June 29, 2017 Social Q’s By PHILIP GALANES I am a social person who plans ahead and follows through on my commitments. If I say I’m coming to dinner, I come. But I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that causes pain and serious fatigue. My symptoms are not predictable, so sometimes I have to …
Viewpoints: Overlapping Surgeries; Fighting Depression; Diabetes’ High Pricetag
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country. JAMA: The Evolving Story Of Overlapping SurgeryIn December 2015, a Boston Globe investigation of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) sparked investigations into concurrent and overlapping surgery. Overlapping surgery refers to operations performed by the same primary surgeon such that the start of one surgery overlaps …
Parsing Medicaid: How Public Misunderstanding Steers The Debate; Is GOP Overhaul A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ Or Not ‘That Bad’?
Much of the heated discourse surrounding Senate Republican’s Better Care Reconciliation Act has to do with Medicaid and opinion writers across the country have things to say about it. The New York Times: The Mitch McConnell SinkholeMore than a third of Americans believe that Medicaid is akin to welfare, with the implicit subtext that racial …
Perspectives On The Political Landscape: What’s Next For Mitch McConnell’s Health Plan — A Push For Passage Or An Exit Strategy?
Editorial pages highlight the politics in play — questioning whether the GOP health law revamp has lost its ties to traditional Republican ideology, whether it is “political kryptonite” and who will ultimately be responsible for its success or failure. The Washington Post: The GOP’s Health-Care Bill Is Political KryptoniteWe’ve just seen three new polls on …
Longer Looks: Repealing Obamacare; John Oliver On Vaccines & Hearing Voices
Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web. Vox: The Risky — But Not Impossible — Path Forward For The Senate Health Care BillThe divisions between Senate Republicans about how to repeal and replace Obamacare only seem to be widening, and yet Mitch McConnell must see some path to consensus to …
State Highlights: Calif. Nurses Launch Campaign Targeting Lawmaker Who Pulled Single-Payer Bill; Audit Of Ga. Health Plan Finds Thousands Of Ineligibles
Media outlets report on news from California, Georgia, Minnesota, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia. San Jose Mercury News: California Single Payer Health Care Backers Dog DemocratThe surprise decision by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to block California’s single-payer health care bill, which the Democrat on Friday called “woefully incomplete,” has so infuriated the California Nurses Association …
Burns And Blast Wounds: The Darker Side Of The Fourth Of July
Stat takes a look at fireworks and the injuries they cause in advance of the holiday. In other public health news: intelligence and longevity, the end of flu shots, clinical trials, insect venom and more. Stat: See How Fireworks Injuries Skyrocket On The Fourth Of JulyIt’s as predictable as taxes in April. Every year, the …
There Is No ‘Safe’ Level Of Pollution — Even Small Amounts Leads To Premature Death
“The air that we are breathing right now is harmful, it’s toxic,” said Francesca Dominici, a data scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The New York Times: Even ‘Safe’ Pollution Levels Can Be DeadlyJust how bad is air pollution for you? A study of more than 60 million Medicare recipients has …
Tired Of The Financial Cost, One Politician Suggests Cutting Off Emergency Help For Those Overdosing
Dan Picard, a council member of a small town in Ohio, said that responding to an ever-increasing number of overdose calls threatens to bleed his city dry. Media outlets report on the crisis out of California, Texas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Maryland, as well. The Washington Post: One Politician’s Solution To The Overdose Problem: Let Addicts …
Ohio Lawmakers Defy Gov. Kasich To Approve Budget Halting Medicaid Expansion
The governor’s office has estimated that 500,000 state residents could be denied coverage because of the freeze on new enrollment. Many legislators expect Gov. John Kasich to veto the measure, but they think they can override that. News outlets also report on Medicaid issues in Texas, Illinois and Mississippi. Reuters: Ohio Lawmakers Vote To Freeze …
Rural Regions In Nevada May Be Left With No Options For 2018 As Anthem Pulls Back Offerings
The state insurance marketplace, the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, said that insurers had filed to offer plans only in Clark, Washoe and Nye counties. The Wall Street Journal: Anthem Pulling Back On Offering ACA Plans In NevadaAnthem Inc. said it would stop selling Affordable Care Act marketplace plans in most of Nevada next year. …
Safe Under The ACA, Patients With Preexisting Conditions Now Fear Bias
Cheasanee Huette, a 20-year-old college student in Northern California, is worried. Two years ago, knowing she was protected by the Affordable Care Act’s guarantees of coverage for preexisting conditions, she decided to find out if she carried the same genetic mutation that eventually killed her mother. She tested positive for one of the cancer-related mutations referred to as …
