Latest KFF Health News Stories
Advocates Aren’t Satisfied With Juul’s New Marketing Campaign That Shifts Away Targeting Teens
Juul instead is selling itself as the way for adult smokers to finally quit traditional cigarettes. But advocates say those claims haven’t been proven.
The increase in complaints shouldn’t be taken as a sign of a deep shift in the country, some say, but as a result of the Trump administration’s willingness to hear them.
Teacher Has To Pay For Substitute To Cover For Her While She’s Getting Treated For Breast Cancer
Teachers in California are allotted 10 sick days per year which roll over if they aren’t used, and then an additional 100 days of extended sick leave during which their pay is docked to pay for a substitute.
Experts Want States To Pump The Brakes On Labeling Porn A Public Health Crisis
Some experts argue that state resolutions to label pornography as a public health risk create a stigma for marginalized groups like LGBTQ people and miss a key piece of the puzzle by leaving out calls for more robust sex education for teens. In other public health news: gonorrhea, anxiety, Huntington’s disease, sex after menopause, school shootings, children’s safety and more.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced a plan this week that would funnel $100 billion toward combatting the opioid epidemic. She’s on the road to talk about it, stopping in states that have been deeply impacted by the drug crisis. In other news: a Trump administration official talks about boosting funding; prescription opioid use plummets; spending on the epidemic sky-rockets; and more.
The majority of the dozens of New York City schools that had less than 90 percent of their children vaccinated for measles in the last school year were not ultra-Orthodox Jewish. Meanwhile, a look into history shows that vaccination resistance is nothing new in the U.S., and it tends to be tied tumultuous times of social upheaval and distrust in our institutions.
“It’s eye-opening, really, not just for the employers,” said Gloria Sachdev, the chief executive of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, a coalition that helped with the study. “It’s eye-opening for the hospitals.”
Alabama lawmakers are poised to pass legislation that would effectively ban all abortions and criminalize the procedure in the state — a move that is all but guaranteed to end the case in front of the Supreme Court to challenge Roe v. Wade. But a verbal scuffle delayed the bill on Thursday. Meanwhile, outlets take a look at what some of abortion measures moving through many state capitols mean for women.
The high cost of the drug has been cited as a barrier to bringing HIV transmissions down to zero. While many advocates cheered the news, others warn that the donation only covers about a fifth of what the country needs.
With Coverage Rules Vote, House Democrats Drop First Bomb In Expected Blitz To Defend The Health Law
The House voted 230-183 on a measure to bar the Trump administration from granting states waivers that would ease health law requirements. The bill is one in a series of steps Democrats plan to take in the upcoming weeks. The votes come as President Donald Trump recently renewed his vow to repeal the 2010 law and directed the Justice Department to support a lawsuit aimed at invalidating the law entirely.
President Donald Trump is offering support of the idea of importing drugs from other countries to cut costs even though HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) have both questioned the safety of such a plan.
About one in seven patients wind up with surprise bills — some of them sky-high — and the issue is routinely ranked as an important one for voters. President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Congress to send him legislation to protect patients from those nasty surprises, while lawmakers promised they would deliver soon. But the question remains: who gets stuck with the costs?
Media outlets report health care news from Florida, California, Iowa, Wyoming, Texas, New York, Connecticut, Georgia, Ohio, Arizona, North Carolina and Minnesota.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Editorial writers weigh in on these health care topics and others.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health topics and others.
News out of state legislatures comes from New Hampshire, California, Missouri, Texas and North Carolina.
Last year stood as the best financially for insurers in the individual market since 2011, with monthly average individual market gross margins per member more than doubling from $78 in 2017 to $167 in 2018. In other health industry news: the Elizabeth Holmes trial, health care claims, the False Claims Act, public health and TV shows, apps and more.
White Patients 35 Times More Likely To Receive Addiction Medication Than African-American Ones
The findings on the racial disparity of treatment are critical as research revealed earlier this year showed a spike in the number of African-American deaths tied to fentanyl. Other news reports on the epidemic looks at needle exchanges and safety concerns for police, as well.
Studying genome and molecular activities in patients is better than conventional medicine when it comes to detecting potential health problems, according to Michael Snyder, chair of the genetics department at Stanford University. But other researchers express doubts about costs and other issues. Public health news also looks at disaster preparedness, antibiotic resistant infections, drug safety in pregnant women, weedkiller and cancer, obesity and diabetes.
