Latest KFF Health News Stories
Has Your Doctor Asked You About Climate Change?
Some physicians say connecting the consequences of climate change — heat waves, more pollen and longer allergy seasons — to health helps them better care for patients.
Employers Urged To Find New Ways To Address Workers’ Mental Health
Pressure is growing on employers to better address the mental health needs of workers. Some big companies have begun to offer options such as peer support groups, and California has adopted a new law that calls on employers to act.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Biden Doubles Down On Obamacare
Presidential candidate Joe Biden unveiled a health plan intended to provide a more moderate alternative to his competitors’ “Medicare for All” plans. It would build on the Affordable Care Act but would go much further. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus Planned Parenthood’s very bad week, the U.S. House vote to repeal the health law’s “Cadillac tax” on generous health plans, and the reduction in deaths from opioids.
Medicamentos comunes pueden generar síntomas similares a los de la demencia
Se estima que 1 de cada 4 adultos mayores toma medicamentos anticolinérgicos, una amplia gama de drogas utilizadas para tratar alergias, insomnio, incontinencia urinaria, mareos, asma y Parkinson, entre otros.
Opinion writers weigh in on these and other public health issues.
Editorial pages focus on the debate about the future of health care.
Research Roundup: E-Cigarettes; Surgical Safety; And Health Care Affordability
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Media outlets report on news from California, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Illinois, Virginia, Florida, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Arizona, Wisconsin and New Hampshire.
Lawyers for the families are set to argue that the U.S. government intended to inflict emotional distress on them. They plan to make that assertion under a law that allows individuals to sue the U.S. government for negligence and misconduct. “The government clearly intended to inflict emotional distress,” said Erik Walsh, a lawyer with the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Arnold & Porter. News on the border crisis also looks at: how an asylum ban could worsen overcrowding; many teens in Florida released to families; and an agent’s alleged harassment of a mother, as well.
To fight isolation, a health problem that a former surgeon general said can be as debilitating as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, several groups are working to create in-person connections. A group started by one former lonely heart in San Francisco invites strangers to talk over tea and has caught on in more than a dozen other cities. Public health news also focuses on: higher rates of memory loss reported among LGBTQ Americans; winners and fairness issues; sleep-tracking devices; drugs that bring on memory loss in older adults; Netflix’s decision to re-edit “13 Reasons Why”; critics of “Neuralink’; coping with the heat wave; a new way to diagnose pancreatic cancer; why STI’s are more common; mosquitoes; ticks in unsightly places; and more.
The common comparison of having increased transparency in drug pricing to forcing car companies to add sticker prices is flawed because it overstates the usefulness of the knowledge by implying that patients have much more power to act — to shop around or negotiate — than they actually do. In other pharmaceutical news: lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, money for a biotech firm, and a CBO projection on the Senate’s drug pricing bill.
While wealthy Americans have been able to weather increasing costs, and the Affordable Care Act helps those on Medicaid afford coverage, the middle class is at a loss. The families have health insurance, but they can’t afford care. The divide is creating ever-deepening resentment, especially toward those who receive government help.
Interviews with staffers suggest there were managerial problems beneath Dr. Leana Wen’s tenure. But the former chief’s departure also highlights an organization at a philosophical crossroads. Where Wen wanted to treat abortion less as a war and more as a health care issue, other leaders in the organization see an aggressive leader as necessary in this time of crisis. Meanwhile, cracks are appearing in the anti-abortion movement, as well, even as members rack up victories.
But, experts warn, the overdose death rate is still about seven times higher than it was a generation ago. And overdose deaths from synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, are still trending up.
Previously undisclosed data–obtained by The Washington Post and HD Media, publisher of the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia–on the distribution of painkillers during the epidemic cements drug companies as the target for blame. The numbers reveal “clear heinous, criminal distribution that has visibly contributed, if not caused, the crisis our country is facing with opioid use disorder,” the anti-drug group Shatterproof said in a statement. The drug companies are facing thousands of lawsuits over the issue. News on the epidemic comes out of New York, Tennessee, Arizona and Kansas, as well.
Although the guidance shifts costs to insurers, the companies have actually been pushing for the flexibility to begin providing coverage for those treatments, such as glucose or blood-pressure monitors, because people who don’t get ongoing treatment for a disease can have their condition worsen, leaving insurers paying even more for their care.
2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders speech at George Washington University came amid a public battle between him and rival candidate Vice President Joe Biden, who wants to take more incremental steps on health care. But many of the claims he made about what the plan would save were dubious, an Associated Press fact check found.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the lawmaker isn’t seeking to block the bill–which was thrust into the spotlight following a congressional appearance from comedian Jon Stewart–but that he wants to add a provision to pay for it. Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee had earlier placed a procedural hold on a floor vote for the bill.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) invited his fellow presidential candidates to join him in refusing to accept contributions over $200 from political action committees, lobbyists and executives of health insurance and drug companies. But an ABC News review of FEC records identified at least three contributions of more than $200 from two individual donors who could be considered executives at companies in those fields.
Lawmakers are gung-ho about addressing the issue of surprise medical bills, but the central question of who covers the costs instead remains. The debate is drawing out major health care players to push for the best outcome in the fight. On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved its version of the legislation.