Latest KFF Health News Stories
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.
First Edition: January 17, 2020
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
California’s health insurance program for low-income people grew 78% between 2010 and 2019 to 12.8 million enrollees. The federal Affordable Care Act spurred the increase, aided by state policies broadening eligibility.
Employers’ Dream Of Controlling Health Costs Turns To Workers’ Sleep
Sleep is the latest in an ever-growing list of wellness issues — such as weight loss, exercise and nutrition — that firms are targeting to improve workers’ health and lower medical costs.
With Fate Of Roe V. Wade Unsure, Abortion Fight Shifts To New Territory
The Supreme Court in March will hear a Louisiana case that tests whether the new five-member conservative majority is willing to overturn the 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide. Even if the court does not go that far, it could hasten the procedure’s demise by saying abortion providers cannot sue on behalf of their patients.
Listen: How High-Deductible Plans Hurt Rural America
KHN senior correspondent Markian Hawryluk joined Colorado Public Radio’s Avery Lill on “Colorado Matters” to discuss his recent story on how high-deductible health plans are especially hurting the financial health of patients and hospitals in rural America.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Trump Takes Credit Where It Isn’t Due
President Donald Trump says he “saved” popular protections for preexisting conditions, even though his administration is in court asking them to be struck down. Meanwhile, Democrats who want to run against Trump in the fall continue to argue among themselves over health issues. And Kansas may become the next state to expand Medicaid. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Shefali Luthra of Kaiser Health News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more.
Research Roundup: Ethnic Disparities, Heart Health, Postpartum Care And More
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Opinion writers tackle these and other health issues.