Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: January 21, 2020
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
For 2020, California Goes Big On Health Care
California lawmakers are proposing ambitious health care ideas, from creating a state generic drug label to banning the sale of flavored e-cigarette products. Even though Democrats control state government, they’re likely to face pushback from powerful health care industry groups like hospitals.
Diagnosed With Dementia, She Documented Her Wishes. They Said No.
Across the U.S., people with early dementia are signing new advance directives to confirm their end-of-life wishes while they still have the ability to do so. But doctors say the documents may offer a false sense of security.
Opinion writers tackle these and other health issues.
Longer Looks: Schizophrenia, ‘Forever Chemicals,’ The Story Behind The Ebola Vaccine And More
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Media outlets report on news from Colorado, District of Columbia, Utah, Massachusetts, California, Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa, South Dakota, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, New York, Missouri, and Ohio.
Judge Approves Bankruptcy Plan For Opioid-Maker Insys
The case was being closely observed because it could predict Purdue Pharma’s fate. News on the epidemic is also on Minnesota’s new efforts to treat overdoses and save lives.
Gov. Ralph Northam has already declared a state of emergency and has temporarily banned firearms from Capitol Square in Richmond ahead of Monday’s gun rally, which has drawn national attention among the pro-gun rights movement.
Can House Ways And Means Committee Break Through Gridlock On Hill Over Surprise Medical Bills?
The issue of protecting patients from surprise medical bills has been looked at as a rare problem that may draw a bipartisan compromise. But lawmakers have yet to settle on who gets stuck with the bill if not the patients. The House Ways and Means committee is just the latest to try put forward legislation. In other health care industry and costs news: air ambulance coverage, state’s efforts on surprise billing, CEOs’ earnings, Medicare payments, and more.
The proposed rule would also remove the regulation that the faith-based services have to refer patients to other providers. Ethics experts warned that rolling back the Obama-era rule could deprive patients and social service clients of information and options in seeking needed services.
Strict rules outline how and when organs can be transplanted but if this new trial method proves to be successful and safe, researchers say it could revolutionize transplantations. Other public health news is on inactive adults, millennials’ thoughts on vaccines, blood pressure, body temperature, binge drinking, surgical gown recalls, health research on mice, sepsis deaths, breakthrough on sudden death of Amish children, and more.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley Bares Insecurities As She Details Her Experience With Alopecia, Baldness
“I felt naked, exposed, vulnerable,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). She also felt that she was participating in cultural betrayal because of all the young girls who looked up to her as a congresswoman who wore braids. “I felt like I owed those little girls an explanation.” Scientists are not sure what causes the immune system to attack healthy hair follicles, but over six million people in the United States have the condition.
Meanwhile, Japan confirmed a case of the illness in a traveler who had been to Wuhan, the area in China where the virus originated. Public health officials are closely monitoring the spread of the illness, braced for the worst as memories linger of SARS and MERS, which are relatives of this current virus.
The gene therapy, which isn’t officially priced yet, was extremely successful in trials. Its maker says that insurers seem on board with paying somewhere between $2 million and $3 million for the drug, which would break the previous record held by Novartis’ spinal muscular atrophy drug. Experts warned when Novartis’ drug was approved at its $2.1 million price that it was setting a bad precedent. In other pharmaceutical news: more updates from the JP Morgan conference, the science behind the Ebola vaccine, a diabetes pill, and more.
In Noted Break From GOP Orthodoxy, FTC Commissioner Supports Letting Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices
The comments from FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, highlight the shifting politics around high drug prices. Giving Medicare more negotiating power is an idea more typically championed by Democrats.
Publicly, Trump administration officials and California leaders have sparred over management of the homeless crisis. But as the problem continues to escalate, both sides seem to be striving to improve relations so that they can actually address the issue at hand.
Nebraska’s Two-Tier Approach To Medicaid Work Requirements Might Create Roadmap For Other Red States
Nebraska wants to create a “prime” tier for those meeting work requirements and a more “basic” tier for those who aren’t. The model might allow the state to implement work requirements while alleviating courts’ concerns about people being dropped from enrollment. Medicaid news comes out of California, Missouri and Ohio, as well.
The push to allocate supplemental funds comes as the island reels from a series of catastrophic earthquakes this month while still recovering from Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. The Trump administration announced earlier this week that it would release billions in aid that it held up since last year, but officials say Puerto Rico has to agree to increased oversight for the funds.
Planned Parenthood said the $45 million will fund canvassing and grassroots operations, along with digital and TV ads in nine key states. “Our country is at a crossroads, but now it’s time for us to reclaim our power,” said Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes. Meanwhile, Susan B. Anthony List and its affiliated super PAC will launch a $52 million effort to reelect President Donald Trump, who scored big victories for the anti-abortion movement during his time in office.
“States are in the best position to evaluate local economic circumstances and to determine where there are insufficient job opportunities such that work requirements would be ineffective,” the lawsuit says. The new rule “eliminates State discretion and criteria.” It’s expected that the new Trump administration rule would result in nearly 700,000 unemployed people losing their food stamp benefits.