Health Policy News is once again dedicating our December edition to reflecting on the past year’s high-profile healthcare topics—providing context, summarizing recent developments, and predicting what activity is in store for these issues in the coming year. HPN editors Lisa Kaplan Howe and Margot Thistle have dedicated this edition to reflect on 2019 and forecast 2020’s top policy trends, as well as providing a preview into what’s to come for Health Policy News.

Overall, Health Policy News expanded our content offerings in 2019 and adapted to the changing way readers gather information. Our top articles in 2019 (listed and linked below) reflect that readers enjoyed the variety of new content we covered and we hope to bring you more of it in 2020.

Our Top Stories of 2019

1. Eat Your Veggies!

2. Update on Medicaid Public Buy-In Efforts: Public Impressions and Specific Approaches to Medicaid Buy-In

3. 2019 Brings Progress on Prescription Drug Cost Control Efforts at State and Federal Level

4. Critical Incident Management Solutions in Medicaid Long-Term Care

5. HCBS Conference Recap: Topics, Trends and Takeaways from PCG

To ensure that Health Policy News continues to meet the needs of our readers in 2020, we’ve created a quick survey to gather input on what blog content you’ve enjoyed—as well as what you’d like to see more of in the future. Click here to submit a response, and thank you in advance for your time.

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What I Predict for 2020

Margot Thistle: Continued Focus on Ensuring Access to Healthcare, Prescription Drugs, and Healthy Food to Combat Diet-Related Illness

Over the past year, Health Policy News readers were drawn to topics that were also top of mind for many policy makers—innovative solutions to complex problems like health costs and expanding access to healthcare. As we look forward to 2020, HPN revisits popular topics that will continue to require attention and state-level solutions (some of which may eventually be used by other states as a guide).

Click here to read Margot’s overview of the latest developments and 2020 predictions on topics we have followed this past year including updates on Medicaid Buy-In programs, Wholesome Wave’s partnership with Connecticut to bring fresh produce to patients in need and Vermont’s submission of a concept paper to the federal government detailing plans for a state prescription drug import program.

Lisa Kaplan Howe: More State Waivers and Activity Related to Major Health Policy Litigation and Federal Regulations

Many major health policy developments in 2019 were related to state waivers, major health policy litigation, and federal health insurance regulations, with activity on these issues expected to continue into 2020. One of these developments—this week’s new ruling in the Texas v. United States case challenging the validity of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—is certain to draw significant interest and attention as we move into the coming year.

Click here to view Lisa’s recap of the ruling and other important 2019 health policy happenings across these three major categories, as well as predictions of what next year will bring.

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We hope everyone has a restful end of 2019, and we look forward to hearing from you all in 2020.