Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: December 7, 2017
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Brokers Tout Mix-And-Match Coverage To Avoid High-Cost ACA Plans
But buyer, beware. Cobbling together “packages” designed to cover gaps in high-deductible health plans could shortchange consumers, warn advocates.
Health Risks To Farmworkers Increase As Workforce Ages
Harvesting U.S. crops has been left to an aging population of farmworkers whose health has suffered from decades of hard labor. Older workers have a greater chance of getting injured and of developing chronic illnesses.
Churning, Confusion And Disruption — The Dark Side Of Marketplace Coverage
The Affordable Care Act has increased the number of people with insurance, but shopping around for plans puts a burden on patients, especially this year.
Treating The New Hep C Generation On Their Turf
One Northern California physician is a foot soldier in the fight against a surge of hepatitis C, mainly among young drug users who share infected needles.
Pace Of U.S. Health Spending Slows In 2016
Dramatic increases in spending that came with the influx of newly insured consumers in 2014 and 2015 appear to be moderating.
Stopping Opioid Addiction At One Key Source: The Hospital
Based on research conducted at the University of Michigan’s medical center, a group of surgeons developed a strategy to help post-surgical patients from misusing or abusing their prescription painkillers.
Viewpoints: Argument For Individual Mandate Repeal; CHIP Stalemate Highlights Senate Dysfunction
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Perspectives: It’s Past Time For The Government To Intervene Over High Drug Prices
Read recent commentaries about drug-cost issues.
CVS-Aetna Is Talk Of Town, But UnitedHealth Has Already Been There, Done That. (Sort Of)
News outlets report on stories related to pharmaceutical pricing.
Media outlets report on news from Maryland, Iowa, Florida, Illinois, New York, California, Oklahoma and Ohio.
Official Struggles To Defend NYC’s Lapses On Lead Inspections, Concedes More Could Have Been Done
The City Council grilled New York City Housing Authority Chairwoman Shola Olatoye over the lead inspection problems, focusing on the long delay between when officials learned of the lapses and when City Hall and the agency acknowledged them publicly for the first time
Ban Over Discussing Public Figures’ Mental Health ‘Scientifically Indefensible,’ Experts Argue
The Goldwater Rule has long-banned mental health professionals from weighing in on public figures. But experts say the evidence they can gather through public speeches, behavior and tweets is actually more reliable than in-person evaluations. In other news: asthma hot spots, temporary doctors, the ethics of uterine transplants, germs in the International Space Station, and more.
D.C. Latest To Try To Preemptively Protect Women’s Health Benefits In Case ACA Is Rolled Back
The legislation will ultimately be subject to congressional review, but council members say that any lawmaker who opposes it can expect a strong fight. In other women’s health news: the ACLU pushes back against claims that it acted improperly during a case over a pregnant teenage immigrant, and a new study questions the benefits of mammograms.
States Report Savings In Medicaid Test Coordinating Health, Social Services
Ten states and Puerto Rico are part of the national pilot project. A report by the National Governors Association finds that Alaska and Puerto Rico are already seeing substantial improvements. News outlets report on other Medicaid developments from Iowa, Connecticut, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Shortening Drug Approval Times Is A Rallying Cry For Administration. But It Was Already Happening.
Programs that were put into place before the Trump administration have been cutting times by sometimes more than a year. In other pharmaceutical news: problems with AstraZeneca’s blockbuster drug; the Food and Drug Administration requests that a pharma company recall a product that may cause liver injury; sexual harassment allegations involving the founder of biotech’s largest hedge fund, and more.
Experts Predict FTC Will Be More Lenient Of CVS-Aetna Deal Than Justice Department
But they also say CVS’s plan to buy Aetna is “eminently approvable” by either agency because critics would be unable to come up with a convincing theory to show the deal will harm consumers. Meanwhile, a House Democrat is already calling for a probe of the merger.
Democrats Want To See Funding To Fight Opioid Epidemic In Spending Bill
But Republicans haven’t been as vocal about allocating more money for the crisis, so it’s unclear how much will make it into the final legislation.
For Many It’s ‘Beyond Belief’ That Funding For Wildly Popular CHIP Program Is In Limbo
“It crushes me to think we’re in an environment where kids’ health is up for debate,” said Dr. Todd Wolynn, a pediatrician in Pittsburgh. Although the program has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in the past, Congress has been dawdling on renewing funding for the program.
Ways And Means Chairman Expects Strong Support For Mandate Repeal From House Republicans
The House and Senate will have to smooth out the differences between their tax bills, including what to do about the health law’s individual mandate. Meanwhile, advocates are sounding the alarm over the ways the tax bill will threaten health care for Americans.