First Edition: December 24, 2014
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Millions Have Already Enrolled In 2015 Health Policies, Deadline Still 7 Weeks Off
What a difference a year makes. With its technical troubles largely behind it, healthcare.gov enrolled 1.9 million new customers for health insurance between Nov. 15 and Dec. 18. At the same time, another 4.5 million existing policyholders either re-enrolled or were automatically renewed into their existing policy or a similar one beginning Jan. 1. (Rovner, 12/23)
Kaiser Health News:
As Docs Face Big Cuts In Medicaid Pay, Patients May Pay The Price
Andy Pasternak, a family doctor in Reno, Nev., has seen more than 100 new Medicaid patients this year after the state expanded the insurance program under the Affordable Care Act. But he won’t be taking any new ones after Dec. 31. That’s when the law’s two-year pay raise for primary care doctors like him who see Medicaid patients expires, resulting in fee reductions of 43 percent on average across the country, according to the nonpartisan Urban Institute. (Galewitz, 12/23)
Los Angeles Times:
Enrollment For Obamacare Jumps With 2 Million New Sign-Ups
Enrollment in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act is increasing rapidly, with more than 2 million people so far signing up for coverage for the first time, figures released Tuesday show. In addition to the new enrollments, which surpass last year's sign-up rate, several million more people have been re-enrolled in plans in the law's second year of expanding coverage. (Levey, 12/23)
The New York Times:
So Far, 6.4 Million Obtain Health Care Coverage For 2015 In Federal Marketplace
The Obama administration said Tuesday that 6.4 million people had selected health insurance plans or had been automatically re-enrolled in coverage through the federal insurance marketplace. New customers accounted for 30 percent of the total, or 1.9 million. For 2014 enrollees who took no action by Dec. 15, coverage was automatically renewed for 2015 by the federal government. (Pear, 12/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Affordable Care Act Sign-Ups Near 6.4 Million
Almost 6.4 million people selected a health-care plan on the federal marketplace or were automatically re-enrolled in the first month of the Affordable Care Act’s open-enrollment season this fall, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Tuesday. That figure compares with about 5.4 million people who had selected plans using the federal exchange in the original enrollment period of Oct. 1, 2013, through March 31, 2014. High consumer demand in mid-December helped boost the total, which includes about 1.9 million new consumers who obtained private coverage through the federal exchange, Ms. Burwell told reporters. (Armour, 12/23)
Politico:
HHS Reports 6 Million Signups So Far For Obamacare Next Year
Nearly 6.4 million people were enrolled in the federal Obamacare marketplace one month into the 2015 signup season, a pace that Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Tuesday called a good start. “People are shopping for coverage and people are signing up,” Burwell said at a news conference where she personally announced the latest numbers. “We still have a ways to go and a lot of work before Feb. 15, but we do have an encouraging start,” she added. (Haberkorn and Pradhan, 12/23)
USA Today:
Two Million New Enrollees Signed Up On Healthcare.gov
About 6.4 million people chose a health plan or were automatically reenrolled on the federal site HealthCare.gov through Dec. 19, the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday. ... HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell estimated that the percentage of people who shopped around for a new plan rather than automatically reenrolled was in "the mid to high 30s." That's something the department has repeatedly urged people to do. Burwell said the number was higher than she expected as "most people let what happens go," she said. (O'Donnell, 12/23)
The Associated Press:
Officials Cite Progress On Health Care Enrollment
The second sign-up season under President Barack Obama's health care law is off to a good start but has a way to go to make it a success, administration officials said Tuesday. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said 1.9 million new customers have picked a plan as of Dec. 19 through the federal insurance market that serves 37 states. Another 4.5 million have renewed existing coverage, with most automatically re-enrolled. The numbers don't include states running their own insurance exchanges, including California and New York. The administration will release a full 50-state report next week, Burwell said. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/24)
The New York Times:
FDA Easing Ban On Gays, To Let Some Give Blood
The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, a major stride toward ending what many had seen as a national policy of discrimination. However, the agency will continue to ban men who have had sex with a man in the last year, saying the barrier is necessary to keep the blood supply safe, a move that frustrated rights groups that were pushing for the ban to be removed entirely. (Tavernise, 12/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
