Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 11h

As people get sticker shock from letters about their new marketplace premiums and have to figure out what to do, it sure seems like it would be useful if there was a well-funded program to help people... navigate their options

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 11h

anyway I'm slowly emerging from having been on vacation slow couple news weeks huh

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 11h

Fundamentally the same dynamic as the ESI tax exclusion, which is famously politically untouchable — and which, as a tax expenditure, "costs" taxpayers about 10x the amount that extending enhanced subsidies is projected to cost

Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 11h

One political challenge for Republicans right now is that there is no constituency that directly benefits from allowing the ACA enhanced tax credits to expire. Yet, there are 22 million people who will see their out-of-pocket premiums go up.

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 13h

I saw that! It unfortunately is a little narrower than I was hoping for, though I just found this other Brookings blog post that might serve my purposes well enough www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

The true size of government is nearing a record high | Brookings

As the federal government has hovered close to two million employees for decades, the size of its grant and contract workforce has grown.

www.brookings.edu

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 13h

Does anyone have a favorite short, recent-ish, and US-centric reading on "shadow bureaucracy" or "shadow government" (the increasing role that consultancies and other private organizations play in public administration)?

Something like this paper, but more bite-sized

www.augustinepotter.com

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 17h

KFF finds partisan split on Tylenol

Most Republicans (56%) say they think it’s definitely or probably true that taking Tylenol during pregnancy increases the risk of kids with autism.

Most Dems (86%) say it’s definitely or probably false.

Multiple medical associations have said there’s no link.

KFF
Donate
Many Are Uncertain if Taking Tylenol During Pregnancy Increases Risk of Children
Developing Autism, Most Republicans Say it is Probably or Definitely True
Do you think that it is definitely true, probably true, probably false, or definitely false that taking Tylenol during pregnancy increases the risk of the child developing autism?
I Definitely true Probably true Probably false
Definitely false
Total
30%
30%
35%
Party ID
Democrats
27%
Independents
29%
59%
33%
Republicans
50%
34%
31%

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Ashley Kirzinger @ashleykirzinger.bsky.social · 15h

This is why I think there is widespread support for continuing the enhanced premium tax credits. It is less about the connection to the ACA and more about people's overwhelming concerns about the cost of health care.

Want to see health care rank as a top voting issue again? Ask about cost.

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 16h

Useful new analysis from @mattafiedler.bsky.social: A specific — and arguably particularly consequential — effect of allowing enhanced ACA subsidies to lapse is that net-$0 plans would become far less available.

Matt estimates this change, alone, would cause over 400,000 people to lose coverage.

How would eliminating $0 Marketplace premiums affect insurance coverage? | Brookings

www.brookings.edu

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 18h

Nothing shows the dangerous tendency to normalize authoritarianism like the New York Times coverage of the extortion of Harvard. One could read this article and think it is about a free agent inking a contract with the Yankees. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

Harvard Seeks Assurances as Talks Restart in Washington

www.nytimes.com

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Alexander Tsai, MD @drdrtsai.bsky.social · 16h

From @ryanenos.bsky.social & Levitsky: “Predictably, the extortionist has returned for more. The reward for capitulation was more extortion.”
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Harvard Must Take a Stand Against Trump’s Compact | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

Harvard, rather than quietly pursuing its own appeasement strategy, should lead the way to preserve academic freedom and democracy.

www.thecrimson.com

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Rachel Sachs @rachelsachs.bsky.social · 1d

Now up at Health Affairs Forefront, Kristi Martin and I analyze CMS's final guidance for the 2028 cycle of the Medicare drug price negotiation program, including key provisions that CMS both did and did not change from the draft guidance. www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...

Administration Releases Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program Final Guidance For 2028 | Health Affairs Forefront

The final guidance for the 2028 cycle of the Medicare drug price negotiation reflects CMS’s continued effort to balance statutory requirements with transparency, responsiveness to stakeholder input, a...

www.healthaffairs.org

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Julie Rovner @julierovner.bsky.social · 2d

Sir, you signed the law guaranteeing back pay for furloughed workers in 2018...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Q: Is it the White House's position that furloughed workers should get backpay?

