Latest KFF Health News Stories
Maine Attorney General’s Office Throws Support Behind State’s Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion
Maine Gov. Paul LePage has been waging a contentious battle against the expansion, demanding that state lawmakers come up with a way to pay for the newly covered beneficiaries. Medicaid news comes out of Iowa and Missouri, as well.
Experts warn that the landscape could be shifting back toward pre-health law, where the state patients lived in drastically shaped the level of coverage and care they received.
“This is a very evidently political move done, approaching the midterms, to garner favor with a portion of the American public who would be encouraged and pleased by this news,” said Gabrielle Bychowski, a college professor and married mother of two in Grand Rapids, Mich. Meanwhile, CDC Director Robert Redfield cautioned that the policy would increase stigma around transgender people and that is not in the interest of public health.
“I think it is an issue that is more motivating than almost any other issue I talk about in this campaign,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who is in a tight race for reelection against Missouri’s attorney general Josh Hawley. In other news on the upcoming midterms: a White House report warns of the “costs of socialism”; anti-abortion advocates work to gin up support for their ballot initiatives in three states; health care takes center stage in a Texas House race; and more.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar cautioned that the battle is not over, but that the 2.8 percent drop in deaths toward the end of last year and beginning of this one showed that the country is making progress. Azar also unveiled a first-of-its-kind pilot program designed to help mothers with opioid addiction and their children. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign a sweeping opioids package that lawmakers pushed through Congress this fall.
Residents of Grand Junction, Colo. say it’s a battle to fight the stigma and “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that runs deep in the rural mountain area. Meanwhile, patients with mental illness are given a voice in what scientists should work on in the field, and a new study looks at the emotional trauma some college students experienced following the 2016 presidential election.
First Edition: October 24, 2018
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Editorial pages focus on these health care topics and others.
Media outlets report on news from California, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida and Texas.
While saying the punitive damages had been set too high, the judge rejected a request from the agribusiness for a new trial. A jury had ruled in favor of a groundskeeper who said his exposure to the glyphosate-based weed-killer caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Monsanto still plans to appeal the verdict.
If patients select inadequate plans, they can end up with a surprising amount of out-of-pocket costs. Experts provide tips for making the smart choices during the open enrollment session that runs into early December.
New research highlights a failure to address post-depression “flourishers”: the 10 percent of patients who are diagnosed with depression and have gone on to thrive a decade later. Understanding these patients could help others, researchers say. Other public health news also focuses on Ebola, plastic invasion of the gut, organic foods, lavender scents, eating well, flu vaccines and more.
The drugs can have serious side effects, and there has been little research to determine whether they were actually effective. A new study calls into question their widespread use in hospitals. As many as one in four hospital patients become delirious, with the risk increasing for older patients and those who have had surgery.
Opioid Fatalities Are Finally Falling, But Experts Caution That Trend Could Just Be A Blip
“After 40 years of this predictable growth pattern, we can hope that the curve is finally bending downward for good,” Dr. Donald Burke, the dean of University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, told Stat. “But history tells us to interpret these wobbles cautiously.” News on the national drug crisis comes out of California, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, as well.
‘Top To Bottom’ Review Of Refugee Resettlement Program To Be Conducted By HHS
The refugee resettlement office has been criticized recently because of its “zero tolerance policy” at the border and the director’s efforts to prevent teen migrants from getting abortions. Meanwhile, court filings reveal that authorities have held some immigrant teens for months, violating a 20-year-old court order on how long minors can be detained.
The measures are being watched closely as a method to expanding Medicaid in states with resistant legislatures. Ballot initiatives “are so powerful because they strip away from the partisanship and the tribalism that dominates so much of our politics,” said Jonathan Schliefer, executive director of The Fairness Project. “When it comes to health care, the biggest gap isn’t between Republicans and Democrats. It’s between politicians and everyone else.” Meanwhile, The Washington Post fact checks campaign ads that claim Republicans will get rid of Medicare.
The report that the Trump administration would define gender at birth has rankled scientists who study sex, gender identity and gender expression.
Advocates for transgender and other LBGTQ community rights organized a fast and furious campaign after it was revealed that the Trump administration is considering a new federal definition of gender that would effectively deny legal recognition and civil rights protections to transgender Americans.
Trump Plan Targets Restrictions On Health Reimbursement Options For Small-Business Employers
The administration is proposing regulations to expand so-called “health reimbursement arrangements,” which are employer-funded, tax-advantaged accounts that employees can use to cover health costs. Critics say the move could allow employers to devise strategies for shifting workers with high health care costs off their corporate plans.
States, for example, would be able to subsidize short-term plans that don’t offer the comprehensive coverage that is guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act. The timing of the announcement just weeks before the midterms, when Republicans have been playing defense over preexisting conditions protections, raised some brows among experts.
