Medicare For All plans from Warren, Sanders get challenged

Although Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders both really want Medicare for All to be a thing, they’re getting attacked from all angles (even SNL). Their fellow candidates (AKA Biden, Buttigieg, others) are seizing the moment and challenging certain aspects of the individual plans, especially Warren’s. Read what Biden’s camp had to say about her health plan:

“Her plan would create a new tax on employers of almost $9 trillion that would come out of workers’ pockets, a new financial transaction tax that would impact investments held by middle class Americans, and a new capital gains tax that would affect far more people than she stated tonight,” Biden said in a statement on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Bernie, while less in the spotlight currently is mumbling in the corner about not having to explain how he’s planning to pay for the estimated $30 trillion policy proposal.

Trump Administration gets cold feet on price transparency rule.

In a big win for providers, the Trump Administration delayed its hospital price transparency proposal, which would have forced hospitals to disclose negotiated rates with insurers to the public.

CMS says screw federal judges, we’re doing site neutral payments. AND we’re cutting 340b payments.

In other CMS news, the agency is planning to move forward with site-neutral payment policy despite losing a court case on the matter earlier this year.

In a double whammy to hospitals, they’re also slashing 340b payments, which is a program designed to reimburse hospitals for drugs used on poor and underserved populations.

Read the ModernHealthcare article covering both policies here.

Federal judge blocks immigration rule that would have required immigrants to show they have or can afford health insurance

Finally, remember that healthcare rule that would have required new immigrants to prove that they had healthcare before being approved? A federal judge blocked that bad boy this week.