The Secret Language of Patients and Caregivers
June 29, 2017 Living With Cancer By SUSAN GUBAR Patients with tender caregivers often speak a little language of their own devising. It’s not unusual for people dealing with illness to use quirky dialects and inside jokes to attempt to maintain a sense of connection with their intimates or to revive unextinguished emotions. Upon returning …
First Edition: June 29, 2017
Jun 29 2017 Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations. Kaiser Health News: Calif. Officials Sound Alarm, Envisioning $114B Hit To Medi-Cal Under U.S. Senate BillCalifornia risks losing $114.6 billion in federal funds within a decade for its Medicaid program under the Senate health care bill, a decline that would require the state …
What to Blame for Your Stomach Bug? Not Always the Last Thing You Ate
By KATE MURPHY June 29, 2017 It happens like a bolt out of the blue. One minute you’re fine, and the next you begin to sweat as crippling cramps move wavelike through your belly. You vomit or have diarrhea, or both, fearing you won’t live to see another day. And then it goes away. You’re back to …
Insect Venom Shortage Stings Allergy Sufferers This Summer
As summer begins, signaling peak time for insect stings, allergists across the U.S. are warning of a shortage of a little-known but crucial product — honeybee, hornet and wasp venom extracts used in shots that prevent life-threatening reactions. Supplies of the extracts — which are made from venom gathered by hand from millions of individual insects …
Smart Kids Live Longer
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR June 28, 2017 Intelligent children tend to live longer than their less gifted peers, a new study suggests. Scottish researchers began their study with 75,252 men and women born in 1936 — 94 percent of the Scottish population born that year — who had taken standardized intelligence tests in 1947. By 2015, they were …
Even ‘Safe’ Pollution Levels Can Be Deadly
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR June 28, 2017 Just how bad is air pollution for you? A study of more than 60 million Medicare recipients has found that even pollution levels below those generally considered safe increase the risk for premature death. Using satellite, meteorological and other data, plus data gathered from 3,805 monitoring stations maintained by the Environmental …
Modern Love Podcast: Weddings Edition
June 28, 2017 Modern Love By THE NEW YORK TIMES In honor of wedding season, the Modern Love podcast is bringing back two readings about marriage. The first features Kathryn Hahn (“I Love Dick”) reading “The Wedding Toast I’ll Never Give,” by Ada Calhoun. In it, she talks about lessons learned — but seldom shared …
Drop In Sudden Cardiac Arrests Linked To Obamacare
If 22 million Americans lose their health care coverage by 2026 under the GOP Senate’s plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, how many people could die? The question is at the heart of the debate raging in Washington, D.C., but has been difficult to answer. “Show me the data on lives saved …
Calif. Officials Sound Alarm, Envisioning $114B Hit To Medi-Cal Under U.S. Senate Bill
California risks losing $114.6 billion in federal funds within a decade for its Medicaid program under the Senate health care bill, a decline that would require the state to completely dismantle and rebuild the public insurance program that now serves one-third of the state, health leaders said Wednesday. The reductions in the nation’s largest Medicaid …
Viewpoints: Drug Testing In Wisconsin; The Ethics Of Discussing Abortion
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country. The New York Times: Why We Shouldn’t Drug Test Poor PeopleThe Senate Republicans’ stalled effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act is not the only profound threat to our health care system. If Gov. Scott Walker gets his wish, Wisconsin will be the first …
The Intersection Of Health Policy And Politics: Seeking A Path To Single-Payer; Searching For Freedom From Obamacare’s Regulations
Editorial and opinion writers offer their views on health policy buzz words like single-payer, public option and even regulatory relief. Bloomberg: California’s Health-Care Example For WashingtonAs Republicans in Washington contemplate the uncertain fate of their health-care bill over the July 4 recess, they might consider recent events in another legislature on the opposite coast of …
Thoughts On Medicaid: What To Do? Save It? Transform It? Protect Its Beneficiaries?
Opinion writers examine how plans to overhaul Medicaid impact those who rely on it — especially vulnerable populations. St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Saving Medicaid, Saving Our FutureThe parents of a 3-year-old are silent as they sit in their pediatrician’s office in Potosi. They have just learned their son has leukemia. The treatment will be long and …
In Defense Of The Senate GOP Plan: A Means To ‘Better Health Care;’ Pathway To Relief
News outlets feature the arguments in favor of the bill from prominent Republican leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. Lexington Herald Leader: Senate Offers A Plan For Better Health CareToo many families in Kentucky who liked their insurance plans or their doctors soon found they …