Sunday is the deadline to sign up for Affordable Care Act, 'Obamacare'
Americans have until Sunday to sign up for health care coverage offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace — also known as ‘Obamacare’ — for 2025. Coverage would begin Jan. 1, 2025. The latest federal government data shows nearly 988,000 consumers who do not currently have health care coverage through the individual market Marketplace plans have signed up for coverage in 2025. Nearly 4.4 million existing consumers have returned to the Marketplace to select a plan for 2025. Anyone who does not actively renew will be automatically re-enrolled for 2025. Florida has almost 1.5 million people already signed up for a new plan or are existing customers who have signed up again. [Source: Health News Florida]
State wants authority from federal government for health care workforce training
Florida health care officials announced last week a plan to submit a sweeping Medicaid waiver request that would allow the state to spend $3 billion to bolster its medical workforce over five years. The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) posted details of its proposed Medicaid 1115 Demonstration Project waiver on Wednesday and gave the public until Jan. 24 to weigh in on the details. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services’ approval of the waiver would authorize Florida to implement four workforce development programs the Legislature passed earlier this year through the Live Healthy Act. [Source: Florida Phoenix]
Florida Trend Exclusive
Steward's fire sale
Eight Florida hospitals owned by Steward Health Care are getting new owners and management after the Dallas-based provider sold them off in bankruptcy proceedings. Steward, which had 30 hospitals nationally, reported $9 billion in debt. Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre reportedly is the subject of a federal investigation into allegations he raided company accounts to underwrite lavish travel and other personal expenses. Records indicate that executives received millions of dollars in pay and bonuses as the company failed to pay vendors and landlords. [Source: Florida Trend]
Floridians working for small businesses pay more for health insurance, report finds
The report from the independent health care research firm calculates that small business employees pay $2,235 more in deductibles for family plans than people working in companies with more than 50 employees. Although the discrepancy dents people’s wallets in all but three states, Florida ranks 19th with the highest deductible for family plans offered by small businesses in 2023, costing $5,813 annually. [Source: Florida Phoenix]
This drug is the 'breakthrough of the year.' It could end the HIV epidemic
Can we eliminate the HIV epidemic? It's a question that dates back to the start of the epidemic in the 1980s. With 1.3 million new infections a year, the epidemic continues … and the world is not on track to meet the ambitious U.N. goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030. But 2024 has fueled increasing optimism among leading infectious disease experts after the results of two groundbreaking clinical trial results for a drug called lenacapavir showed it to be capable of virtually eliminating new HIV infections through sex. [Source: WUSF]
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