The AFL-CIO is asking for changes to the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's landmark health-care overhaul, potentially opening fissures between the White House and one of its staunch political allies. The largest U.S. labor federation approved a resolution yesterday urging amendments to the law in a voice vote on the final day of its quadrennial convention in Los Angeles. The action by the AFL-CIO, which endorsed the law when it passed in 2010, adds to the political challenges facing the Obama administration as it implements the law. Republicans have vowed to block the union-backed changes, making it unlikely they could get through Congress.
The outreach workers known as navigators won't be allowed to help people sign up for health insurance on the grounds of county health departments, according to a memo from the Florida Department of Health. The order from Deputy Health Secretary C. Meade Grigg went out late Monday to the 60 local health department directors across the state. Grigg declined to comment on the directive. But health department spokeswoman Ashley Carr said there was a need for "clarity" and "a consistent message" across the agency.
Your company may be having second thoughts about the health insurance it offers to your spouse. That means you might wind up paying more for that coverage or have to switch your spouse to another plan as early as next year. Some employers are considering adding a surcharge to cover the health care expenses of their workers' spouses. Others, like package deliverer United Parcel Service Inc., are excluding spouses from coverage if they are able to get insurance through another employer. Twenty percent of nearly 600 large employers in a survey completed earlier this year charged a spousal surcharge in 2013.
BAY ST. LOUIS -- On the heels of Hancock Medical Center entering a 90-day management agreement with the Ochsner Health System, Tuesday's press conference outlined the task at hand. The press conference came less than a week after Quorum Health Resources' management agreement with Hancock Medical was terminated by the hospital's board of trustees. "Ochsner takes it as a great responsibility and a privilege to be asked to come in here and assist," said Ochsner-North Shore Region CEO and new Hancock Medical Center CEO Polly Davenport.
Gov. Bobby Jindal's privatization of the LSU-run public hospital network is bringing in $39 million less in lease payments for the facilities than expected this year, according to a report from the Legislature's financial analysts that is disputed by the Jindal administration. The budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 was built on estimates provided to lawmakers by the Jindal administration that anticipated the new hospital managers would lease those facilities and their clinics for more than $140 million.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Set on a gritty corner of Oakland's International Boulevard, the nonprofit Street Level Health Project offers free checkups to patients who speak a total of 22 languages, from recent Mongolian immigrants seeking a doctor to Burmese refugees in need of a basic dental exam. It also provides a window into one of the challenges for state officials who are trying to implement the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul. Understanding the law is a challenge even for governors, state lawmakers and agency officials, but delivering its message to non-English speakers who can benefit from it is shaping up as a special complication.