Podcast: KHN’s ‘What the Health?’ Republicans’ preexisting political problem

Ensuring that people with preexisting health conditions can get and keep health insurance has become one of the leading issues around the country ahead of this fall's midterm elections. And it has put Republicans in something of a bind — many either voted to repeal these coverage protections as part of the 2017 effort in Congress or have signed onto a lawsuit that would invalidate them.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration, eager to show progress regarding high prescription drug costs — another issue important to voters — has issued a regulation that would require prices to be posted as part of television drug advertisements.

Also this week: an interview with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a former member of Congress who is using his current post to pursue a long list of health initiatives.

This week's panelists for KHN's "What the Health?" are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Joanne Kenen of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week's podcast:

• Congress passed a package of bills addressing the nation's opioid epidemic on a rare note of bipartisanship. Many of the measures are designed to help prevent opioid addiction but are short on treatment options.
• Democrats have made health care — especially the protections for people with preexisting conditions — their central strategy in midterm campaigns. It's an issue that the GOP did not want to be campaigning on.
• Republicans say that despite their moves to destroy the federal health law, they would work to preserve coverage options for people with preexisting conditions. But they don't lay out what those options would be and earlier efforts have major loopholes, Democrats point out.
• The announcement by federal health officials this week that they want drug prices added to advertisements about the products is expected to have marginal effects because pricing is so complicated. If the federal government requires drugmakers to post their prices on ads, the manufacturers are widely expected to sue based on First Amendment issues.
• Open enrollment for Medicare began this week and runs until Dec. 7. Medicare Advantage, the private-plan option for enrollees, is becoming increasingly popular and now covers more than a third of Medicare beneficiaries.
• But while Medicare Advantage offers many benefits the traditional program does not — frequently including dental and foot care — a recent report from the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services finds that some of these plans may be wrongly denying care to Medicare patients. At the same time, Medicare beneficiaries who choose to use Medicare Advantage plans may be in for a shock if they later decide to switch back to the traditional form of Medicare. They may not be eligible at that point to buy a Medigap plan to help cover their cost sharing.

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ "Is Medicare for All the Answer to Sky-High Administrative Costs?" by Austin Frakt

Stephanie Armour: The Associated Press’ "Study: Without Medicaid Expansion, Poor Forgo Medical Care," by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

Rebecca Adams: The New Yorker’s "Rural Georgians Want Medicaid, But They're Divided on Stacey Abrams, the Candidate Who Wants to Expand It," by Charles Bethea

Joanne Kenen: Seven Days Vermont’s "Obituary: Madelyn Linsenmeir, 1988-2018."

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