The Obama administration is set to announce Friday an ambitious health-care experiment that will make Maryland a test case for whether aggressive government regulation of medical prices can dramatically cut health spending. Under the experiment, Maryland will cap hospital spending and set prices — and, if all goes as planned, cut $330 million in federal spending. The new plan, which has been under negotiation for more than a year, could leave Maryland looking more like Germany and Switzerland, which aggressively regulate prices, than its neighboring states. And it could serve as a model - or cautionary tale - for other states looking to follow in its footsteps.
When millions of health-insurance plans were canceled last fall, the Obama administration tried to be reassuring, saying the terminations affected only the small minority of Americans who bought individual policies. But according to industry analysts, insurers and state regulators, the disruption will be far greater, potentially affecting millions of people who receive insurance through small employers by the end of 2014. While some cancellation notices already have gone out, insurers say the bulk of the letters will be sent in October, shortly before the next open-enrollment period begins. The timing — right before the midterm elections — could be difficult for Democrats who are already fending off Republican attacks about the Affordable Care Act and its troubled rollout.
Paul D. Donahue and his wife, Angela, are among more than a million Americans who have signed up for health coverage through the federal insurance exchange. Mr. Donahue has a card in his wallet from his insurer to prove it. But when he tried to use it to get a flu shot and fill prescriptions this week, local pharmacies could not confirm his coverage, so he left without his medications. Similar problems are occurring daily in doctors' offices and drugstores around the country as consumers try to use insurance coverage that took effect on Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act.
The Obama administration is granting the consulting firm Accenture a contract worth between $90 million and $100 million for maintenance of the federal Obamacare website HealthCare.gov, two sources familiar with the contract told CBS News. Accenture will replace the original lead contractor responsible for the site, CGI, whose contract is expiring. The contract leaves the consulting firm responsible for the continued construction and maintenance of the site, with a special emphasis on "back-end" portions of the site that handle the transfer of data from users to insurers.
George Gresham was one of the first guests to arrive at Mayor de Blasio's inauguration. The president of the powerful health care workers union SEIU-1199 took a seat in the front row of the VIP section, tucked himself under a blue blanket and stared up at City Hall with a serene look on his face. "I've never been as excited to be there since 1990," Gresham said last week. "Maybe because it's been 20 years of Republican leadership, but more than that, I think it's because this is a progressive candidate and that's the core of who he is."
The House voted on Friday to strengthen security protections on the HealthCare.gov website, requiring all security breaches of the health insurance exchanges to be reported in a timely fashion. The bill — known as the "Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act" — passed largely on party lines, 291 to 122, with 67 Democrats voting for the legislation. The measure would require the health department to inform affected consumers within two business days of any possible breach of the federal or state exchanges. The legislation is the latest effort by Republicans to capitalize on troubled rollout of the president's signature health care law, which they view as a major weakness for President Obama and congressional Democrats.