Latest news with #RonWyden
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Nearly 11M would become uninsured under GOP reconciliation bill: CBO
This story was originally published on Healthcare Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Healthcare Dive newsletter. Nearly 11 million more people would be uninsured in 2034 under the budget reconciliation bill passed by the House, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday. The analysis from the nonpartisan budget scorekeeper found 7.8 million would lose coverage due to cuts to the safety-net insurance program Medicaid. Provisions under the House Energy and Commerce Committee's purview, including the Medicaid policy changes, would lower the federal deficit by $1 trillion. But the bill overall would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion, according to the CBO. The House narrowly advanced the legislation, which includes a number of healthcare provisions including sweeping cuts to Medicaid, late last month. One of the major changes to the safety-net insurance program would mandate beneficiaries report work, education or volunteer hours with their state to stay enrolled in coverage. That provision alone would decrease federal spending by $344 billion, according to the CBO. Additionally, the bill would require states to check enrollees' eligibility for Medicaid more frequently, and reduce federal support for states that use their own funds to offer insurance to undocumented immigrants. The CBO estimates 1.4 million people without verified citizenship would lose coverage under these programs in 2034. The legislation also includes provisions linked to the Affordable Care Act, like ending the annual open enrollment period earlier and preventing beneficiaries who are automatically reenrolled in exchange plans from claiming subsidies. The CBO estimates 1.3 million people would lose coverage due to ACA provisions under Energy and Commerce, while 2.3 million would become uninsured due to the healthcare policies in the Ways and Means portion of the bill. Overall, the coverage losses under the bill would roll back about half of the insurance gains made in the U.S. since the ACA, Loren Adler, a fellow and associate director at the Brookings Institution's Center on Health Policy, wrote on X Wednesday morning. The nation's uninsurance rate fell to a record low following the COVID-19 pandemic, boosted by policies that kept beneficiaries continuously enrolled in Medicaid and enhanced financial assistance for coverage on the ACA exchanges. The number of uninsured ticked up last year as those changes expired, but it remained much lower than with pre-ACA rates. Democrats have lambasted the legislation, arguing it would reduce healthcare access among the poor to provide tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. 'The Republican health agenda is all about making it harder to get health care,' Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal, D-Mass., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., said in a joint statement Wednesday. 'The results of this cruel system are clear: millions will lose coverage, health care costs will go up for all Americans, and tens of thousands will die.' Hospital groups have also criticized the legislation, as more uninsured patients would likely increase uncompensated care and hit their bottom lines — especially among safety-net and rural providers. Providers could lose more than $770 billion in revenue over the next decade under the bill, according to an analysis published last week by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. But Republican lawmakers and administration officials have argued the legislation preserves Medicaid for the most vulnerable beneficiaries by cutting out able-bodied enrollees and undocumented immigrants and reducing fraud, waste and abuse in the program. Still, GOP lawmakers like Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have raised concerns about the bill, saying it's a political poison pill that would strip Medicaid coverage from their own voters. The legislation is now under consideration in the Senate, where lawmakers could change some of its provisions. GOP leaders hope to have the bill on President Donald Trump's desk by July 4. Recommended Reading House passes reconciliation bill with massive Medicaid cuts
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Humana to back curbs to Medicare Advantage billing practices, WSJ reports
(Reuters) -Humana has told congressional staffers that it will support moves that would curtail billing practices worth billions in extra payments to the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing staffers and a document viewed by it. The company is willing to back new limits on lucrative payments insurers can gain from diagnoses recorded by nurse practitioners who visit millions of enrollees in their homes, according to a one-page policy overview shared with the staffers, the WSJ reported on Thursday. Humana did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Nearly half of the 65 million people covered by Medicare, the U.S. program for people aged 65 and older or with disabilities, are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers. Insurers are paid a set rate for each patient, but can be paid more for patients with multiple health conditions. Last fall, staff working for Senators Mike Crapo and Ron Wyden, the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, contacted Medicare Advantage insurers for suggestions on legislative steps that would address the potential misuse of home visits described in Journal articles, the newspaper reported citing people familiar with the matter. The Journal reported in February that the U.S. Department of Justice was examining UnitedHealth's practices for recording diagnoses that trigger extra payments to its Medicare Advantage plans. The healthcare conglomerate had then said it was unaware of any new probe. The WSJ has run a series of stories over the last several months detailing how UnitedHealth profited from using Medicare billing rules to its favor. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Humana to back curbs to Medicare Advantage billing practices, WSJ reports
