Latest KFF Health News Stories
Freedom Caucus Leaders Appear Ready To Support Revised GOP Health Plan
Conservatives seem to be coalescing behind a health plan that includes waivers allowing states to opt out of major regulations related to essential health benefits and insurance companies to charge higher premiums for patients with preexisting conditions.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
5 Things To Know About The Subsidies At The Heart Of A Capitol Hill Battle
Democrats want a bill to fund the government for the rest of the year to include funding for the health law’s cost-sharing reductions for low-income marketplace customers, but Republicans want to keep the issues separate.
Pre-Obamacare, Preexisting Conditions Long Vexed States And Insurers
Before the federal health law guarantee that consumers cannot be turned down because of their medical history, it was difficult to balance insurers’ needs to make a profit and individuals’ needs for coverage.
Severe Shortage Of Home Health Workers Robs Thousands Of Proper Care
A critical shortage of home health care workers across the U.S. is denying care for senior citizens and people with disabilities.
Health Care Worries Pull Crowd To Conservative Ohio Rep’s Town Hall
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sparked discord at his meeting with his district’s voters Monday when he suggested churches, schools and families are best able to handle the opioid epidemic rather than the federal government.
Desafío para el sistema de salud: los hombres hispanos que no buscan atención médica
Por razones económicas y culturales, los hombres hispanos no quieren interactuar con el sistema de salud, lo que, afirman expertos, puede hacer colapsar el sistema de salud en el futuro.
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Editorial writers offer perspectives on these and other health policy and system issues.
Media outlets report on news from Mississippi, Georgia, New Hampshire, California, Tennessee, Florida, Minnesota, Texas, Ohio, Utah, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
50 Years Ago, Colorado ‘Pushed On A Half-Open Door’ And Became First State To Loosen Abortion Rules
In 1967, state Rep. Richard Lamm introduced legislation that would make abortion legal beyond cases when the woman’s life was at stake. Media outlets also report on abortion news out of Illinois, Minnesota and Tennessee.
Cases Of Malaria At U.S. Hospitals Higher Than Expected
Experts believe immigrants and travelers, who have lost their childhood immunity by living in America for some time, are returning to their home countries not expecting to need protection from the disease. Then they come back to the U.S. infected.
These Patients Weren’t Expected To Survive, But In Doing So They Changed The Trajectory Of Medicine
Stat talks with Dr. Brian J. Druker and his patients who were some of the first to be shifted away from a scorched-earth treatment of cancer to precision medicine. In other public health news: mapping the brain’s neurons, the dangers of nursery products, long-term birth control, genital mutilation and more.
FDA Nominee Played Role In Pushing More Fentanyl Into Circulation, Critics Claim
Scott Gottlieb’s part in getting Cephalon, a company that makes lollipops for cancer patients in extreme pain, more opioids lends itself to established concerns that the Trump administration’s pick to head the Food and Drug Administration is too closely tied to the drug industry. In other news on the opioid epidemic, special schools are helping teens stay sober and the use of painkillers in the middle-aged and elderly is skyrocketing.
Physicians Seek Modifications In Medicare’s New Plans For Payment
The doctors are hoping that in rules expected soon the federal government will ease requirements for small practices to participate in the new Medicare payment options offering higher risk and higher financial reward. Also, some hospitals are asking the federal government to make some bundled-payment programs voluntary.
Gov. Walker Seeks To Make Wisconsin First State To Impose Drug Testing For Medicaid
Critics are mobilizing against the screening and testing requirement because they say it could unfairly stigmatize the poor and complicate an already difficult application process. News outlets also report on Medicaid news from Arkansas and Ohio.
Supreme Court Justices Appear Divided Over Defendants’ Right To Independent Mental Health Expert
The high court heard arguments as to whether an Alabama death-row inmate was entitled to a psychologist who would be on his side, not a state-appointed one.
Express Scripts Fails To Entice Top Customer Anthem To Extend Agreement Past 2019
Shares for the pharmacy benefits manager dropped sharply following the announcement.
Sanofi Claims Mylan Artificially Bumped Up EpiPen Prices, Then Undercut Competition With Rebates
The drugmaker filed a lawsuit against the troubled EpiPen-maker on Monday. In other pharmaceutical news, The Daily Beast investigates the involvement of Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., with an Australian biotech company, a panel of U.S. scientists is questioning the methodology of an Ebola drug trial, Biogen releases the promising results of a drug to help children with a neuromuscular disease, and one California lawmaker has a plan for lowering drug prices.
Avoiding Shutdown May Overtake Health Care As Congress’ No. 1 Priority In The Week Ahead
Despite a renewed push from President Donald Trump to make progress on the Republicans’ health care plan, the desire to get a spending bill through may take precedence.