What Caught Our Eye: ACA Open Enrollment Info, Tax Bill Eliminates Medical Expense Deduction, A Young Med Student’s Lymphoma Story

It’s Open Enrollment Season! Do You Know Your Health Insurance?

It’s officially “open enrollment season” and that means millions of Americans are about to dive into an alphabet soup of insurance choices. To help with this problem, Merck collaborated with health literacy experts to design a simple online guide to buying and using health care insurance that uses entertaining and interactive tools to teach consumers about insurance options that make sense for their families’ needs.
Go to the online guide »

“Get America Covered”

Why #GetCovered? Without health insurance, a trip to the emergency room could cost you more than a month’s rent. https://t.co/idN4K8F2GU pic.twitter.com/iek0wCDngm

— Get America Covered (@GetUSCovered) October 31, 2017

If you have coverage through HealthCare.gov, a state run ACA Marketplace, or off-Marketplace coverage, the headlines this year likely have filled you with anxiety. Was health care repealed, is your coverage at risk, are premiums going to be higher? Rest assured: the Marketplace is opening for business on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, and if you enroll you can count on your coverage through the end of 2018.
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“How Premiums are Changing in 2018”

Gold v Silver: In some counties, ACA marketplace consumers can get more generous coverage for lower premiums in 2018 https://t.co/y75lvqP7w6 pic.twitter.com/dINAPwM4E4

— KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) (@KFF) November 2, 2017

From Kaiser Family Foundation — Premiums are rising significantly in many counties across the country, in part due to the decision of the Trump Administration to cease payments to insurers for cost-sharing reductions. Insurer participation also declined in many areas, leaving more counties with only one insurer, which likely contributed to the high rate of premium growth.
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“Insurer “Gravy Train” May Actually Help a Lot of People”

Actually, most customers will be unharmed by Trump’s subsidy cutoff and some will be better off, @sangerkatz finds. https://t.co/eTbQue9nc8

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) October 19, 2017

By Margot Sanger-Katz, New York Times — Early in October, President Trump announced that he would stop making cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments, but now it looks as if the ACA won’t collapse without them – how could that be? Insurers and states found a way to avoid it.
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“GOP tax bill would eliminate medical expense deductions”

GOP tax bill would eliminate medical expense deductions https://t.co/d2lBsTrkL4 pic.twitter.com/tj3i1ZlQYr

— The Hill (@thehill) November 2, 2017

By Nathaniel Weixel — The House Republican tax bill would eliminate the ability for individuals to deduct qualified medical expenses, a provision that could have major implications for households with extremely high health-care costs.

Under current law, the IRS allows individuals to deduct qualified medical expenses that exceed 10 percent of a person’s adjusted gross income for the year. The bill would repeal that itemized deduction, effective in 2018.
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“Cancer Diagnosis Galvanizes a Medical Student”

I was really emotional as I reported this story of a young medical student who learned he had lymphoma — and… https://t.co/3lQKri5QF0

— Lucette Lagnado (@LucetteLagnado) October 21, 2017

By Lucette Lagnado, Wall Street Journal — How a support network—and a special bond with his doctor—helped a 22-year-old med student fight lymphoma.

Ari Bernstein was 22 years old and five months into his first semester at Albert Einstein College of Medicine when he learned he was sick. Sometime last November, he began noticing his neck was sore, and felt a lump at the base of his neck. When he had it checked in December, it turned out to be the tip of a roughly seven centimeter mass wrapped around his heart and trachea.
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“After Battling Cancer, She Spreads the Word on Genetic Testing”

Many thanks to @BostonGlobe and @GlobeWest for this opportunity to share my #BRCA story and Oneinforty's messages:https://t.co/pfcGxXkLRw

— Oneinforty (@oneinforty) October 27, 2017

By Steve Maas, Boston Globe — Lauren Corduck had been haunted by the fear of breast cancer. Her grandmother died of it at 56, and an aunt had it twice. Corduck had undergone annual mammograms since she was in her 20s. Last December, prodded by a friend, she received genetic counseling.