Latest KFF Health News Stories
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals would pay $24 million in cash to two Ohio counties, as well as donate $6 million in drugs that include addiction treatment medications. The tentative agreement — which applies only to the two counties and does not resolve other legal claims against Mallinckrodt — comes out of a flurry of intensive bargaining in recent weeks among groups of defendants and plaintiffs in opioid cases nationwide. In other news on the national drug crisis: what a Purdue Pharma bankruptcy looks like for defendants; the epidemic as an existential crisis to a tribe; the controversy of safe injection sites; and more.
Some investigators have zeroed in on vitamin E oil as a possible culprit to the outbreak of cases across the country, but other experts remain skeptical that it’s any one ingredient that’s causing the illness. Federal health officials are warning users that the riskiest behavior is using vaping products bought on the street instead of from a retailer. Meanwhile, media outlets round-up what the symptoms are, how many cases have cropped up in which states, what public health officials are doing about the outbreak, and more.
Kamala Harris Courts Veteran Vote With Plan That Would Expand Their Access To Health Care
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said that, if she is elected president, by the end of her first term the VA would expand access to health care and housing assistance to the more than 500,000 veterans with other-than-honorable discharges. “People with PTSD tend to act out. They tend to self-medicate. Which means they’re going to be on drugs or they may be an alcoholic. And then they’re going to get into fights and they have a really short fuse. And guess what happens? All of a sudden you don’t qualify for VA,” Harris said.
“We’re tackling reducing health care costs, and you’re going to have insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, a whole variety of people affected who have misgivings about it,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Lawmakers in both chambers are pursuing health care wins ahead of next year’s elections.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he’s waiting to see what President Donald Trump comes up with and that he won’t hold votes on gun legislation that he thinks won’t get anywhere. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have sent a letter to the president urging him not to squander this momentum for regulations by “by acceding to NRA-backed proposals or other weak ideas that will do nothing to stop the continuing, horrific spread of gun violence and may, in some cases, actually make our communities less safe.”
First Edition: September 9, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Estados promulgan leyes para frenar los precios de los medicamentos
En lo que va del año, 33 han promulgado un récord de 51 leyes para confrontar los precios, la accesibilidad y el acceso a los medicamentos.
Millions Of Diabetes Patients Are Missing Out On Medicare’s Nutrition Help
Health experts say the little-used benefit represents a lost opportunity for older adults to improve their health — and for the program to save money by preventing costly complications from diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
States Pass Record Number Of Laws To Reel In Drug Prices
So far this year, 33 states have enacted more than 50 measures to address drug prices, affordability and access. Congress is eyeing the efforts to see what works.
‘Crackhouse’ Or ‘Safehouse’? U.S. Officials Try To Block Philly’s Supervised Injection Site
An average of three people a day died of opioid overdose in Philadelphia in 2018. But efforts to combat the crisis with a supervised injection site could be stymied by “the crackhouse statute,” a portion of federal law meant to protect neighborhoods during the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
Millones con diabetes no aprovechan programa nutricional de Medicare
Hay unos 15 millones de beneficiarios de Medicare que viven con diabetes, pero solo unos 100,000 se han inscripto para usar este beneficio que, al parecer, tiene buenos resultados.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
California, ¿firmará el gobernador una controversial ley sobre vacunas?
La totalidad de los senadores republicanos votaron en contra de la medida y todos los demócratas votaron a favor, excepto uno que no votó.
Editorial pages focus on these public health issues and others.
Perspectives: Pros, Cons Of Vaping; Big Differences Between Allowing Use By Adults, Protecting Teens
Opinion writers weigh in on vaping’s impact on health.
Media outlets report on news from Texas, California, New York, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Georgia, Wyoming, Louisiana, North Carolina and New Hampshire.
Ultrasounds May Now Have Become The Norm, But Some Women Are Refusing Them Over Health Concerns
Experts say ultrasounds have been used to monitor pregnancy for decades, and there’s no meaningful evidence that they can cause harm to a developing fetus. But some women say they would rather trust their bodies than take the chance. In other public health news: aid-in-dying, biobanks, measles, blood pressure, PTSD and ovarian cancer, a left-handedness gene, and more.
When mandatory evacuation orders come down at popular retirement communities located all along the southeastern seaboard, the elderly might have few options. News on the health industry’s response to Dorian comes from Georgia and Florida, as well.
Faced With Paying For Pricey Gene-Therapy Treatments, Insurers Start Thinking Outside The Box
The expensive new therapies can be life-changing, but working out how to pay for them has become a pain point for the health industry. “Employers are saying, ‘I just can’t afford it,’” said CVS Health Chief Medical Officer Troy Brennan. In other pharmaceutical news: drugmakers’ try to gain traction for next-generation sequencing but the going is slow; and Pfizer gets fast-track approval for a rare lung cancer drug.
Some Democrats are wary about handing a health care win to President Donald Trump and Republicans this close to elections. That doesn’t even account for the big players in the industry gearing up to block the bills with all the lobbying power they can muster. In other health industry and costs news: hospital mergers, Medicare Advantage, providers’ affiliates, and using Groupon for medical treatments.