skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Affordable Health-Care Bills Facing Final Negotiations in Olympia

play audio
Play

Tuesday, April 9, 2019   

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state's bid to expand health care coverage to all is in its final stages of negotiations at the Capitol. Cascade Care is Gov. Jay Inslee's proposed plan to provide affordable insurance to all Washingtonians.

Bills have passed in both the House and Senate, but Ashley Sutton, health policy associate with the Economic Opportunity Institute, said she’s concerned a version currently moving through the Legislature has been stripped of the provisions that gave Cascade Care its teeth, including a cap on provider reimbursement rates at Medicare levels. She said studies have shown this measure would drive down premiums for everyone.

"When we cap the reimbursement rate at Medicare levels, we see what's called the spillover effect, where it actually creates cost reductions across the entire health insurance market,” Sutton said. “So, essentially, people on employer-sponsored insurance, private insurance, would also see the benefits."

Health industry groups have opposed the cap because they believe the rate is set too low.

Sutton said the bill as amended also weakens an original provision that created state-designed standard plans through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange by allowing non-standard plans to be offered after 2025. She said the standard plan provision was a key component for bringing down deductibles.

Suttons said Washington state's top ten health insurance executives earned nearly $80 million combined in 2018.

"This industry can afford to rein in cost without harming Washington families,” she said. “And so the Medicare reimbursement provision as well as the standard plan design are both components we need to have."

The legislative session is scheduled to end on April 28.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021