- California Healthline Original Stories 3
- Need Pricey Drugs From An Obamacare Plan? You May Shoulder More Of The Cost
- Medicaid Is Balm And Benefit For Victims Of Gun Violence
- Doctors And Hospitals Say ‘Show Me The Money’ Before Treating Patients
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Need Pricey Drugs From An Obamacare Plan? You May Shoulder More Of The Cost
A Kaiser Health News analysis finds that the portion of federal marketplace plans requiring people to pay a third or more of the cost of specialty drugs have jumped from 37 to 63 percent since 2014. California has greater protections to limit consumer costs. (Jordan Rau and Julie Appleby and Elizabeth Lucas, )
Medicaid Is Balm And Benefit For Victims Of Gun Violence
Young men injured by gunshot wounds often lacked insurance and went for years without proper follow-up care. The health law’s Medicaid expansion, in doubt since the election, changed that in many of the states with the most gun violence. (Sarah Varney, )
Doctors And Hospitals Say ‘Show Me The Money’ Before Treating Patients
As patients’ share of medical bills has grown with the rise in deductibles, copays and coinsurance, providers have become laser focused on getting payments up front. (Michelle Andrews, )
More News From Across The State
Proposed Bill Aims To Track Deaths Linked To Hospital-Acquired 'Superbugs'
California is currently among the states that do not require reporting of superbug-related deaths.
Los Angeles Times:
Superbug Infections Must Be Listed On Death Certificate Under Proposed Bill
State Sen. Jerry Hill introduced a bill Monday that would require doctors to record antibiotic-resistant infections on death certificates if they played a role in the death. Currently many deaths from infections acquired in hospitals and nursing homes are not publicly recorded, leaving health officials to guess at their toll. “Today we have to estimate the number of deaths from infections and we have no idea if that is accurate,” said Hill (D-San Mateo). “We’re shooting in the dark.” (Petersen, 12/5)
In other news —
Orange County Register:
Prop. 64: Legalized Marijuana In California May Generate Less Tax Than Planned
Many medical marijuana patients were worried that a ballot measure legalizing cannabis for recreational use in California would make the price of their medicine go up. Instead, for some of them, pot just got cheaper, though maybe not for long. The Board of Equalization recently sent notice that anyone who has both a doctor’s recommendation for marijuana and a county-issued ID card identifying them as a patient no longer has to pay state sales tax thanks to Proposition 64. (Edwards Staggs, 12/5)
Coupons Are Hiding True Price Of Drugs From Patients, Doctors
A recent study found that spending on 23 medicines sold through coupons was as much as $2.7 billion higher over five years than it would have been if the coupons were not used.
Los Angeles Times:
How Free Coupons For Patients Help Drugmakers Hike Prices By 1,000%
Horizon Pharma charges more than $2,000 for a month’s supply of a prescription pain reliever that is the combination of two cheap drugs available separately over the counter. Another company, Novum, sells a small tube of a prescription skin rash cream, containing two inexpensive decades-old medicines, for nearly $8,000. What is key to the companies’ business plan of raising prices by 1,000% or more? (Petersen, 12/5)
Researchers Identify Faulty Stem Cells As Major Culprit In Mystifying Lung Disease
The recent study narrowed in on cells that repair and regenerate damaged lung cells.
Sacramento Bee:
Dysfunctional Stem Cells Cited As Cause For Pulmonary Fibrosis
Pulmonary fibrosis is a mystifying, deadly lung disease that typically kills patients three to five years after diagnosis. In most cases, there’s no cure and no known cause. Now, a recent study by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has identified one major culprit: dysfunctional stem cells. Specifically, the problem occurs in special stem cells known as AEC2s that repair and regenerate lung cells damaged by viral infections, pollution or other injuries. (Buck, 12/5)
In other public health news —
San Jose Mercury News:
Lab-Grown Meat May Be Meal Of The Future
The science of gene modification is not stopping, not even slowing, while the public debates whether or not this is something they want. The fact is, when something costs less or is potentially healthier, people want it. Slap all the labels in it you want and it will still get bought. So where is all of this going? Meat. (Iaquinta, 12/5)
Health Violations Plague Housing Meant To Help S.F. Residents In Need
A San Francisco Chronicle investigation reveals health and safety problems in the single-room-occupancy hotels that are part of the city's supportive housing network. Meanwhile, homeless people who lived along the Santa Ana river are being uprooted.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Aging SRO Hotels Raise Health, Safety Issues For Housing Homeless
Most of the 75 complexes, which cost the city $112 million annually to operate, are considered generally safe and well-run. But a San Francisco Chronicle investigation into health and safety issues in those residences found persistent problems among the oldest — the century-old single-room-occupancy hotels, or SROs, that house more than 60 percent of the people in supportive housing. The Chronicle’s probe found chronic maintenance issues, health code violations and frustrated residents at a handful of these city-funded SROs. (Fagan and Palomino, 12/5)
Orange County Register:
Options Running Out For Homeless Living Along Santa Ana River Bed
The lack of an immediate, viable alternative for shelter is recognized as well by public officials and homeless activists, some of whom estimate that the burgeoning number of riverside dwellers has reached as many as 1,000 people. There are those like Romero who have lived in and around the river bed for decades. (Walker, 12/5)
