News 2013
Five Things To Know About Obamacare Premiums: A Guide For The Perplexed
Premiums will skyrocket next year! Premiums will be lower than expected! Premiums will be about the same!
Consumers are understandably confused after weeks of conflicting pronouncements about the expected cost of plans, for individuals and small groups, to be sold in new online insurance marketplaces under the federal health law beginning Oct. 1.
Read more: Five Things To Know About Obamacare Premiums: A Guide For The Perplexed
HIV and Illicit Drugs Interact to Affect Verbal Learning and Memory
HIV infection and illicit drug use—usually smoking crack cocaine—appeared to have a compound negative impact on verbal learning and memory in a study of almost 1,400 women with and without HIV in the US Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS).
Read more: HIV and Illicit Drugs Interact to Affect Verbal Learning and Memory
Officials Face Obamacare 'Data Hub' Questions On Capitol Hill
Mary Agnes Carey speaks with Politico Pro's Jennifer Haberkorn about two House committee meetings on Capitol Hill Thursday where IRS and CMS officials faced questions about implementing a system to verify consumer income under the health law. (Click here to listen to the podcast of this conversation.)
Read more: Officials Face Obamacare 'Data Hub' Questions On Capitol Hill
In This Issue
This week we run three stories about the Affordable Care Act.
We begin with a look at Arizona governor Jan Brewer's decision to walk back her very vocal opposition to the ACA and to have her state participate in one of its key provisions--Medicaid expansion--after all. We also learn about the dramatic price reductions Maryland will offer its residents when its health insurance marketplace opens this October 1st and look at the work volunteer canvassers with nonprofit Enroll America are doing in Florida to prepare uninsured residents to participate in that state's marketplace.
Arizona's Reluctant Support of the Affordable Care Act Challenged by Conservatives
After the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in June 2012, Arizona Gov. Janice "Jan" K. Brewer voiced her displeasure and suggested that Arizona--like many other Republican-led states--wouldn't just go along with the program. Brewer's stance was like that of many other Republican leaders when she said in a statement (pdf): "Today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court flies in the face of what most Americans know to be true: ObamaCare is an overreaching and unaffordable assault on states' rights and individual liberty."
Read more: Arizona's Reluctant Support of the Affordable Care Act Challenged by Conservatives