Despite pressure to vote on the recently amended American Health Care Act (ACHA) prior to the President’s 100th day in office, House Republican leadership has signaled that the vote would be delayed until next week. Recall, an overview of the MacArthur amendment was shared earlier; however, official language was introduced this week. The amendments allow…
Read More »Recent reports suggest the Trump Administration is pressuring House Republicans to move swiftly to repeal the Affordable Care Act before the President’s 100th day in office (April 29). While rumors of potential deals have surfaced, it appears no vote has been scheduled. However, Congress will officially return to Capitol Hill next Tuesday, following a two-week…
Read More »The Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) issued a report entitled A Funding Crisis for Public Health and Safety this week which found that inflation-adjusted funding for disease prevention and health promotion programs has declined by approximately $580 million at the federal level and has remained flat in states since 2010. Notable findings of the report…
Read More »House Republicans continue to strategize on ways to revive the American Health Care Act (AHCA) which came to a sudden halt two weeks ago due to a lack of votes. This week, Republicans participated in two all-day sessions with Administration officials in hopes of finding a pathway forward. One amendment did emerge this week to…
Read More »Recently, the Trump Administration released more detail on the proposed cuts offered in their recent Skinny Budget release. The above linked chart presents a variety of Federal Fiscal Year 2017 “reduction options.” Included in these recommendations, is a proposed current year cut to the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) grants of $49 million (page 10)…
Read More »This has been an action-packed week for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which was met with increased resistance. Several amendments were introduced to appease the concerns of the Freedom Caucus, that the AHCA does not do enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Congressional Budget Office released their updated budget score of…
Read More »The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), released a preliminary fiscal analysis of the Medicaid provisions included in the House Republican repeal and replacement bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA). According to the department, the federal proposal would result in nearly $6 billion ($4.3 B GF) in costs to California in 2020, increasing…
Read More »This week, Seema Verma was sworn into office as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Verma and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price cosigned a letter to state Governors intended to affirm their partnership in improving Medicaid and those served by the program. However, the letter perhaps signals key…
Read More »Yesterday, the House Budget Committee advanced the House Republicans’ American Health Care Act (AHCA), with a vote of 19 to 17, with Democrats and three Republicans voting ‘no’. The AHCA advanced despite the release of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score this past Monday, which estimates 14 million people would become uninsured in 2018, increasing…
Read More »On Wednesday, the Trump Administration released a budget blueprint outlining their priority budget changes for Federal Fiscal Year 2018. Significant cuts are proposed to discretionary funding for a variety of federal departments including the Environmental Protection Agency (31%), the State Department (29%), and the Department of Health & Human Services (17.9%), among many others. In…
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