Latest KFF Health News Stories
Powerful Chamber Of Commerce Pledges To Fight Any Efforts By Congress To Move Toward Single-Payer
“We’ll use all our resources to make sure that we’re careful there,” said Thomas Donohue, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. In other coverage and access news: insurer settles discrimination allegations over consumers who take HIV-prevention medication; a look at what happens when an insurer’s pricing tool gets it wrong; and trends for the coming year.
Michigan has been approved by the federal government to add in the restrictions next year, but advocates say the thousands of people dropped from Arkansas’ rolls should be a warning to the state. Medicaid news comes out of Tennessee, Iowa and Connecticut, as well.
Louisiana To Move Forward With ‘Netflix’ Subscription Model To Pay For Pricey Hep C Drugs
The model would allow the state to have access to unlimited supplies of the drug on a subscription basis, rather than paying for each patient. Louisiana hopes to lead the way for others around the country. In other pharmaceutical news: Johnson & Johnson increases prices for about two dozen drugs; a pharma CEO talks about price hikes; an advocacy group boosts a Trump proposal to tie U.S. drug prices to what other countries pay; and more.
2020 Contenders In Something Of An Arms Race To Take On ‘Big Pharma’ And Drug Prices
Drug pricing is a hot topic that voters care deeply about, and many of the 2020 Democratic hopefuls want to get ahead of their competitors with splashy bills taking on the pharmaceutical industry. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is just the latest to announce legislation that would tackle the high prices, which would include a measure pegging U.S. prescription drug prices to the median price from five countries where drug costs are typically far lower.
Trump’s Rules Allowing More Employers To Opt Out Of Covering Contraception Get Day In Court
The rules, which are set to go into effect Monday, relax requirements under the health law that birth control services be covered at no additional cost. California is challenging in court the new guidelines that would allow more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to back out of the requirement by claiming religious objections. Meanwhile, lawmakers clash over a rule that would change how individuals are billed for abortion coverage.
Administration officials are debating whether they could divert some of the $13.9 billion allocated for disaster aid without President Donald Trump declaring a national emergency. Media outlets offer looks on how the shutdown is impacting the country, from food safety inspections to domestic violence survivors to the clean up of superfund sites.
The guidelines point to common ideas associated with traditional masculinity, such as “anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk, and violence,” and how those themes can harm boys and men. In other public health news: contaminated chocolate, mental illness, DNA tests, fertility rates, life expectancy and more.
First Edition: January 11, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Editorial writers weigh in on health care issues.
Research Roundup: Homelessness; Medicaid; HPV Vaccinations
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Media outlets report on news from California, Idaho, Massachusetts, Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Arkansas, Maryland, Texas, Philadelphia and Virginia.
Study Finds Link Between Increase In Bullying In Trump Country And President’s Inauguration
“It is obviously difficult to demonstrate a causal link between statements by a public figure and schoolyard bullying. Nevertheless, there are incidents in which youth made threats and jeering statements that closely matched language used by President Trump,” the study found. Other mental health news comes out of New Hampshire, Texas and Louisiana.
The Medical Logistics Involved With Woman Giving Birth While In Vegetative State
Police and health officials are investigating a nursing facility over what happened with a woman in Arizona who gave birth while in a 14-year vegetative state. Medical officials say the kind of incident is rare, but that, medically speaking, the pregnancy could have been a perfectly healthy one for the baby.
E. Coli Outbreak Linked To Romaine Lettuce Is Finished After Spreading To 16 States, CDC reports
“Contaminated lettuce that made people sick in this outbreak should no longer be available,” the CDC said Wednesday. While there were no deaths, 25 people were hospitalized.
Innovative App Would Detect Opioid Overdoses, Developers Say. Would People Turn It On, Though?
Researchers tested the experimental gadget at North America’s first supervised injection site in Vancouver, British Columbia, and found it correctly identified breathing problems. Other news on the opioid crisis focuses on a call for more federal funding, a dismissal of lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, attempts to measure pain, a deadly new mix of drugs and more.
“If we don’t do this as an industry, I think there will be other alternatives that will be more onerous for us,” Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in California. Drug pricing was just one of the many topics that were being hotly discussed at the annual event that draws the movers-and-shakers in the industry.
Flurry Of Movement On Capitol Hill On Drug Pricing May Signal Possible Rough Waters Ahead For Pharma
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was one of a handful of lawmakers who have introduced legislation to curb high drug costs in the first few weeks of Congress being back in session. The topic is seen as one of only a few bipartisan issues that may get addressed by a divided Congress this year. In other pharmaceutical news, government officials are worried that drugmakers are using scare tactics to keep competition out of the marketplace.
States have begun exploring the possibility of a Medicaid “buy in” as an attractive option for people who are struggling to find affordable coverage. With the strategy comes a plethora of questions, though, such as, who would be eligible and what benefits would be offered.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has been aggressive in his legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s policies, including ones that have tried to chip away at the health law. The Associated Press offers a profile of the man heading up the defense of the Affordable Care Act in court.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, however, said that high-risk food surveillance inspections will resume soon. The shutdown’s impact is being felt across many sectors, including drug approvals, pollution inspections, and approval of mergers such as the CVS-Aetna deal.
