Latest KFF Health News Stories
Public Health Officials Race To Try To Protect Vulnerable People As Polar Vortex Pummels Midwest
People are being warned not to go outside, even just for a few minutes. And if you have to, make sure none of your skin is exposed. But what about people who don’t have that option? “I’m cold and I’m afraid,” said one homeless man in Chicago who was trying to raise money for a night in a hotel room.
Partisan Fireworks On Display As Ways And Means Committee Holds Hearing On Preexisting Conditions
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they want to guarantee protections for people with preexisting conditions. Democrats called attention to the ways their Republican colleagues have chipped away at the health law — and thus those popular provisions — while GOP lawmakers countered that there are other ways to protect people. Many politicians see the issue as an important factor in the 2020 elections. In other news from Capitol Hill: surprise medical billing and Johnson&Johnson baby powder.
“To replace the entire private system where companies provide health care for their employees would bankrupt us for a very long time,” Michael Bloomberg said during a trip to New Hampshire. Support for “Medicare for All” has become somewhat of a litmus test for progressive Democrats interested in tossing their hats in the 2020 presidential ring, but it can mean different things for different candidates.
The pharmaceutical industry was put on notice Tuesday when two powerful congressional committees placed high drug prices firmly at the top of their agendas. “Drug companies make money hand over fist by raising the prices of their drugs — often without justification and sometimes overnight — while patients are left holding the bill,” said House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) at the House hearing. Over in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was adamant about bringing drug company executives in front of lawmakers to answer questions on high costs.
First Edition: January 30, 2019
Note to readers: If you are in the D.C. area, please join us Thursday, Jan. 31, for a live taping of KHN’s weekly podcast, “What The Health,” hosted by Julie Rovner and her expert panel of health journalists. Registration begins at 12:30 pm. For more information and to RSVP, click here
Opinion writers weigh in on these health topics and others.
Editorial writers focus on how to improve health care.
Media outlets report on news from Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, California, and Minnesota.
During a time when there are long wait times for healthy organs, the director of NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute recommends using organs infected with a liver disease that is treatable. Dr. Robert Montgomery received a heart from a donor who had hepatitis C. News on public health also focuses on tips to avoid frost bite; a new health app from Aetna and Apple; gene-edited babies; music’s healing powers; the race to put sensors in the gut; toddler development; sleep deprivation and pain; regenerative medicine and more.
The three problems are so interwoven that the only way to stave off global catastrophe is by addressing at least two of them — and ideally all of them — at once. However, to do so would require an ambitious restructuring of economic incentives that drive the production and marketing of food. Meanwhile, consumers can’t rely on food labels to alert them to what allergens are in a product.
The study is the first to find a way for patients to lower their risk of mild cognitive impairment. “I think it actually is very exciting because it tells us that by improving vascular health in a comprehensive way, we could actually have an effect on brain health,” said Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at University of California San Francisco.
Clark County, Wash. has a vaccination rate of 78 percent, well below the level necessary to protect those with compromised immune systems or who can’t get vaccinated because of medical issues or because they are too young. Health officials say the outbreak is a textbook example of why vaccinations are needed.
U.S. Citizen Accused Of Leaking HIV Records Of 14,200 People In Singapore Data Spill
The latest leak comes less than a year after a cyberattack on SingHealth that exposed the medical data of about 1.5 million people. The attacks underscore the difficulties companies and governments face in protecting private details of consumers.
“We’re already getting very close to the early stages of fire season,” said one former National Park Service superintendent. “Training is not happening right now, hiring is not happening for the summer season — all of that hiring is not happening.” Other news on the shutdown looks at the impact to rural health programs.
“Everyone agrees consumers should be held harmless, but the huge fight is over payment situation between insurer and provider,” said one analyst. President Donald Trump brought renewed attention to the issue last week during a health care roundtable, and there’s already bipartisan legislation to address the issue in Congress.
D.C.’s Failure To Curb Its Opioid Crisis Draws Fierce Criticism From Public Health Experts, Doctors
At a hearing that ran more than nine hours, dozens testified about failed efforts in the nation’s capital. It wasn’t immediately clear what new legislation could emerge from the hearing, but topics included the need for more street outreach to heroin users and the possibility of government-supervised sites where drug users can inject heroin. News on the drug crisis comes out of Ohio and Tennessee, as well.
John Kapoor, former chairman and CEO of Insys, and four others face racketeering and conspiracy charges on allegations that they used bribes to ramp up sales for its fentanyl spray Subsys and lied to insurers about which patients were getting the drug. The FDA has only approved Subsys as a treatment for severe cancer pain. “This is a case about greed, about greed and its consequences, the consequences of putting profits over people,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lazarus told a Boston federal jury at the trial’s start.
Now That Right-To-Try Law Is Enacted, Even Supporters Are Wondering If They Were Sold False Hope
As conservatives pushed for the right-to-try legislation, opponents of the bill were vocal in saying that it would give desperate patients false hope. Now, that those patients are trying to get experimental drugs from pharmaceutical companies, they face discouraging obstacles and frustrations. In other pharmaceutical news: Medicare Part D discounts; congressional drug price hearings; an expensive cystic fibrosis treatment; and more.
Kamala Harris Would Be Willing To Cut Private Insurers Out Of Mix To Enact ‘Medicare For All’
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a 2020 presidential candidate, talked about the health care plan that’s popular with progressive Democrats at a town hall on Monday, saying she feels “very strongly” about “Medicare for All.” Recent polls found that Americans don’t like the idea of giving up their private plans for universal coverage.
First Edition: January 29, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
