Latest KFF Health News Stories
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Medi-Cal Enrollment Among Immigrant Kids Stalls, Then Falls. Is Fear To Blame?
Enrollment among undocumented immigrant children in California’s Medicaid program started strong before stagnating and then falling. Although this decline is similar to an enrollment decline among all children in Medicaid nationwide, experts believe there are different reasons behind it.
Federal Appeals Court Takes Up Case That Could Upend U.S. Health System
The Affordable Care Act is again being put to the test after a lower court judge ruled the massive health law unconstitutional. Could the case ricochet back to the Supreme Court in the throes of the 2020 presidential campaign season?
En un país inundado de alcohol, surgen espacios de diversión sobrios
Los espacios libres de alcohol atraen a personas que quieren navegar la vida social sin la presión de tener que beber, o a otras en recuperación.
Media outlets report on news from North Carolina, New Hampshire, Maryland, Massachusetts, Kansas, Michigan, Puerto Rico, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee and Iowa.
Editorial pages focus on issues in the news about abortion.
In the state with the highest measles outbreak this year, a new law prevents religious exemptions. More than 25,000 New York children had religious exemptions in 2018. One parent says “our only option is home schooling.” While hundreds of parents are joining Facebook groups and going to seminars to learn how to homeschool their children, public health officials push for vaccinations and better public health eduction. In other public health news: inaccessible technology for blind and deaf people, genetic testing for newborns, dangers of giving reflux drugs to children, green ways to lowering carbon, being pregnant during the “sober-curious” movement, lessons for safe swimming, pets enriching teens emotional lives, and hunger’s twisted impact on one family, as well.
As Rural Hospitals Continue To Close, Patients Are Turning To Telehealth For Desperately Needed Care
A recent NPR poll of rural Americans found that nearly a quarter have used some kind of telehealth service within the past few years. Meanwhile, homelessness is often considered an urban phenomenon but it’s a growing problem in rural areas as well.
While Trump Travels The World, Runs For Reelection, His Germaphobia Is Put To The Test
President Donald Trump’s aversion to germs is well-known. But as he begins to launch his reelection campaign, will he be successful in his attempts to avoid contagions that are an inherent part of travelling and touching others’ hands? Meanwhile, concern over superbugs continue to grow, but the funding on how to stop them hasn’t followed suit.
The company gets much of its advertising organically these days through young people’s social media accounts. “We’re at a point where young people are doing Juul’s job for them,” says Elizabeth Hair, a study co-author and senior vice president at the Truth Initiative Schroeder Institute. Meanwhile, Netflix has vowed to curb smoking depictions going forward following criticism of “Stranger Things.”
The proportion of new drugs receiving expedited approvals has been at least 60% for each of the past five years. The result is a rising proportion of new drugs for fatal diseases that lack extensive evidence they can prolong lives. Many continue to lack that proof years after entering the market.
The Steep Financial Toll Of Cancer Deaths: Lost Earnings Costs U.S. $94B
In 2015, 600,000 Americans died of cancer. Compounding the losses to loved ones, the country’s economy also took a hit from the estimated $94.4 billion in lost earnings that year. In other cancer-related news: scientists aim to use “nanobodies” as a potential new treatment against the disease; and new physical activity guidelines for breast cancer survivors.
Alzheimer’s Researchers Test Biomarkers To Advance Diagnosis And Treatment Methods
“For the future, we hope that we might be able to use these biomarkers in order to stop or delay the memory changes from ever happening,” Maria Carrillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, tells NPR. Meanwhile, other news on aging reports on a potential link between dementia and a prostrate cancer treatment as well as seniors’ retirement planning.
Scientists created a map of the roundworm’s brain, a goal that many researchers aspire to with humans, as well. Experts say maps such as these could help explain the biology of mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Judge To Hear Arguments Over Johnson & Johnson’s Motion To Dismiss Oklahoma Opioids Case
The drugmaker’s lawyers and prosecutors for the state of Oklahoma will each have an hour Monday to address Johnson & Johnson’s motion that the trial judge toss the case. “One would expect vigorous arguments, somewhat akin to a late July 4th fireworks display,” court spokesman Bob Burke said. Other news on the opioid epidemic comes out of New Hampshire and North Carolina.
Many See Racial Disparities As A Key Missing Piece In National Abortion Debate
The social and economic disparities that are particularly challenging to African-Americans, from mass incarceration to maternal and infant mortality, are often overlooked by white leaders of the abortion movement. Other news on abortion comes from Ohio, Alabama, and Missouri.
The full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will review a decision by a three-judge panel that upheld the Trump administration’s regulations. Until it hears the case, the court has frozen the so-called “gag rule” that would impose additional hurdles for low-income women seeking abortions.
President Donald Trump talked about a planned executive order to establish a “favored-nations clause,” where America would pay whatever the lowest nation’s price is. The order would carry little force on its own, experts say, because Medicare’s main prescription drug program farms out its drug purchasing to private insurance companies, and is barred from negotiating with drugmakers directly. The federal government does buy drugs for some groups, including veterans and federal prisoners, but they represent only a small fraction of the nation’s drug market.
“When a child draws this, it’s telling us that child felt like he or she was in jail,” said Dr. Colleen Kraft, immediate past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The pediatricians’ group has been trying to advise Border Patrol on how to screen and care for children in their custody, but Kraft said a series of meetings came to an end without producing concrete results. Meanwhile, separate pediatricians call the care the children are receiving “malpractice.”
However, Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, acknowledged that the situation is challenging and that the government is under strain from an influx of immigrants crossing the border. The situation gained national attention after reports emerged about the unsanitary and abusive conditions in shelters housing detained young immigrants.