Julie Appleby, KFF Health News

A blockbuster lawsuit from the federal Department of Justice alleges that insurers Aetna, Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), and Humana paid “hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks” to large insurance brokerages eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote. The payments, made from 2016 to at least 2021, were incentives to steer patients into the insurer’s Medicare Advantage plans, the lawsuit alleges, while discouraging enrollment of potentially more costly disabled beneficiaries.

All the insurers and brokers named in the case have denied the allegations and say they will fight them in court.

Policy experts say the lawsuit, filed May 1, will add fuel to long-running concerns about whether Medicare enrollees are being encouraged to select the coverage that is best for them — or the one that makes the most money for the broker. ...

Tim Winard knew he needed to buy health insurance when he left his management job in manufacturing to launch his own business.

It was the first time he had shopped around for coverage, searching for a plan that would cover him and his wife, who was also between jobs at the time.

“We were so nervous about not being on a company-provided plan,” Winard said. ...

“On Feb. 25, I voted yes on a budget resolution that protects Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid while cutting some spending elsewhere.”

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY), in a YouTube video posted March 4, 2025

On Feb. 25, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) voted in favor of a House budget resolution that calls for sharp cuts in spending across a vast array of government areas. Medicaid is among the programs that could be at risk — catapulting it to the center of the political debate. ...

During her annual OB-GYN visit, Callie Anderson asked about getting off the birth control pill.

“We decided the best option for me was an IUD,” she said, referring to an intrauterine device, a long-acting, reversible type of birth control.

Anderson, 25, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, asked her doctor how much it might cost. At the time, she was working in a U.S. senator’s local office and was covered under her father’s insurance through a plan offered to retired state police. ...

Donald Trump could have destroyed the Affordable Care Act, but “he chose to build upon [it].”

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on “Meet the Press,” Sept. 15

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Sept. 15 told viewers of NBC’s “Meet the Press” that former President Donald Trump built up the Affordable Care Act, even though Trump could have chosen to do the opposite....