Though the Trump administration yesterday released a budget for the next fiscal year, federal spending for 2019 was largely determined earlier this month when Congress passed a two-year budget that was signed by the president. From a health care standpoint, the two-year congressional budget deal takes some important steps forward, including extending the Children’s Health Insurance Program. However, Congress missed other opportunities to move health care forward, for example, by failing to stabilize the private health insurance markets. On To the Point, Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., looks at the bill’s important health care provisions, and where it missed the mark.

The Trump administration laid out a package of proposals to lower prescription drug costs in the president’s budget for fiscal year 2019. In a post on To the Point, former U.S. congressman Henry Waxman, Bill Corr, and Kristi Martin explain that as a package, the proposals could help decrease patient costs for drugs and reduce federal spending. However, not all the president’s proposals are designed to lower drug prices or have the same impact on patients and federal spending. The authors offer a close look at the policy changes and any associated savings, which affect Medicaid, Medicare, and other programs.

Last month, Idaho Governor Butch Otter issued an executive order directing the state’s insurance department to authorize state-based health benefit plans that comply with Idaho insurance requirements that existed before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — but not with the ACA itself, as health law expert Timothy S. Jost explains.

In the new issue of Health Affairs, Commonwealth Fund–supported researchers discuss how effectively accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other new care delivery models use data to drive innovation, and how many ACOs have come to rely on management partners to provide essential services.

• Data-Driven Diffusion of Innovations: Successes and Challenges in Three Large-Scale Innovative Delivery Models. By David A. Dorr, Deborah J. Cohen, and Julia Adler-Milstein.
• The Hidden Roles That Management Partners Play in Accountable Care Organizations. By Valerie A. Lewis, Thomas D’Aunno, Genevra F. Murray, Stephen M. Shortell, and Carrie H. Colla.

We don’t yet know how the recently announced health care collaboration between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase will help these firms’ employees gain lower-cost, higher-quality care. But in an op-ed published in The Hill, Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., says that despite their size, the three companies simply don’t have enough market power to bend the national health system to their will.

The latest International Health News Brief, which covers health policy news in select countries, includes reports on major private health insurance reforms in Australia, Ontario’s expansion of home care insurance, and more.

States are increasingly turning to managed care to deliver services to their Medicaid beneficiaries, including those with complex needs. This recent issue brief by David Machledt of the National Health Law Program looks at how Medicaid managed care plans and their contracting providers can leverage revised regulations to help beneficiaries dealing with issues like housing insecurity and poor nutrition that take a toll on health.