Latest KFF Health News Stories
Miss. Governor Signs Restrictive Fetal ‘Heartbeat Bill’ Designed To Challenge Roe V. Wade
The new Mississippi bill prohibits the abortion of a fetus with a detectable heartbeat, before the point where a woman may be aware she is pregnant. Although similar “heartbeat bills” have failed in court countless times, the measure is part of a wave of restrictive state-level legislation that is geared toward challenging Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, in the federal House, there’s no longer a single Republican who supports abortion rights.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care issues and others.
Research Roundup: Work Requirements; Sleep Problems And Autism; And Daily Aspirin
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Media outlets report on news from Rhode Island, Tennessee, Ohio, Texas, Massachusetts, D.C., Florida, California, Virginia, New York, Maryland, Texas, Minnesota and Georgia.
News on the state legislatures comes out of Georgia, Florida, Connecticut, California, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia.
The risk is “low enough that you can’t say, ‘just don’t prescribe Adderall,’” said Dr. Lauren Moran, the study’s lead author. “But from a public health perspective, there’s so many millions of people being prescribed these medications that it actually leads to thousands of people at increased risk of psychosis.” In other public health news: Zika, sugary drinks, depression and more.
It only took six days since New Zealand’s largest massacre for the government to change gun ownership laws. But the country’s constitution does not guarantee the right to own a gun and the gun lobby isn’t as strong as in the U.S., where efforts to change laws have been mostly at the state level.
The practice of letting kids get chickenpox from sick friends or neighbors is a holdover from the days before the vaccination became widely available, and doctors say the method can lead to dangerous complications or death. Meanwhile, experts are using actual examples of social media activists attacking doctors and others advocating for vaccinations in order to better understand the resistance.
“There just aren’t enough places and schools to get trained for how many people we need in those roles,” said economist Tara Sinclair. An aging population and increase in wealth has contributed to higher demand for health care services, and the skills gap is only going to have a greater impact on the booming industry as it grows. In other health industry news: costly insurance, a hospital whistleblower case, health stocks, state employee premiums, cheating doctors and more.
Expected Shortfalls For Black Lung Fund Will Be Covered By Taxpayers Instead Of Coal Companies
In January, the tax rate coal companies pay to support the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund was cut in half, leaving sick miners and their advocates fearing future benefit cuts from a fund that is already about some $4 billion in debt. The Department of Labor said in a statement Wednesday that it is obligated to continue paying benefits to sick miners, so a shortfall would be covered by borrowing from taxpayers. In other environmental health news: unsafe drinking water, manufacturing industry’s lingering effects on health, coal ash and more.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote that the government will step in if even further than it already has if the e-cigarette industry doesn’t take an active role in curbing the epidemic. Meanwhile, in a podcast, Gottlieb talks about his work at the agency and if he’ll ever return to the government.
Authorities are touting a Los Angeles County program as a breakthrough in policing that could save lives of veterans who are having a crisis. Since the program’s launch in September, local law enforcement agencies answering such 911 calls have dispatched not only deputies or officers but also two-person teams from the Veterans Affairs hospital in Long Beach. Supporters call the program the first of its kind and hope it will be replicated nationwide.
More than 5,000 of the current 18,000 comments were made public this week, and nearly all of them support the proposal with very similar wording that matches a RetireSafe-sponsored form letter available at the website SubmitForChange.org. In other pharmaceutical news: Pfizer makes a gene-therapy deal, AbbVie is sued over its patent deals, and the FDA is taking steps to cut down on blood pressure medication recalls.
The death rate among African Americans from fentanyl-involved drug overdoses rose 141 percent each year, on average, from 2011 to 2016, and the death rate for Hispanics rose 118 percent in that period every year on average. Altogether, the records revealed that more than 36,000 Americans died with fentanyl in their systems during the study period. The majority of those deaths — 18,335 — occurred in 2016 alone. Meanwhile, the nation’s top medical advisers say that medication for addiction is vastly underused.
New Hampshire residents are challenging the Trump administration’s approval of work requirements for Medicaid recipients, after suits filed in Arkansas and Kentucky. Critics of the work requirement waivers say they are an attack on the poor. “This approval will not promote coverage, but it will result in significant coverage losses, and that is the administration’s goal,” said Jane Perkins, legal director of the National Health Law Program, which filed the suit on behalf of the New Hampshire residents. Meanwhile, an analysis finds that most of the 18,000 people kicked of Arkansas’ Medicaid program because they didn’t report work hours are still uninsured. The data contradicts statements from Trump administration and state officials, who have claimed that most of the people who lost Medicaid have found jobs.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health issues and others.
Perspectives: We Need To Bring Down The Cost Of Developing Miracle Cures
Read recent commentaries about drug-cost issues.
HHS Has Been Deluged With Comments Over PBMs And Drug Rebates. Who Is Stoking That Fervent Response?
News outlets report on stories related to pharmaceutical pricing.
