Latest KFF Health News Stories
Cigarettes Vs. Vaping: That’s The ‘Wrong Comparison,’ Says Inhalation Researcher
Ilona Jaspers, an inhalation toxicologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, believes the common notion of comparing e-cigarettes with traditional, combustible cigarettes is the wrong analogy because the vaping products expose consumers to chemicals in a fundamentally different way.
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.
¿Metanfetamina o trastorno mental? Policías muchas veces no pueden darse cuenta
Cerca de 9,2 millones de adultos en los Estados Unidos enfrentan tanto un problema de salud mental como de drogas, o ambos. Y les resulta difícil acceder a atención especializada.
Longer Looks: Cancer And Deportation; Is Vaping Safe?; Surviving Atrocities; And More
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Media outlets report on news from Oregon, Ohio, New York, Louisiana, Wisconsin, California, North Carolina, And Texas.
Although an extra hour of sleep may seem like a luxury, it can throw off your sleep patterns for the upcoming week, wreaking havoc on your circadian rhythms. Meanwhile, the importance of sleep is once again re-emphasized with new findings about how the brain at night clears out toxins that can lead to Alzheimer’s.
Opioids are being replaced by methamphetamines in areas of the country, but treatment centers are struggling to help patients because they get their money primarily for opioid treatments. Meanwhile, police try to figure out ways to better determine whether behavior is due to illicit drug use or mental health issues.
The Trump administration gave scant detail about how new requirements that immigrants prove they can pay for insurance would be implemented beyond a bullet-point list of the types of plans that would be accepted. This has left many facing a system that is complicated and confusing at the best of times. Other immigration news focuses on conditions at detention facilities and a new acting secretary for DHS.
Insurers Found To Have Been Selling Illegal Health Plans In New Hampshire
The companies were selling plans under the rules that allow health sharing ministries to help members share costs between themselves. But regulators say they didn’t meet the requirements to be eligible for that exemption to the health law.
Medicare enrollment can be daunting, but in the midst of open enrollment for the program, media outlets offer suggestions on how to make the most of the program.
Health Law Enrollment Opens: Experts Predict Fewer Sign-Ups Despite Stronger Marketplace
Open enrollment opens Friday and ends Dec. 15 for the 38 states that use healthcare.gov. The remaining states manage their own platforms, and some have deadlines that stretch into January.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released her plan for “Medicare for All” Friday, after facing criticism for not detailing how she would pay for the overhaul to the health system. It would require the federal government to absorb $20.5 trillion in new spending, but Warren says that the middle class will not see “one penny” in tax hikes. She plans to carry over almost all existing health funding from employers and state governments while also levying a variety of new taxes on the rich, corporations and high-earning investors — including doubling her signature wealth tax on billionaires.
The Stanford Project Respect Initiative researchers examined six types of aggressive behavior reported by women, including encountering sexism, sexually inappropriate comments, and having their abilities underestimated. Other news looks at discrimination against pregnant women at WeWorks.
Two new studies find that, among other things, patients who received the therapy showed “striking” improvement in a key measure of lung capacity. The drug will cost about $311,000 per year, the same as Vertex’s previous cystic fibrosis drug.
Firefighting Has Changed — And So Have The Threats To Health Of Those Who Battle The Flames
As firefighters work tirelessly to contain the wildfires in California, the conversation again focuses on new threats to their health — such as chemicals being released from the flames.
The measles virus creates “immune amnesia,” leaving children vulnerable to illness for years after they’ve been infected. “This goes under the radar” because doctors wouldn’t necessarily connect a child’s pneumonia to measles they suffered a year earlier, said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard’s school of public health. “But would they have gotten it if they hadn’t gotten measles?”
The proposal Georgia submitted is designed to make coverage less expensive, with more competition among insurers and fewer enrollment snags. Georgia residents could bypass Healthcare.gov and sign up for insurance directly through an insurance provider or broker website. Thirteen states have had this type of 1332 waiver approved by the federal government.
The hearing over the future of Missouri’s last-remaining abortion clinic concluded, but shockwaves over top health official’s spreadsheet tracking women’s periods still reverberate. While there were no names associated with the data, critics find it uncomfortable that such personal information was used in the fight. “How is the government going to use my information to wage a political war?” said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Indiana Becomes Second State In Recent Weeks To Pump The Brakes On Medicaid Work Requirement Plans
Indiana and Arizona — both with Republican governors — are the first states to voluntarily take step that three other states were forced to take through court orders. Many advocates had been vocal in their warnings that many people would lose coverage if Medicaid work requirements are put into place, but the Trump administration has been allowing states to move in that direction.
The tobacco giant wrote down its investment in Juul by more than a third, acknowledging that it hadn’t anticipated the regulatory pitfalls confronting the e-cigarette market. Altria hoped to tap the vaping market in the face of declining smoking rates and cigarette sales in the United States. Now the company is under investigation by the FTC over its role in the resignation of Juul’s former chief executive and his replacement by an Altria executive. Meanwhile, the total number of vaping-related lung disease cases continues to climb.