Just Because Extended Short-Term Plans Are Allowed Doesn’t Mean Insurers Are Ready To Offer Them

The Associated Press: Insurance Companies Approach Trump Health Plans Cautiously
President Donald Trump says insurers are "going wild" about his new health care options and "millions and millions" of people will be signing up. But insurance companies say it will take time to design new plans and get approval from state regulators, and two major industry groups have actually expressed concern about potential downsides for consumers. (8/6)

In other national health care news —

The New York Times: The Age That Women Have Babies: How A Gap Divides America
Becoming a mother used to be seen as a unifying milestone for women in the United States. But a new analysis of four decades of births shows that the age that women become mothers varies significantly by geography and education. The result is that children are born into very different family lives, heading for diverging economic futures. First-time mothers are older in big cities and on the coasts, and younger in rural areas and in the Great Plains and the South. In New York and San Francisco, their average age is 31 and 32. (Bui and Miller, 8/4)

Stat: Gawande Calls His Venture A 'Nonproft.' But Whose Bottom Line Will Benefit? 
Dr. Atul Gawande has described his new health care company as a “nonprofit” that will operate independently from the three massive corporations providing its funding — a firewall he said is crucial to ensuring its mission stays focused on the needs of patients. ...A person familiar with the inner-workings of the enterprise told STAT that its corporate creators view it as a non-profit-seeking internal unit “that serves the three founding companies.” This person stressed that the new entity, even though designed to accomplish public good, is a private organization that is accountable to its funders, not to people in need of health care solutions outside it walls. (Ross, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Since The Darkest Days Of AIDS, These Men Have Offered Succor To The Sick
For Les Ralston, 1991 was a dark time. The AIDS crisis had ravaged the gay community, and many of his friends were dead or dying. No effective treatment had been found for HIV, and many people were afraid to go near those with the disease. “A lot of people were dying at home without any food,” Ralston recalled. So when he saw a note on a billboard seeking volunteers to help a D.C. organization, Food & Friends, deliver meals to people with AIDS, Ralston, a systems analyst for the IRS, signed on. By 1995, he had quit his government job and was working full-time for the organization. (Bahrampour, 8/4)

The Washington Post: Demi Lovato Breaks Silence After Apparent Drug Overdose: ‘I Will Keep Fighting’
In Demi Lovato’s first public statement since being hospitalized for an apparent drug overdose, the pop star says she is focused on her sobriety and “road to recovery.” “I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction,” Lovato wrote in a letter posted on her Instagram. “What I’ve learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet.” (Schmidt, 8/6)