Latest KFF Health News Stories
Decades before “Medicare for All” became the buzzword du jour for the elections, Sen. Bernie Sanders, frustrated with how his family struggled to pay for his mother’s care when she was dying, made a trip to Canada. He walked away from that “thrilled” with the prospect of something better than the U.S. health care system. Meanwhile, where do the candidates stand on the proposal? Reuters takes a look ahead of the Democratic debate this week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s long-awaited plan to reduce drug prices is far more ambitious than what was expected, and experts say that reveals an attitude on the Hill that a serious bipartisan proposal is not in the cards for this particular Congress.
Playing Both Sides? Corporations Straddle Lines Of Gun Debate With Open-Carry Requests
The decision by Walmart and other stores to “request” that their customers don’t openly carry weapons into the stores is being lauded by gun control activists. But legal experts say they could go further and haven’t. Meanwhile, psychologists are alarmed that sources say the White House is considering a controversial plan that would utilize technology to prevent mass shootings. And polls show that, political narrative aside, Republican voters want tighter gun laws, too.
“Regardless of where products like e-cigarettes fall on the continuum of tobacco product risk, the law is clear that, before marketing tobacco products for reduced risk, companies must demonstrate with scientific evidence that their specific product does in fact pose less risk or is less harmful,” said acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless. The public rebuke came amid a burgeoning epidemic of vaping-related lung illnesses across the country.
‘UVA Has Ruined Us’: Health System Sues Thousands Of Patients, Seizing Paychecks And Claiming Homes
Over six years, the state institution filed 36,000 lawsuits against patients seeking a total of more than $106 million in unpaid bills, a KHN analysis finds.
First Edition: September 10, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Hospital Giant Sutter Health Faces Legal Reckoning Over Medical Pricing
A long-awaited class-action lawsuit against Sutter is set to open this month in San Francisco Superior Court. The hospital giant stands accused of violating California’s antitrust laws by leveraging its market power to drive out competition and overcharge patients.
Listen: Health Officials Warn People To Stop Vaping
California Healthline reporter Ana Ibarra appeared Monday on WNYC to discuss the recent outbreak of mysterious lung diseases related to vaping, including 60 possible cases in California.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health issues and others.
Following Tumultuous Week, Governor And California Lawmaker Reach Agreement On Vaccination Bill
Some of the amendments sought by Gov. Gavin Newsom at the 11th hour would significantly weaken the bill, authored by state Sen. Richard Pan, but other changes would bring new scrutiny to exemptions written by doctors who have faced disciplinary action. The changes would include Newsom’s proposal to grandfather in all existing medical exemptions before Jan. 1.
Media outlets report on news from Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, California, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, Oregon, Texas and Massachusetts.
Nationwide, women who traveled from another state received at least 44,860 abortions in 2017, the most recent year available, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from 41 states. Thirteen states saw a rise in the number of out-of-state women having abortions between 2012 and 2017.
Google Bans Ads For ‘Untested, Deceptive Treatments,’ Including Many Stem Cell, Gene Therapies
Some treatments have resulted in severe injuries, including blindness, and are imperiling the reputation of a promising industry, experts say. Scientists liken procedures promising to cure diseases like macular degeneration and ALS to modern snake oil. In other public health news: HIV, diets, fatherhood, transplants, texting dangers, supplements, diabetes, heart disease, and Sjogren’s syndrome.
This is the first study to focus on cardiovascular care, which is not currently covered by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. The study urges continued long-term monitoring of the first responders.
The study also found that in counties where health insurance is lacking, and in those where military veterans represent a larger proportion of the population, suicide rates were higher over the 18-year period studied.
While ambulances are normally supposed to take emergency patients to the closest facility that offers that right kind of care, a new study finds that when it comes to minority patients that’s not always the case. One possible explanation: Patients or their families may choose to go to a more distant hospital because it’s where they go for routine primary care.
Rust Belt Hospital Closures Kick Economically Fragile Areas Hard When They’re Already Down
Hospitals are closing at startling rates in rural and economically depressed areas that are already struggling to recover from financial downturns. Other hospital news comes out of New York and Florida.
Drugmakers have come under intense fire following news of more deaths of patients rationing their insulin. Novo Nordisk is the latest company to try to address the high costs of their drug. The company will start a new cash discount program that will allow many American patients to buy a month’s supply for $99 starting next year.
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.