Latest KFF Health News Stories
Trump’s Mandate That Lawmakers Should ‘Do More’ On Drug Prices Greeted With Mixed Reactions
While many view high drug prices as one of the few bipartisan issues Congress may be able to tackle in the next two years, some lawmakers were confused by or derisive of the policy proposals President Donald Trump laid out in his State of the Union address. Meanwhile, a fact check of Trump’s speech finds that he was using selective statistics that exaggerate what seems to be a slowdown in drug price increases.
Advocates are excited that President Donald Trump included the HIV epidemic in his State of the Union address to Congress. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, offered further details on the plan, saying it would use two strategies shown to be effective at halting the spread of the virus: antiretroviral drugs and the increased use of prevention medication.
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First Edition: February 6, 2019
Mark your calendar: Join our Facebook Live chat, “Helping People Age With Independence,” with KHN columnist Judith Graham and Sarah Szanton, director of the Center for Innovative Care in Aging at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 12:30 p.m. Share your questions or experiences ahead of time, or ask questions on Facebook during the event.
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Opinion writers express views about Medicare-For-All and health policy.
Media outlet report on news from Michigan, Indiana, Hawaii, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Tennessee, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and Florida.
California Lawmakers Propose Bill To Scale Back On Surgeries For Intersex Children
“The fundamental premise of the legislation is that people should make decisions about their own bodies,” said Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, the bill’s sponsor. But the California Medical Association has “very serious concerns” that the bill might restrict treatments. News on genital mutilation comes out of Connecticut, also.
Most Common Adult-Onset Food Allergies Are Shellfish, Wheat
Nearly 11 percent of adults have a food allergy, and about half of them developed it as an adult. Increasing food-allergy rates in the Western world are a vexing problem for experts who theorize that they could be related to the increasing use of antibiotics, rising number of C-sections and increasingly sterile environments.
When people could no longer grind Oxycontin and snort it or inject, some switched drugs, a new study from Rand says, and that is leading to the spread of disease and costly treatments taxing Medicaid. Other news on the opioid epidemic looks at safe injection sites and palliative use of marijuana, also.
“What is most worrying to me is that there has been fairly profound consolidation among hospitals and when they gain market power they have the ability to raise prices,” said Zack Cooper, the study’s co-author. “They have the ability to gain more favorable contractual terms, which allows them to raise prices and resist the new, more sensible payment reforms.” In other news from the health industry: artificial hip lawsuits, out-of-pocket costs, insulin pumps and surprise medical bills.
Federal regulators said the new agreement with LiveOnNY provides “more frequent oversight” and requires the organ procurement organization, or OPO, to increase its organ recovery rates substantially. In other news from the federal government: digitizing veterans’ records and halting the crackdown on e-cigarettes.
Patients suffering from a rare disorder previously were able to obtain the treatment for free from a small pharmaceutical company that offered it through an FDA program called “compassionate use.” In November, the FDA allowed Catalyst to distribute the drug, with exclusive rights to market it. The following month the company said it would sell Firdapse for $375,000 a year. In other news, lawmakers are inviting CEOs from seven major drug companies to testify on prices.
The study found a 21.6 percent increase in the insertion rates of long-acting reversible contraceptive methods among women ages 18-45 in the 30 days after President Donald Trump was elected. “My slots would be booked with women wanting to get IUDs,” Dr. Aparna Sridhar told The New York Times. “They would specifically state that they are getting an IUD because of the political changes they are witnessing.”
For years, lawmakers in Utah and Idaho blocked Medicaid expansion — until it went on the ballot last November. Initiatives were approved in both states, but now state legislators are trying to add restrictions that would limit the gains made by Medicaid advocates. Utah lawmakers, worried that a sales tax increase might not fully cover costs, are rushing through a bill that would limit the expansion to people with incomes less than or equal to the poverty level, while in Idaho the legislature is mulling work requirements for the program.
President Donald Trump is expected to speak about the issue in his State of the Union address tonight. He may also talk about other health policy issues such as high drug prices and his administration’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis.
How An Infamous Party Drug Could Hold The Key To Quieting Suicidal Ideation
Scientists have been looking at ketamine’s effects on suicidal thoughts for a while now, but no one was biting despite the positive trial results. With the rise of the suicide epidemic, however, the winds might be changing. The first ketamine-based drug, from Johnson & Johnson, could be approved for treatment-resistant depression by March and suicidal thinking within two years. In other public health news: supplements and dementia, gambling, aging and the brain, intimacy, gene-editing and more.
First Edition: February 5, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
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