Latest KFF Health News Stories
Longer Looks: Doctors’ Uncertainty; History Of Homesickness; Abortion Polling
Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
News outlets report on health issues in Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Michigan, Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
Iowa Senate Passes Bill To Tighten Oversight Of Private Plans Managing Medicaid
The bipartisan effort faces an uncertain future in the House. In Oklahoma, the House passes a cost-cutting bill that will take 111,000 people off Medicaid. News services also report on Medicaid developments in Georgia and Kansas.
Mississippi, Arizona Target Medicaid In Efforts To Cut Ties To Planned Parenthood
Lawmakers in both states voted Wednesday on legislation restricting public funding for the reproductive health organization.
Google Donating $1M, Engineering Resources To Combat Zika
“Unlike many other global pandemics, the spread of Zika has been harder to identify, map and contain,” said Jacquelline Fuller, director of Google’s nonprofit arm. In other outbreak news, Republican lawmakers continue to be skeptical of the president’s emergency funding request, saying there’s money left that was earmarked for Ebola. Health officials, however, warn that would cripple the efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine.
Parents Of Child With Down Syndrome Didn’t Listen To ‘Can’t’ Or ‘Won’t’
Debbie and Frank Antonelli were warned they’d have a long battle in front of them when their son was born with Down syndrome. But where some people might have seen limits, they saw potential.
Insurer Restrictions On Hep C Drug Coverage Probed By New York Attorney General
Information has been subpoenaed from 16 insurance companies on their policies regarding hepatitis C drugs that can cost $1,000 a pill, before discounts. Consumers have filed lawsuits alleging rationed access to the medications and a similar investigation is taking place in Massachusetts.
Hospital Group Renews Arguments Against Anthem’s Purchase Of Cigna
In other related news, California’s Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has formally applied to acquire Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative. (Kaiser Health News and The Kaiser Family Foundation are not associated with the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.)
GOP Senators Block Push To Add $600M In Emergency Funding To Bipartisan Opioid Bill
Though Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said that passing the legislation without the extra money is like “offering a life preserver to people who are drowning and not putting air in that life preserver,” Republican lawmakers argued that there is already sufficient funding through the omnibus spending bill passed last year. Democrats signaled they will still support the bill without the $600 million addition.
Ark. Governor Says Legislative Primary Victories Boost His Plan For Medicaid Expansion
Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he views the victories of Medicaid expansion supporters as an endorsement of his efforts to get the legislature to accept his plan. Also, a key lawmaker in Alaska says legislative opponents of Medicaid expansion there will appeal a judge’s ruling for the governor.
Obama Goes To Wisconsin To Tout Its Health Law Successes
Wisconsin is the only state that used the Affordable Care Act to expand its Medicaid coverage even though state officials rejected hundreds of millions of federal dollars available for this purpose. Meanwhile, CQ Healthbeat reports that the Obama administration is contemplating changes to risk management programs for insurers that participate in the health law’s exchanges. Also, Bloomberg details how startup Oscar Health Insurance Corp. is struggling in these new markets.
Trump Unveils Seven-Point Health Care Plan, But Details Remain Vague
The GOP front-runner’s proposals mostly fall in line with what other Republicans have offered — including revamping Medicaid to be a block grant program and selling insurance across state lines. But his plan to allow prescription drug imports is more akin to what Democrats advocate.
Justices Could Send Abortion Case Back To Texas After Conservative Wing Questions Law’s Effect
During Wednesday’s oral arguments, some of the justices debated if there was enough evidence to prove the Texas law at the center of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt was the reason the abortion clinics in the state closed. Meanwhile, the three female justices led the charge against the strict regulations, saying the state was targeting abortion and not other more dangerous medical practices.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Supreme Court Justices Divided During Oral Arguments In Texas Abortion Case
In the first major abortion case to be heard by the high court in almost a decade, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt was argued before the eight justices Wednesday.
A selection of opinions from around the country.
News outlets report on health issues in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, New York and California.
N.C. Officials Release Details Of Plan To Revamp Medicaid
The plan to move Medicaid into private managed care plans must still be approved by federal officials. Also in the news, a look at the woman leading the effort to change Alabama’s Medicaid system, a dispute in Colorado over a Medicaid tax and the federal government stopping reimbursements at a hospital in South Dakota.
Gov. Brown Signs Law To Expand Tax On California’s Managed Care Insurers
The package is designed to help avoid losing more than $1 billion in federal matching funds for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program for low-income residents.
Sexual Transmission Of Zika Virus, Thought To Have Been Rare, Raising Concerns As More Cases Emerge
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating more than a dozen cases where pregnant women whose only exposure to Zika was through unprotected sex have been infected.
