Latest KFF Health News Stories
Vowing To Improve Your Health In 2019? These Less Common Ways Might Help More Than Quick Weight Loss
Instead of a crash diet, try getting more sleep, changing when you eat, finding friends off of Facebook, exercising more, talking with your doctor and finding ways to reduce stress. Other nutrition and fitness news focuses on fad diets, dry January, heart failure and moderate drinking, safe HDL levels, heart attacks and stroke, designer meals and more.
After news that a Chinese scientist altered the DNA of a baby, a new poll reveals the complicated opinions Americans hold about future use of the gene-editing tech. Other news on innovation looks at China’s failure to monitor gene-edited cancer patients and experts ideas about upcoming breakthroughs.
“There’s no reason manufacturers must wait for #FDA to more forcefully address the epidemic” of teen vaping, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tweeted. In other news on vaping, one man tells his story on how hard it is to stop.
Many in the industry say that it’s more important to keep people from dying than drawing black-and-white rules against taking drugs to kick an addiction. Others are wary about substituting one addiction for another. In other news on the crisis: quick test strips for fentanyl, death rates, federal funding, drug use while pregnant, and more.
A Look Back At 2018: Unexpected Health Care Partnerships And Players Joined The Field
Partnerships and mergers set the stage for an ever-changing health care landscape over the past year. Industry news also focuses on long-term care and court battles.
Was 2018 The Year That Health Care Reached Its Breaking Point?
For many Americans, the risk of going without insurance was the only real option. Other stories look at the high cost of both insurance and care, and the toll it’s taking on people across the country.
The Joint Commission, a nonprofit private body authorized by the government to review hospital performance, has long held an accrediting monopoly. It’s in charge of inspecting nearly 90 percent of the country’s psychiatric hospitals. But it revokes or denies accreditation to only a very small percentage of them. Other news on safety and quality comes out of Texas and Maryland.
Investigations by the New York Times and ProPublica revealed that the prestigious cancer center’s chief medical officer, Dr. José Baselga, had been paid millions by drug and health care companies and failed to disclose those ties more than 100 times in medical journals, and that hospital insiders had made lucrative side deals, sometimes for work they had done on the job. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is still reeling from the revelations.
The hospital groups fighting the Trump administration’s change to the 340B drug discount program said that the cuts impeded their ability to provide care for low-income patients. In his opinion, Judge Rudolph Contreras said that, while the HHS secretary does have the authority to make “adjustments” to the program, “he cannot fundamentally rework the statutory scheme.”
Among other things, the Medicare program itself looks a lot different — and more privately operated — than it did when Democrats first started advocating for a “Medicare for All” system. As the 2020 jockeying among Democrats commences, what exactly does that sweeping idea mean for its proponents?
For Native American Tribes, Government Shutdown Could Cripple Basic Health Care System
Native American tribes rely heavily on federal funding to keep their health clinics staffed. “Things do grind to a halt,” said Kevin Washburn, who served as the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs under President Barack Obama. “Indian Country stops moving forward” during a shutdown, Mr. Washburn said, “and starts moving backward.”
Trump Deflects Blame To Democrats Over The Two Migrant Children Who Died While In U.S. Custody
President Donald Trump on Twitter said Democrats “and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally,” are to blame for the deaths of an 8-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl in December. The Trump administration faces increasing scrutiny over the quality of care at detention centers for young migrants.
Thousands of Arkansas residents have been dropped from the state’s Medicaid rolls in the months since the new work requirements were put in place. But the story is more complicated than just people not being able to get jobs. Meanwhile, Mississippi’s Republican governor is mulling Medicaid expansion — quietly. And a look back at 2018’s Medicaid developments in the states.
Federal Judge Reed O’Connor, who ruled in December that the health law could not stand without the individual mandate penalty, issued a stay as the ruling is appealed “because many everyday Americans would otherwise face great uncertainty” otherwise. Although O’Connor expressed certainty in his decision, many legal experts have questioned whether the ruling will hold up in higher courts.
First Edition: January 2, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion pages focus on these health care topics and others.
Different Takes: Passing Of Health Law Relied On Unconstitutional Step; Dems Can Fix ACA In Congress
Opinion writers weigh in on last week’s ruling by a Texas judge declaring the Health Law is unconstitutional.
Research Roundup: Women’s Health In The U.S.; Medicaid Work Requirements; And Tribal Home Visits
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Media outlets report on news from Hawaii, Massachusetts, Louisiana, California, Texas, New Hampshire, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida.
NIH Director Francis Collins said an advisory group of scientists, bioethicists and members of the public will be formed to address the issue. Other public health stories in the news focus on lying; drug development for epilepsy; U.S. child killed working; food safety; short days, dark moods; nightmares; GMO labeling; Marburg virus spread; breathalyzers in cars; year-end elective surgeries and more.
