Latest KFF Health News Stories
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released her plan for “Medicare for All” Friday, after facing criticism for not detailing how she would pay for the overhaul to the health system. It would require the federal government to absorb $20.5 trillion in new spending, but Warren says that the middle class will not see “one penny” in tax hikes. She plans to carry over almost all existing health funding from employers and state governments while also levying a variety of new taxes on the rich, corporations and high-earning investors — including doubling her signature wealth tax on billionaires.
The Stanford Project Respect Initiative researchers examined six types of aggressive behavior reported by women, including encountering sexism, sexually inappropriate comments, and having their abilities underestimated. Other news looks at discrimination against pregnant women at WeWorks.
Two new studies find that, among other things, patients who received the therapy showed “striking” improvement in a key measure of lung capacity. The drug will cost about $311,000 per year, the same as Vertex’s previous cystic fibrosis drug.
Firefighting Has Changed — And So Have The Threats To Health Of Those Who Battle The Flames
As firefighters work tirelessly to contain the wildfires in California, the conversation again focuses on new threats to their health — such as chemicals being released from the flames.
The measles virus creates “immune amnesia,” leaving children vulnerable to illness for years after they’ve been infected. “This goes under the radar” because doctors wouldn’t necessarily connect a child’s pneumonia to measles they suffered a year earlier, said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard’s school of public health. “But would they have gotten it if they hadn’t gotten measles?”
The proposal Georgia submitted is designed to make coverage less expensive, with more competition among insurers and fewer enrollment snags. Georgia residents could bypass Healthcare.gov and sign up for insurance directly through an insurance provider or broker website. Thirteen states have had this type of 1332 waiver approved by the federal government.
The hearing over the future of Missouri’s last-remaining abortion clinic concluded, but shockwaves over top health official’s spreadsheet tracking women’s periods still reverberate. While there were no names associated with the data, critics find it uncomfortable that such personal information was used in the fight. “How is the government going to use my information to wage a political war?” said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Indiana Becomes Second State In Recent Weeks To Pump The Brakes On Medicaid Work Requirement Plans
Indiana and Arizona — both with Republican governors — are the first states to voluntarily take step that three other states were forced to take through court orders. Many advocates had been vocal in their warnings that many people would lose coverage if Medicaid work requirements are put into place, but the Trump administration has been allowing states to move in that direction.
The tobacco giant wrote down its investment in Juul by more than a third, acknowledging that it hadn’t anticipated the regulatory pitfalls confronting the e-cigarette market. Altria hoped to tap the vaping market in the face of declining smoking rates and cigarette sales in the United States. Now the company is under investigation by the FTC over its role in the resignation of Juul’s former chief executive and his replacement by an Altria executive. Meanwhile, the total number of vaping-related lung disease cases continues to climb.
First Edition: November 1, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health topics and others.
Editorial pages focus on these health topics and others.
Research Roundup: The Benefits Of Eating Fish; Bias In Medicine; And Food Insecurity
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Investigation Reveals Startling Spike In Cancer For Soldiers Who Served In Iraq, Afghanistan
An investigation by McClatchy shows that for some types of cancer were up to a 112 percent increase in treatments during the past 18 years. In other public health news: Ebola, the fertility crisis, diets, disparities in medical research, pedestrian safety, and more.
Controversial power outages aimed at preventing wildfires are causing disruption across California, but health care providers dealing with life-and-death matters say it’s particularly vexing for them. Meanwhile, the threat of vicious Santa Ana winds looms over the state that’s already been battered in recent days by the raging fires.
In A Frank Self-Examination, Doctors Explore How An Experimental Fecal Transplant Turned Fatal
Fecal transplants have lots of buzz surrounding them, but then a death of one patient sent ripples of concern through the field of study. In an article, the doctors take a hard look at what went wrong.
ProPublica investigates the sometime fatal consequences that come with patient identification errors, including one case where a family made the decision to take a patient off life-support only to realize after the autopsy that it was a stranger instead of their loved one.
When it comes to high health care costs, the big players in the industry often point fingers at each other as the culprits, which can make coming to a consensus on lowering costs challenging. The debate was on display at the final panel of the Milken Institute’s Future of Health Summit Wednesday, with insurers and pharma representatives sparring over the Democrats’ plan. Meanwhile, lawmakers introduce a bipartisan measure to tackle generic drug costs for seniors.
Media outlets report on news from Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, New Hampshire, and Ohio.
“Can’t we figure out a simpler way so that people who are eligible can get into these programs?” Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) said during a Senate Finance Committee’s healthcare subcommittee. Republicans are worried about waste in the program. Other Medicaid news comes form Texas, Ohio and Michigan as well.