(Reuters) -Humana has told congressional staffers that it will support moves that would curtail billing practices worth billions in extra payments to the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing staffers and a document viewed by it. The company is willing to back new limits on lucrative payments insurers can gain from diagnoses recorded by nurse practitioners who visit millions of enrollees in their homes, according to a one-page policy overview shared with the staffers, the WSJ reported on Thursday. Humana did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Nearly half of the 65 million people covered by Medicare, the U.S. program for people aged 65 and older or with disabilities, are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers. Insurers are paid a set rate for each patient, but can be paid more for patients with multiple health conditions. Last fall, staff working for Senators Mike Crapo and Ron Wyden, the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, contacted Medicare Advantage insurers for suggestions on legislative steps that would address the potential misuse of home visits described in Journal articles, the newspaper reported citing people familiar with the matter. The Journal reported in February that the U.S. Department of Justice was examining UnitedHealth's practices for recording diagnoses that trigger extra payments to its Medicare Advantage plans. The healthcare conglomerate had then said it was unaware of any new probe. The WSJ has run a series of stories over the last several months detailing how UnitedHealth profited from using Medicare billing rules to its favor.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Top Dems claim 51K people will die annually from the 'big beautiful bill' and its Obamacare freeze
Two top Democrats claimed the Republicans' budget reconciliation bill and its proposal to let enhanced Obamacare credits expire will cause the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced findings that an estimated 51,000 Americans could die each year due to Republican-led changes to the federal healthcare system and the broader reconciliation bill. The national debt — which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — fell to $36,214,400,664,854.53 as of June 3rd, according to the latest numbers published by the Treasury Department. That is down about $1.4 billion from the figure reported the previous day. Wyden called the "stakes" of the 'big, beautiful bill' debate "truly life and death," as a statement from his office read that "a new analysis estimates that more than 51,000 people will die per year as a direct result of the Republican reconciliation bill, and their refusal to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits." "Taking away health insurance and benefits like home care and mental healthcare from seniors, people with disabilities, kids, and working families will be deadly," Wyden said. "This analysis shows the dire consequences of moving ahead with this morally bankrupt effort," he said, referring to a study he and Sanders asked the University of Pennsylvania and Yale to conduct. The Democrats employed the Philadelphia college's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, as well as the Yale School of Public Health's Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis. "Let's be clear," Sanders said in a statement, "The Republican reconciliation bill which makes massive cuts to Medicaid in order to pay for huge tax breaks for billionaires is not just bad public policy." "It is not just immoral. It is a death sentence for struggling Americans." "[N]ot only will some of the most vulnerable people throughout our country suffer, but tens of thousands will die. We cannot allow that to happen," Sanders added. In a copy of the study posted on UPenn's website, economics and health-centric academics found 7.7 million people would be estimated to lose Medicaid or Obamacare coverage by 2034, and 1.38 million "dual-eligible beneficiaries" would find themselves "disenroll[ed]." In a statement, Wyden cited figures of 11,300 deaths from the loss of Medicaid or Obamacare coverage, 18,200 deaths from the loss of Medicaid coverage among low-income beneficiaries and 13,000 deaths of Medicaid enrollees in nursing homes due to the rollback of a "nursing home minimum staffing rule" from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Wyden attributed an additional projected 8,811 deaths per year to the "failure to extend the enhanced [Obamacare] premium tax credits," citing the academics' analysis. Fox News Digital reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., -- who spearheaded the "big, beautiful bill" in the House -- for comment. A representative for UPenn told Fox News Digital the university sent the results of their analysis to Wyden and Sanders in response to a request on the matter. "The estimates of mortality that are contained in the letter were based on peer-review research that was done independently and well before their request," the UPenn representative said. "The senators' request was to take the research results and translate into the estimated number of deaths."
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
US Congress budget office sees economic output falling from Trump tariffs
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. economic output will fall as a result of President Donald Trump's new tariffs on foreign goods that were in place as of May 13, while also reducing federal budget deficits by $2.8 trillion over a decade, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. In a letter to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and two other high-ranking Democrats, the CBO said the tariffs, which have been challenged in court cases, will raise the costs of consumer and capital goods. "CBO estimates that, on net, real (inflation-adjusted) economic output in the United States will fall as a result," the agency said. "Inflation will increase by an annual average of 0.4 percentage points in 2025 and 2026, in CBO's estimation, reducing the purchasing power of households and businesses," the letter to Schumer and Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley stated. Wyden is the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and Merkley is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. The three senators requested the CBO analysis on the impact of the Trump administration's tariffs implemented between Jan. 6 and May 13 through executive actions. The CBO's inflation estimates were compared to an economic outlook published by the CBO on January 17. The analysis was completed before two courts ruled that the tariffs exceeded the president's authority to impose them. The administration has asked an appeals court to pause one of the rulings.
