After dozens of previous attempts, the House voted 240-181 to repeal core elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Wednesday. The largely symbolic measure will now be sent to President Obama's desk. The President has already vowed to veto the bill.
Aetna, one of the nation's largest health insurers, announced Tuesday that it is leaving the insurer trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, dealing a blow to a powerful Washington lobbying group. "Aetna has decided not to renew our AHIP membership for 2016," said Aetna spokeswoman Cynthia Michener. "We will continue to partner with groups that are working, as we are, toward expanding access to high-quality, affordable healthcare." Aetna is the third-largest health insurance company in the United States and is attempting to merge with Humana, another one of the top five for-profit insurers.
Here is the surest way to enjoy the peace of mind that comes with having health insurance: Don't get sick. The number of uninsured Americans has fallen by an estimated 15 million since 2013, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act. But a new survey, the first detailed study of Americans struggling with medical bills, shows that insurance often fails as a safety net. Health plans often require hundreds or thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket payments — sums that can create a cascade of financial troubles for the many households living paycheck to paycheck.
Approvals for first-of-a-kind drugs climbed last year, pushing the annual tally of new U.S. drugs to its highest level in 19 years. The rising figures reflect an industry-wide focus on drugs for rare and hard-to-treat diseases, which often come with streamlined reviews, extra patent protections and higher price tags. The Food and Drug Administration approved 45 drugs with never-before-sold ingredients in 2015, edging past the previous year's tally of 41, which had been the highest number since 1996. FDA drug approvals are considered a barometer of industry innovation and the government's efficiency in reviewing new therapies.
The average salary for healthcare workers in executive, management and other professional positions topped $111,000 in 2015, according to the recently released 2015 HIMSS Compensation Survey by the nonprofit Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, though there is a close to $30,000 gap between what men and women earn in the field. Men, on average, earn $126,262, compared to $100,762 for women, in the survey of 1,900 healthcare professionals that includes CEOs, CIOs, IT project managers, sales professionals and those with clinical titles such as CMIO and Clinical Systems Analyst.
Low-income adults in Kentucky and Arkansas have had similar improvements in access to medical care under the Affordable Care Act, a new study found, despite the two states' differing approaches to expanding Medicaid. Both states expanded their Medicaid programs in 2014 to cover most adults with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty level, as the health law allows. While new enrollees in Kentucky joined its traditional Medicaid program, Arkansas chose to buy private coverage for poor people through the new federal insurance marketplace using federal Medicaid funds, a model that several other states have since followed.