Weekly Edition February 22, 2019
Talk About Déjà Vu: Senators Set To Re-Enact Drug Price Hearing Of 60 Years Ago
Jay Hancock
Tuesday’s Senate hearing with pharma CEOs will tackle the same issues as the famous Kefauver hearings in 1960.
Today’s Concerns About Drug Prices Echo The Past
Confrontational hearings 60 years ago sparked remarkably similar quotes about drug prices and health care policy.
The High Cost Of Sex: Insurers Often Don’t Pay For Drugs To Treat Problems
Michelle Andrews
Medicare and many private insurers view prescribing drugs to improve sexual function as a lifestyle issue that’s not medically necessary to pay for.
Trump Plan To Beat HIV Hits Rough Road In Rural America
Jackie Fortiér, StateImpact Oklahoma
Health officials and doctors treating patients with HIV welcome the funding push, but warn that the strategies that work in progressive cities don't necessarily translate to rural areas.
The Measles Success Story In California Shows Signs Of Fading
Harriet Blair Rowan
California’s highly touted gains in vaccinating schoolchildren against measles stalled last year, possibly related to an increase in the number of students who have been exempted from vaccinations on medical grounds.
More States Say Doctors Must Offer Overdose Reversal Drug Along With Opioids
Barbara Feder Ostrov
In an emerging new tactic against the rising toll of opioid deaths, California, Ohio, Virginia and Arizona are among the states requiring physicians to offer patients naloxone when they give them prescriptions for the powerful painkillers. The Food and Drug Administration is weighing a national recommendation to do so.
Is New App From Feds Your Answer To Navigating Medicare Coverage? Yes And No
Rachel Bluth
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched this month the “What’s Covered” app, designed to provide yes-or-no answers about what services are covered under traditional Medicare. KHN took it for a test drive with real consumers.
Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Is Striking For School Nurses The Way To Go?
Ana B. Ibarra
Inspired by Los Angeles teachers, who were promised 300 more school nurses after striking last month, unions in Denver, Oakland, Calif., and beyond are demanding more school nurses or better compensation for them.
‘These Women’s Lives Mattered’: Nurse Builds Database Of Women Murdered By Men
Natalie Schreyer
For dozens of hours each week, Dawn Wilcox scours the internet for news stories of women killed by men for a public list called Women Count USA.
For 2020 Dem Hopefuls, ‘Medicare-For-All’ Is A Defining Issue, However They Define It
Shefali Luthra
Support for “Medicare-for-all” is becoming a front-runner topic among Democratic presidential candidates. But the phrase is being used to describe any number of policies.
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ How Safe Are Your Supplements?
Alice Ollstein of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the latest national health spending estimates, another FDA crackdown on dietary supplements and lawsuits between insurers and the federal government that could result in a windfall for consumers.