On October 25, 2017, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on the Bipartisan Health Care Stabilization Act of 2017, which is now under consideration within the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. 

On October 10, 2017, the Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a child welfare case about kinship placements decided in January 2017 in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit Court ruled on January 27, 2017, that kinship foster families are entitled to the same foster care maintenance payments as unrelated foster parents. D.O., et al. v. Glisson, No. 16-5461 (6th Cir. Jan. 27, 2017). 

PCG subject matter experts were in Portland, Oregon last week at the 30th annual #NASHPCONF17. With a focus on guiding state policy makers though the changing health policy landscape, #NASHPCONF17 provided a break from the day to day, reactionary work to adjust to federal policy. 

There were several significant health policy developments at the Federal level this month, including a Presidential Executive Order, the announcement that the administration will no longer fund Cost Sharing Reductions (CSRs) and the release of the bipartisan effort to stabilize health insurance markets known as the Alexander-Murray bill.