FDA To Lift Lifetime Ban On Blood Donations From Gay Men
The Food and Drug Administration reversed a decades-old ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood, concluding that modern blood screening makes the ban unnecessary. ... The change won’t occur immediately. First, the agency will publish a draft guidance in 2015, followed by a comment period, said Peter Marks, deputy director of the FDA’s center for biologics evaluation and research. After that — perhaps in 2015, depending on the comments — the guidance will become final. (Burton, 12/23)
Los Angeles Times:
FDA To Ease Longtime Ban On Blood Donations From Gay Men
Though less visible than the struggle to allow gays to serve openly in the military or the effort to legalize same-sex marriage, the campaign to end the 31-year ban on blood donation has become an important cause for those who see it as homophobic and unfair. The FDA was caught between the civil rights of prospective gay donors and its mandate to protect public health. The FDA’s decision came a few weeks after a panel of independent experts concluded that imposing a waiting period, or deferral, of one year on those donors would not endanger the safety of the nation’s supply of donated blood. That panel relied heavily on the experience of Australia, which in 2000 adopted a one-year deferral policy for men who have had sex with men. (Healy, 12/23)
The Washington Post:
FDA To Propose Altering Ban On Gay And Bisexual Men Who Want To Donate Blood
The Food and Drug Administration plans to lift its lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have had sex with other men, and will propose replacing it with a one-year ban after homosexual activity, the agency announced Tuesday. Gay rights groups, which have long advocated a change to the ban, largely decried the announcement, saying that expecting gay blood donors to remain celibate for a year is not reasonable or medically necessary. (Zauzmer, 12/23)
USA Today:
FDA Favors Ending Blanket Ban On Gay Blood Donors
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday recommended dropping its blanket ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual donors in favor of a less restrictive policy. The proposed policy change, which will be offered for public comment next year, would allow gay men to donate blood if they had not engaged in sex with another man for at least a year. (Stanglin, 12/23)
The New York Times:
Firing Of V.A. Clinic Chief Is Upheld Over Gifts, Not Wait Lists
A federal administrative judge has upheld the dismissal of the director of the Veterans Affairs health care system in Phoenix for accepting more than $13,000 in airline tickets and other gifts from a consultant for the health care industry, for failing to disclose some of the gifts and for placing a high-ranking doctor on administrative leave for providing Senator John McCain with information about patient suicides. The former director, Sharon Helman, had also been implicated in the falsification of the hospital’s waiting lists for care, a problem at Phoenix and other veterans’ hospitals that roiled the Department of Veterans Affairs this year and led to the resignation of the department’s secretary, Eric K. Shinseki. But the administrative judge, Stephen C. Mish, concluded that the department had not provided sufficient evidence to justify firing Ms. Helman for the manipulation of waiting lists, which concealed delays in providing care to veterans. (Oppel, 12/23)
NPR:
Costly Hepatitis C Drugs Threaten To Bust Prison Budgets
Drug maker AbbVie won FDA approval ... for a new hepatitis C treatment that combines several drugs and can cure the disease in a matter of weeks or a few months. The news caps a year of medical milestones for the estimated 3.2 million Americans (including 12 to 35 percent of prisoners) who are chronically infected with this viral liver disease. Yet most of the hepatitis C drugs to hit the market this year cost tens of thousands of dollars. That puts them out of reach for many inmates and threatens to break prison health care budgets. (Gourlay, 12/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Ebola Doctor's Dilemma: Two Patients, And Drugs Enough For One
Dr. Lance Plyler prayed. He had a choice to make. Two colleagues at a hospital in Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were battling the deadly Ebola virus. The air ambulance had turned back with a mechanical problem, and Plyler feared they wouldn't survive much longer. Against the odds, the medical missionary from North Carolina had managed to find some of the last available supplies of a promising new drug, ZMapp, in neighboring Sierra Leone. A Styrofoam box containing three frozen vials of straw-colored fluid was flown to the border, canoed across a river and put on a plane to Monrovia, the Liberian capital. But there was enough to treat only one person. The developers were insistent: It would take all three doses to knock out the virus. "Whatever you do," they told him, "don't split the course." (Alexandra Zavis, 12/23)