Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Calif. Tobacco Tax Reemerges; Mass. Town Pulls Tobacco Ban Proposal
California Healthline: Tobacco Tax Proposal Set To Rise Again
On Tuesday, anti-smoking advocates announced a new campaign to establish a $2-a-pack tax on cigarettes in California. Organizers were uncertain whether the proposal would take the form of legislation in Sacramento or a statewide ballot measure, or both. (Gorn, 11/19)
Los Angeles Times: California Health And Child-Welfare Agency May Seek Increase In Tobacco Tax
Under preliminary consideration are proposals to push state lawmakers to tax "e-cigarettes" or increase existing taxes on tobacco products — and even to snag a share of any tax revenue from legalized marijuana sales if California decides to go that route. The agency considering those options, First 5 California, is among a group of agencies and health organizations supported by California's web of tobacco taxes, which brought in an estimated $835 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year, a decline from $1.2 billion in 1999-2000, a year after cigarette taxes last rose. (Willon and Mason, 11/19)
WBUR: Westminster Pulls Tobacco Ban Proposal
The Westminister Board of Health is withdrawing a proposal to ban tobacco sales in town after staunch opposition. According to the Telegram & Gazette, board member Edward Simoncini Jr. made the motion to withdraw the proposal Wednesday and the board voted 2-1, with Peter Munro voting for and chairwoman Andrea Crete voting against the motion. (11/19)
Boston Globe: Westminster Drops Proposal To Ban Tobacco Sales
The local board of health on Wednesday abruptly dropped a controversial proposal to ban all tobacco sales in this small central Massachusetts town, one week after hundreds of angry residents forced a public hearing on the plan to come to a raucous close. (Murphy, 11/19)
Los Angeles Times: Southland Employers Expect 4.8% Hike In Health-Benefit Costs
Southern California employers expect their health-benefit costs to rise 4.8% next year as the economy recovers and mandates under the federal health law kick in, a new survey shows. Nationwide, more people are expected to sign up for health benefits at work during the current open enrollment season as new federal rules begin taking effect in 2015 and penalties increase for being uninsured. (Terhune, 11/19)
The Topeka Capital-Journal: State Hospital At Risk Of Losing Medicare Payments
The federal government has put Osawatomie State Hospital on notice that if it does not correct problems there in the next three weeks, it will no longer be allowed to bill Medicare for services. But Kari Bruffett, secretary of the Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the hospital, assured a legislative committee Tuesday that a corrective action would soon be in place and the deficiencies at Osawatomie would be fixed before the hospital is terminated from Medicare. (Hancock, 11/18)
Los Angeles Times: Judge Won't Stop L.A. County From Sending 91,000 Medi-Cal Cancellations
More than 91,000 Medi-Cal recipients in Los Angeles County will be sent letters this week telling them that their state-supported health care coverage will end on Nov. 30. A judge this week refused to block the notices, even though health advocates argued that the letters lack important details that would help recipients renew their plans. (Brown, 11/19)
The Chicago Sun-Times: Retired City Employees Protest Looming Hike In Health Care Premiums
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is offering another $400,000 to soften the blow of Round Two of his three-year phase-out of the city’s 55-percent subsidy for retiree health care, but retirees and their City Council allies are holding out for $9 million. That’s how much it would cost to “hold harmless” 2,500 non-Medicare eligible retirees whose pension checks come from the Municipal Employees Pension Fund and to cut in half the increase for those retirees who do qualify for Medicare. (Spielman, 11/20)
Kansas Health Institute News Service: No Target Date For Final Streamlining System For Kansas Medicaid
A $135 million computer system meant to streamline applications for Kansas social services, including Medicaid, remains without a final "go-live" date more than a year after the rollout was originally scheduled to be completed. Glen Yancey, chief information officer for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said Tuesday that his staff is "making final assessments" of the readiness the Kansas Eligibility and Enforcement System, or KEES. Yancey declined to give a rollout target date, though, saying that policymakers above him have to make that call. (Marso, 11/19)
North Carolina Health News: Providers Work To Ease Effects Of Abortion Law
In 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly pushed through a controversial law that put up what some call barriers to abortion and what others call more informed consent. HB 693 would require teens to have a parent accompany them for reproductive health care. The Woman’s Right to Know law requires a doctor to show a patient ultrasound images and describe them and have the woman sign a form that various stipulations of the law have been performed. Findings from a study done by researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill show that the passage of HB 854 hasn’t affected patients very much, but abortion providers in North Carolina have had to make several changes to the way they operate to comply with the law’s mandates. Mara Buchbinder, who presented the findings at the American Public Health Association Conference in New Orleans this week, told an audience that the study shows that the new law created extra work for providers. (Namkoong, 11/19)
Connecticut Mirror: Insurance Commissioner Leonardi Stepping Down
Insurance Commissioner Thomas B. Leonardi will step down next month to join an investment banking advisory firm, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office announced Wednesday. Leonardi, who has led the insurance department since shortly after Malloy took office in 2011, had previously headed an investment banking, venture capital and private equity firm, Northington Partners. He will join Evercore, a New York investment banking advisory firm, as a senior advisor focusing on insurance. (Levin Becker, 11/19)
The Denver Post: Aspen Has No Psych Beds, But It's Pushing Other Ways To Stop Suicides
For drivers stuck in a commuter traffic jam outside Aspen recently, a cheery local-radio announcer issued this advice: "Remember to take care of your mental health." This may seem like an odd reminder in the midst of holiday-festivity announcements in one of the most beautiful and wealth-endowed communities in the country. But the Aspen area is suffering from what some here describe as an epidemic of emotional crises and suicides. The suicide rate in Pitkin County is four times the national average. Four residents took their lives in 11 days early this year. Two more suicides have occurred since then. The dead range from a well-known journalist to a veteran who had lost his legs in Iraq. (Lofholm, 11/20)
