls or text messages, and “we probably have solved about 25 to 30 percent of the issues,” he said. Some had trouble with their benefits, others with wait times. ... “But the point is, we’ve got to design this organization so it doesn’t depend on my cellphone.” (Wax-Thibodeaux, 11/14)
The Washington Post:
More Veterans Press VA To Recognize Medical Marijuana As Treatment Option
At a time when the legalized use of marijuana is gaining greater acceptance across the country, [Amy] Rising is among a growing number of veterans who are coming out of the “cannabis closet” and pressing the government to recognize pot as a legitimate treatment for the wounds of war. They say it is effective for addressing various physical and psychological conditions related to military service — from chronic back pain and neuropathic issues to panic attacks and insomnia — and often preferable to widely prescribed opioid painkillers and other drugs. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 11/15)
The Washington Post:
Federal Drug Agents Launch Surprise Inspections Of NFL Teams Following Games
Federal drug agents conducted surprise inspections of National Football League team medical staffs on Sunday as part of an ongoing investigation into prescription drug abuse in the league. The inspections, which entailed bag searches and questioning of team doctors by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, were based on the suspicion that NFL teams dispense drugs illegally to keep players on the field in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, according to a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. (Jenkins and Maese, 11/16)
The New York Times:
Federal Investigation Into Painkillers Targets N.F.L. Teams’ Medical Staffs
Federal drug enforcement agents questioned medical-staff members from the San Francisco 49ers and several other teams on Sunday as part of a continuing investigation into the distribution of painkillers in the N.F.L. The unannounced visits by the Drug Enforcement Administration were spurred, in part, by reports of widespread abuse of painkillers that were included in a class-action lawsuit against the N.F.L. (Belson, 11/16)
Los Angeles Times:
DEA Agents Conduct Checks On NFL Teams' Medical Staffs
Federal drug agents surprised at least two NFL teams, including the San Francisco 49ers, on Sunday by showing up to check on their doctors while a growing class-action lawsuit by former players alleges that the league illegally handed out painkillers and other prescription pills. The Drug Enforcement Administration checked the 49ers' medical staff at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., after the team played the New York Giants, the team confirmed. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers said their staff was checked at Baltimore-Washington International airport after a game against the Redskins. News outlets have also reported that agents visited the Seattle Seahawks as well. (Raab and Farmer, 11/16)
The New York Times:
In Death, Girl, 2, Is Caught In Fight Over Organs
Thaiya Spruill-Smith, who loved broccoli, Minnie Mouse and the movie “Space Jam,” was declared dead Friday evening at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center. When her death certificate is issued, it will say she died on Friday, two days after officials say her stepfather shook her violently. But Thaiya’s actual death has been postponed, held up by a tug of war between her mother and her father. Her father, Terrell Smith, said cutting up his daughter would be desecration. Her mother, Teoka Spruill, wants her daughter’s organs to help others. (Barker and Schweber, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
Aging Population Prompts More Employers To Offer Elder-Care Benefits To Workers
As the population ages and more people live longer with chronic medical conditions – for instance, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to nearly triple by 2050 – companies are beginning to grapple with growing numbers of workers who have elder-care responsibilities. Some, including pioneers such as Fannie Mae in the Washington area, are offering not only flexibility, but also benefits such as emergency backup adult care, geriatric assessments, social workers to assist with referrals for adult day-care programs, and help with legal, financial and emotional counseling. (Schulte, 11/16)
The New York Times:
One Drug Or 2? Parents See Risk But Also Hope
Ms. Kendle is torn over whether to have Matthias, just 6 and already taking the stimulant Adderall for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, go on a second and more potent medication: the antipsychotic Risperdal. Her dilemma is shared by a steadily rising number of American families who are using multiple psychotropic drugs — stimulants, antipsychotics, antidepressants and others — to temper their children’s troublesome behavior, even though many doctors who mix such medications acknowledge that little is known about the overall benefits and risks for children. (Schwarz, 11/14)