Despite Confusion And Chaos, 2017 Was First Year Insurers ‘Got Their Head Above Water’ With Health Law
Sharp premium spikes helped those insurers still in the marketplace actually make money on individual plans.
Politico:
Obamacare Insurers Just Had Their Best Year Ever — Despite Trump
Obamacare is no longer busting the bank for insurers. After three years of financial bloodletting under the law — and despite constant repeal threats and efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle it — many of the remaining insurers made money on individual health plans for the first time last year, according to a POLITICO analysis of financial filings for 29 regional Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, often the dominant player in their markets. (Demko, 3/17)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Trump Opioid Plan Includes Death Penalty For Traffickers
President Donald Trump’s plan to combat opioid drug addiction nationwide calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including the death penalty where appropriate under current law. That from a top administration official. It’s a fate for drug dealers that Trump, who aims to be seen as tough on crime, has been highlighting publicly in recent weeks. (Superville, 3/19)
The Associated Press:
Report: Abortion Is Safe But Barriers Reduce Quality Of Care
Abortions in the U.S. are very safe but getting one without facing delays and false medical information depends on where women live, says a broad examination of the nation's abortion services. Friday's report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine shows abortion increasingly is performed early in pregnancy, when it's safest. The risk of maternal death is higher from tonsillectomies, colonoscopies and childbirth, according to the independent panel, which advises the government on scientific issues. (Neergaard, 3/16)
The New York Times:
5 Doctors Are Charged With Taking Kickbacks For Fentanyl Prescriptions
In March of 2013, Gordon Freedman, a doctor on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, fielded a request from a regional sales manager for the manufacturer of Subsys, a spray form of the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl. Dr. Freedman was already a top prescriber of Subsys and also one of the company’s paid promotional speakers. Now the sales manager was telling him the company, Insys Therapeutics, would increase the amount of money it was paying him and asked that he increase the number of new patients he was prescribing Subsys. (Weiser and Thomas, 3/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Erasing Stephen Hawking's Disability Erases An Important Part Of Who He Was
In the days since Stephen Hawking's death, obituaries have described him as being "confined" or "chained" to a wheelchair, as someone who "overcame" his disability and succeeded in spite of it. None of those things are true. Stephen Hawking had a disability, and Stephen Hawking used a wheelchair. His work was possible because of those things, not in spite of them. (Roy, 3/16)
NPR:
Marijuana's Secondhand Smoke Poses Risks To Heart And Lungs
The inspiration arrived in a haze at a Paul McCartney concert a few years ago in San Francisco. "People in front of me started lighting up and then other people started lighting up," says Matthew Springer, a biologist and professor in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "And for a few naive split seconds I was thinking to myself, 'Hey, they can't smoke in AT&T Park! I'm sure that's not allowed.' And then I realized that it was all marijuana." (Ortega-Welch, 3/19)