In other news from across the state —
The Mercury News:
Hetch Hetchy Work Leaves Palo Alto With 'Musty' Water
Palo Alto residents were subject to drinking water in recent days that had “musty” or “earthy” overtones.City leaders said Monday the unpleasant smelling and tasting water is safe to drink and the city continues to conduct daily water testing. The noticeable difference resulted from a blending of the water supply that happens when the Hetch Hetchy water distribution system undergoes annual maintenance, City Manager James Keene said at the City Council meeting. (Lee, 12/5)
East Bay Times:
Quick-Acting, ‘Calm’ Teacher Saves Vacaville Fifth-Grader’s Life
Hemlock Elementary fifth-grader Alaina Cortijo will always remember what happened at 10:30 a.m. Thursday and she will forever regard her teacher, Angelo Marubayashi, in a heroic light. After hearing, then seeing her choke on a slice of orange, he calmly performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life. “I thought I might die,” Cortijo said Friday afternoon during an interview at the Vacaville campus, with her mother, Katrina, sitting next to her in Marubayashi’s class, Room 13. (12/5)
GOP's Replace-And-Delay Strategy To Face Opposition Within Own Party
The Freedom Caucus, which boasts about 40 members, says it is unacceptable to wait three years to replace the health law. Meanwhile, a court has decided to press pause on a court case involving payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act.
Politico:
Freedom Caucus Opposes GOP's Obamacare Replacement Plan
The Republican congressman who made his name as the instigator of John Boehner’s ouster last year was set to take the reins of the House Freedom Caucus on Monday night. And first up on Rep. Mark Meadows’ to-do list: Torpedoing GOP leadership’s tentative plans to take as long as three years to replace Obamacare. (Bade, 12/5)
The Hill:
Court Delays GOP's ObamaCare Suit Until Trump Is In Office
A federal judge on Monday agreed to hit pause until the start of the Trump administration on the House GOP’s long-standing legal challenge of ObamaCare payments. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Republican leaders, who had requested their case be considered after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Any actions on the case, known as House v. Burwell, are now postponed until Feb. 21. (Ferris, 12/5)
The New York Times:
Life In Obamacare’s Dead Zone
“I tried to get Obamacare,” [Janet] Foy recalls. “I called the number, and when the woman told me what it would cost me, I just about dropped the phone. She told me I’d needed to make at least $12,000 a year for there to be any help to make it something I might be able to afford. Which still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, even now, that having no money meant I got no help when I really needed it.” She also learned that she could not expect any help from Medicaid, which in her home state remained available only if you fit the criteria sometimes known by the shorthand “poor and” — poor and pregnant, poor and disabled. As a single childless woman, she could forget about it. (Verzemnieks, 12/6)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Bill Speeding Federal Drug Approvals Clears Senate Hurdle
A bipartisan bill to speed government drug approvals and bolster biomedical research cleared its last procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday in an emotional moment for outgoing Vice President Joe Biden. The overwhelming 85-13 vote put the measure on track for final legislative approval by the Senate as early as Tuesday. President Barack Obama has promised to sign the measure, one of the last for the president and the 114th Congress, whose leaders hope to adjourn by week's end after a two-year session that has seen them clash frequently with the president. (12/5)
McClatchy:
Tom Price Linked To Association Of American Physicians, Surgeons
Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican and physician picked by President-elect Donald Trump to oversee the health and availability of essential human services to all Americans, belongs to a medical association whose unconventional views are certain to raise questions during his confirmation hearings next year. Trump nominated Price, re-elected last month to a seventh term, to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.An orthopedic surgeon, he is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, whose 5,000 members consider the group a nonpartisan professional organization dedicated to “preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine.” (Goldstein and Clark, 12/5)
NPR:
CRISPR In Court: Legal Battle Over Patent Rights Set To Begin
The high-stakes fight over who invented a technology that could revolutionize medicine and agriculture heads to a courtroom Tuesday. A gene-editing technology called CRISPR-cas9 could be worth billions of dollars. But it's not clear who owns the idea. U.S. patent judges will hear oral arguments to help untangle this issue, which has far more at stake than your garden-variety patent dispute. (Harris, 12/5)
Stateline:
Fighting Opioid Abuse In Indian Country
Nationwide, Native Americans are at least twice as likely as the general population to become addicted to drugs and alcohol, and three times as likely to die of a drug overdose. In Washington state, Indians die of drug overdoses at a rate of 29 in 100,000, compared to a rate of 12 for whites, 11 for blacks, 3 for Hispanics and 2 for Asians, according to the state Health Department. Compounding the problem, the majority of the nation’s 2.9 million Indians living on and off reservations have little to no access to health care, much less mental health and addiction services. (Vestal, 12/6)