TRUMP: I would say it depends on who we're talking about

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 3d

Alternative is that he’s shooting from the hip based on knowing the marketplace integrity rule (1) proposed a number of policies purportedly targeting fraudulent enrollment and (2) asserted that the rule on balance ~could~ improve the risk pool, but (2) was all hand-waving and contrary to research

Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 3d

The most charitable interpretation, I think, is that he was confusing individual premiums and net federal spending on APTCs, but the question pretty clearly seems to be about the former!

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 3d

Zero-claim enrollees would be risk-pool-improving and premium-reducing.

Reasonable people can debate whether/to what extent the increase in zero-claim enrollees might reflect increased broker-driven fraudulent enrollment, but not whether that enrollment increases (individual) premiums.

Sarah Karlin-Smith @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social · 3d

Oz seems to suggest there are very large number of people who have ACA plans who don't file claims in any year - suggesting fraud going on and this is why premiums are going up.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.bsky.social · 3d

The number of international students arriving in the U.S. in August fell by 19 percent this year compared with last year — the largest decline on record outside of the pandemic.

Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August (Gift Article)

The data shows the steepest decline in August international student arrivals since the pandemic.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 4d

This is a really outstanding post. "That’s the point of the compact. .... It is about control. Specifically it is about turning existing federal law, over which the administration has limited control, into terms of a 'deal' that offers the government much more control."

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 5d

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 3d

This Data for Progress survey gets at this more directly.

www.dataforprogress.org/insights/202...

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 3d

Key (big!) caveat is that we didn’t directly evaluate whether people understood that MassHealth (or whatever it is in their state) = Medicaid. The motivation for the survey when we conducted it — untethered from *gestures* all this — was about measuring program support, not policy literacy.

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 5d

Happily @adrianna.bsky.social and colleagues have this covered in @jhppl.bsky.social : read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 3d

Key (big!) caveat is that we didn’t directly evaluate whether people understood that MassHealth (or whatever it is in their state) = Medicaid. The motivation for the survey when we conducted it — untethered from *gestures* all this — was about measuring program support, not policy literacy.

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 3d

“The whole point of EMTALA is that when you get a person at the door, you stabilize them before you ask them any effing questions.”

www.thebulwark.com/p/government...

Congress ultimately addressed both needs, by putting EMTALA and the Emergency Medicaid initiative into 1986 budget legislation.4 And although Vance, in a Fox interview last week, described Emergency Medicaid as a “Biden-era” program, it was signed into law by the Republican who was in the White House at the time: conservative patron saint Ronald Reagan.

Leavitt herself seemed to acknowledge that on Friday, when another reporter asked her a question similar to the one she got from NBC News: “Is it the administration’s position that hospitals should not have to treat people who come to ERs who are not here legally?”

“No,” she said, “that’s not our position.” Just like that, she conceded the rationale for EMTALA and Emergency Medicaid—and acknowledged that the Trump administration actually supports taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants. Maybe someone should tell JD Vance.

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Reposted by Adrianna McIntyre

Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 7d

The false idea that Democrats, in pushing to reverse Medicaid and ACA cuts, are advocating for an expansion of health care for undocumented immigrants is maybe the biggest health policy distortion since the supposed "death panels" in Obamacare.

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 11d

It’s that time of year again: The information session for Harvard’s PhD in Health Policy will be held a month from today, on Tuesday, October 28.

Register here (recording will be available for those who can’t make it): harvard.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 15d

Appending the correct link to the end of this thread; the link at the top is to the accompanying editorial

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Health Insurance Dynamics During Childhood in the US

This decision analytical modeling study aimed to estimate childhood insurance outcomes, including the proportions of those who had ever been enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP or had ever been uninsured.

jamanetwork.com

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