Congress handed main health-related laws in time for the fiscal yr, which started Monday, together with a broad invoice to deal with the opioid epidemic and a spending invoice for the Department of Health and Human Services. This marks the primary time because the 1990s that Congress has agreed to HHS spending ranges earlier than the beginning of the fiscal yr.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on teen use of e-cigarettes in addition to brand-name drugmakers who work to delay generic competitors (and hold drug costs excessive). And a brand new survey exhibits medical health insurance prices proceed to rise for folks with protection offered by their employers.
This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
The bundle of payments addressing the opioid epidemic handed Congress on a uncommon word of bipartisanship. Many of the measures are designed to assist stop opioid habit however are brief on remedy choices. California Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of a invoice that will have required public college well being facilities to supply medication used for medical abortions stunned many individuals since Democrats within the state typically place themselves as defenders of abortion rights. New knowledge on insurance coverage protection exhibits that the share of employers providing plans is holding regular, regardless of issues that the speed would fall as soon as the Affordable Care Act was enacted and offered quick access. Still inflicting concern: the excessive deductibles required of sufferers in lots of of those work-based plans. A federal raid on the places of work of the e-cigarette maker Juul Labs alerts a dilemma for FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. While he as soon as backed e-cigarettes as a means to assist people who smoke reduce on their behavior, it seems he’s now involved about their use by younger folks.
Rovner additionally interviews Alison Kodjak of NPR, who wrote the most recent “Bill of the Month” function for Kaiser Health News and NPR. It’s a couple of Texas radiologist who had an accident that resulted in a really costly air ambulance experience.
If you’ve gotten a medical invoice you prefer to NPR and KHN to analyze, you may submit it here.
Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists advocate their favourite well being tales of the week they suppose you must learn, too:
Julie Rovner: Bloomberg News’ “Thousands of People’s Insurance Appeals Went to a Doctor Feds Say Is a Fraud,” by John Tozzi
Margot Sanger-Katz: The New York Times’ “In Australia, Cervical Cancer Could Soon Be Eliminated,” by Livia Albeck-Ripka
Kimberly Leonard: Politico’s “Kavanaugh’s Drinking Spotlights Trump’s ‘Abnormal’ Abstinence,” by Andrew Restuccia
Rebecca Adams: The New Yorker’s “The Comforting Fictions Of Dementia Care,” by Larissa MacFarquhar
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