Latest KFF Health News Stories
President Donald Trump’s drug pricing strategy received its second major blow this week on the announcement that the proposal to eliminate drug rebates in Medicare and Medicaid plans will be withdrawn. In January, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that the proposal had “the potential to be the most significant change in how Americans’ drugs are priced at the pharmacy counter, ever.” But the changes met significant pushback from insurers and hospitals who worried the proposal wouldn’t force drugmakers to lower prices and would likely see higher profit margins from it. Looking forward, Trump will be left considering ideas that are more popular with progressives than his party.
Mount Carmel Health System in the Columbus-area of Ohio is reeling from the murder charges against one of its doctors, who faces allegations that he prescribed excessive doses of painkillers that led to dozens of patients’ deaths. “There’s no way that this happened in a vacuum with one person being responsible,” said Gerald Leeseberg, a Columbus lawyer who represents 17 of the families. “This was a systemic, institutional failure and not just the result of one rogue physician.”
The Trump administration regulations, which drew the court challenge, prohibit taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from discussing abortion with patients or referring patients to abortion providers. A smaller panel from the appeals court had ruled in favor of the change last month, but a fuller panel is set to reconsider that decision.
Bernie Sanders Is Hopping On A Bus Trip To Canada With Patients Seeking To Buy Cheaper Insulin
Two decades ago Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took a similar trip with Americans on the hunt for lower drug prices. The trip is scheduled to leave from Detroit two days before the next Democratic presidential primary debates which will be held in that the city on July 30 and 31.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) laid out a wide-ranging plan to reform the country’s immigration system, including provisions to address the humanitarian crisis within detention facilities.
2020 hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said she would spend $1 billion to encourage states to clear rape kit backlogs and invest in reforms, including requiring rape kits to be tested within narrow time frames, counting and reporting untested kits, and giving victims information about the status of their testing. The issue received national attention in recent years after it came to light how many states and counties have crushing backlogs of kits.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Despite Federal Protections, Rape Victims Still Get Billed For Forensic Exams
Under federal law, people who have been raped don’t have to pay for medical forensic exams, yet many get billed and have trouble getting the hospitals or collection agencies to stop dunning them for payment.
Listen: Young Undocumented Californians Cheer Promise Of Health Benefits
California is the first in the nation to expand Medicaid to young adults living there without legal permission.
DOJ Lawyers Try New Tricks To Undo Obamacare. Will It Work?
KHN consulted legal experts about some of the arguments advanced by Trump administration lawyers during the most recent round of oral arguments in the legal challenge brought by 18 “red” states to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Could The ACA Really Go Away?
Is the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional? That was the question before a federal appeals court in New Orleans this week. Two of the three judges on the panel seemed inclined to agree with a lower court that the elimination of the tax penalty for failure to maintain coverage could mean the entire health law should fall. Also this week, President Donald Trump wants to improve care for people with kidney disease. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus courts blocking efforts to require drug prices in TV ads and to kick Planned Parenthood out of the federal family planning program. Plus, Rovner interviews University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley about the latest legal threat to the ACA.
Hospitals Block ‘Surprise Billing’ Measure In California
California lawmakers on Wednesday pulled legislation that would have protected some patients from surprise medical bills for emergency care, citing opposition from hospitals. They vowed to resurrect the bill next year.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health issues and others.
Opinion writers weigh in on the lawsuit against the health law.
Research Roundup: Physicians’ Well-Being; HPV Vaccine; And Long-Term Care
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Media outlets report on news from New York, California, Maryland, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, Oregon, Illinois, Virginia, Wisconsin and Florida.
Attorney Marilyn Mosby also cited discriminatory enforcement of marijuana laws that has harmed black communities and called for the government to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. News on the drug and opioid epidemics looks at: Ohio’s strategies to combat addiction; U.S. wins $1.4 billion settlement with Reckitt; seriously ill patients who genuinely need opioids; Medicare’s progress on treating addiction; Narcan training for Phoenix police force; and clean teens in New Hampshire.
The Wall Street Journal obtained documents that show PG&E knew about the dangers associated with their outdated towers. The utility company’s equipment was responsible for the deadly wildfires last year that left 85 dead.
Social scientists are on the hunt for answers, and are interviewing storm survivors trying to piece together ways to get through to people who have gotten used to ignoring emergency warnings. In other public health news: stem cell treatments, autistic travelers, internet addiction, silent heart attacks and more.
While an autopsy report is forthcoming, the most likely cause of his death was SUDEP, or sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. A severe seizure can temporarily shut down the brain, including the centers that control respiration, and if a person is sleeping and lying face down, death can occur, experts say.