Democrats Applaud Medicaid Expansion Success As They Seek To Deflect Health Law Criticism
Millions of low-income people have gained coverage through the expansion of Medicaid, and Democratic candidates are eager to criticize Republicans who want to do away with the law and may jeopardize that coverage.
The Hill:
Dems Find Way To Go On Offense With ObamaCare
ObamaCare isn’t generally a favorite topic for Democrats in tight Senate races around the country. Premium hikes announced this fall have made negative headlines, adding to criticism of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. The Affordable Care Act has never been that popular in any event, and it was widely blamed for huge Democratic losses in the 2010 midterm elections. Yet in this fall’s pitched battle for the Senate, Democrats have found a part of ObamaCare that they want to tout: its expansion of Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor. (Sullivan, 11/5)
In other national health care news —
USA Today:
Janet Reno, First Female U.S. Attorney General, Dies At 78
Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general, has died at age 78.Her godddaugher, Gabrielle D’Alemberte, told The Associated Press that she died early Monday from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Reno was sworn in as the first female attorney general on March 12, 1993, under the administration of Bill Clinton. She served in the role until 2001. (Onyanga-Omara, 11/7)
Stat:
Scientists Seek A Way To Predict Antibiotic Resistance
Tim van Opijnen has an unusual library. Instead of books, it holds over 10,000 mutant strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, each with a gene disabled — though a different one than its neighbor. By knocking out a single gene, van Opijnen’s lab at Boston College is trying to understand individual genes’ importance and function in the presence of an antibiotic. His choice of bacterium is intentional: there are 1.2 million drug-resistant pneumococcal infections per year in the US, joining several other species of bacteria that are growing in immunity to antibiotic treatment. (Love, 11/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Nurses Are Again In Demand
After years of relative equilibrium, the job market for nurses is heating up in many markets, driving up wages and sign-on bonuses for the nation’s fifth-largest occupation. The last nursing shortage more than a decade ago ended when a surge of nursing graduates filled many positions, and the Great Recession led older nurses to delay retirement. But as the economy improves, nurses who held on to jobs through the uneven recovery are now retiring or cutting back hours, say recruiters. (Evans, 11/7)
The Washington Post:
First-Year Doctors Would Be Allowed To Work 24-Hour Shifts Under New Rules
The organization that oversees the training of young doctors recommended Friday that first-year physicians in hospitals be allowed to work 24-hour shifts — eight hours longer than they are permitted now. If approved in February, the proposal by a task force of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education would go into effect in July, when the members of the next class of medical school graduates begin their residencies at teaching hospitals across the United States. (Bernstein, 11/4)
Stat:
FDA Emails Show How Upset Some Officials Were Over Sarepta Approval
Newly disclosed emails underscore the extent to which high-ranking US Food and Drug Administration officials were upset with the decision-making process used to approve a controversial Sarepta Therapeutics drug for combating Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The Sept. 14 emails were written in response to a memo that Dr. Robert Califf, the FDA commissioner had drafted in which he sided with Dr. Janet Woodcock, the controversial head of the drug review division. She had pushed hard to approve the Sarepta medication over objections of key people on her staff, one of whom had filed an official scientific dispute over the approval, which occurred on Sept. 19. (Silverman, 11/4)