- California Healthline Original Stories 4
- Move To End DACA Leaves Some Young Immigrants Fearing For Their Health
- California, Other States To Extend Obamacare Sign-Up Beyond Federal Limit
- Vital Health Officials You've Never Heard Of: Insurance Commissioners In The Hot Seat
- To Insure More Poor Children, It Helps If Parents Are On Medicaid
- Health Care Personnel 1
- Law Would Allow Pharmacists To Help Lift Physicians' Burden, But One Obstacle Remains
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Move To End DACA Leaves Some Young Immigrants Fearing For Their Health
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program made it possible for young adults who came into the country illegally as children to get jobs with insurance and, in some states including California, Medicaid. Now that coverage is in peril. (Barbara Feder Ostrov and Anna Gorman, 9/6)
California, Other States To Extend Obamacare Sign-Up Beyond Federal Limit
Several state-based exchanges and the District of Columbia will allow people more than the 45 days set by the Trump administration. (Pauline Bartolone and Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, 9/5)
Vital Health Officials You've Never Heard Of: Insurance Commissioners In The Hot Seat
The fate of the Affordable Care Act’s individual insurance marketplaces remains in play as state insurance commissioners take a central role in the debate. (Julie Appleby, 9/6)
To Insure More Poor Children, It Helps If Parents Are On Medicaid
New research offers evidence that coverage expansion policies for adults have a positive spillover effect for kids. (Shefali Luthra, 9/5)
More News From Across The State
Law Would Allow Pharmacists To Help Lift Physicians' Burden, But One Obstacle Remains
Even though the pharmacists are now allowed to offer a handful of drugs without a prescription, they can't bill the government for it yet.
Valley Public Radio:
Pharmacists Are Now Poised To Ease Physician Shortage—If Only They Could Get Paid For It
At a basic level, Senate Bill 493 sets out to make better use of what many say is the most accessible health care practitioner out there. After all, asks Virginia Herold, executive officer of the California Board of Pharmacy, what other practitioner can you see in your neighborhood, without an appointment, regardless of insurance? “I think their role in the health care field is tremendously underutilized,” she says. “It's not just what I'm saying, it's part of what led to the enactment of SB 493. ”Because of this law, pharmacists can now offer a handful of drugs without a prescription, including travel medications and immunizations. And it led to other laws that allow pharmacists to furnish birth control and the opioid overdose drug naloxone. (Klein, 9/5)
Frustrated With Western Medicine, Some Turn To Unproven Treatments For Help
When patients hit walls with traditional medicine, they can end up pursuing potentially dangerous ones instead.
KPCC:
Why Do Patients Undergo Alternative, Unproven Treatments?
A number of naturopathic practitioners in Southern California offer IV treatments that inject vitamins, herbs or chemical compounds directly into your bloodstream. KPCC reports that one of these treatments, IV hydrogen peroxide, is unproven, expensive and potentially dangerous. (Plevin, 9/5)
This App Could Replace The Touch-Your-Toes Scoliosis Test For Kids
“There can be a lot of different causes of one rib side looking higher than the other," says orthopedic surgeon Michelle James. "And the app doesn’t get around all of those, but it does get around some of them."
Capital Public Radio:
Screening Your Teen For Scoliosis? There's An App For That
The forward bend test for scoliosis hasn’t been a mandated back-to-school procedure in California for the last 7 years. ... That’s why Shriners physicians developed Spine Screen - a free app that helps detect whether a child’s spine is starting to curve sideways. (Caiola, 9/5)
A Tone Shift On Capitol Hill As Lawmakers Try To Come Up With Bipartisan Health Solution
Republicans are now in the position to have to work with Democrats so make sure the marketplace doesn't collapse. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is holding four hearings to kick off those efforts. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump isn't ready to give up on repeal just yet.
The Associated Press:
Senators Seek Bipartisan Deal To Shore Up Insurance Markets
Senators want to forge a modest bipartisan deal for shoring up the nation's individual insurance markets. But lingering raw feelings over the Senate's failed attempt to obliterate the Obama health care law won't make the task any easier. The Senate health committee is holding the first of four scheduled health care hearings Wednesday. Testimony was planned from five states' insurance commissioners. (Fram, 9/6)
The Washington Post:
Senate Panel Begins Bipartisan Hearings To Try To Improve Affordable Care Act
Four hearings being held by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee are part of a push by the panel’s top Republican and Democrat, who are racing to negotiate an agreement before the month ends. At the moment, however, the parties differ on specifics, and it remains uncertain whether any accord — even a narrow one — is possible. This circumscribed effort follows Senate Republicans’ dramatic failure in late July to overturn central parts of the ACA. The new effort may yield a practical bipartisan response acknowledging that the insurance exchanges — conduits to medical coverage for about 10 million Americans — will continue to exist. Or it could provide another piece of evidence that the ACA is so politically toxic that compromise on it eludes even the senators most open to collaboration on health policy. (Goldstein and Eilperin, 9/5)
NPR:
After Health Care Reform Efforts Fail, Republicans Look For Small Bipartisan Victories
Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., says he's looking to do something "small, bipartisan and balanced." What's remarkable is that he made that statement in a joint press release last month with the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.Up until recently, all major Republican efforts to alter Obamacare were launched with no Democratic support, and no attempts to get any. (Kodjak, 9/5)
Politico:
Trump Wants One Last Senate Push On Obamacare Repeal
President Donald Trump and some Senate Republicans are refusing to give up on Obamacare repeal, even after this summer’s spectacular failure and with less than a month before a key deadline. The president and White House staff have continued to work with Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana over the summer on their proposal to block grant federal health care funding to the states. And though the bill is being rewritten and Congress faces a brutal September agenda, Trump and his allies on health care are making a last-gasp effort. (Everett and Dawsey, 9/5)
The New York Times:
Democratic Group Plans Attacks On G.O.P. Efforts To Undermine Obama Health Care Law
For years, Republicans successfully battered Democrats for supporting the Affordable Care Act. But now, a coalition of Democratic organizations believes public opinion has swung their way, and they plan to spend the fall attacking President Trump and Republican lawmakers for attempting to undermine the success of a law that provides health insurance to millions of Americans. (Shear, 9/5)
The Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award is known for honoring groundbreaking scientific advances and humanitarian efforts. The citation for the award credits Planned Parenthood “for providing essential health services and reproductive care to millions of women for more than a century” and for helping “men as well.”
The New York Times:
Lasker Prizes Go To Planned Parenthood And Developers Of HPV Vaccine
One of the nation’s most prestigious prizes in medicine will go to Planned Parenthood and two scientists who played a crucial role in developing the vaccine to combat HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer. A third honor will go to a Swiss molecular biologist, who made a groundbreaking discovery about cell growth. The Lasker Awards, sometimes called the “American Nobels” because 85 of the awardees have gone on to win the international honor, were announced by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation Wednesday. Each prize comes with $250,000. (Murphy, 9/6)
The Washington Post:
HPV Researchers, Planned Parenthood Win Prestigious Lasker Medical Awards
In announcing the awards, sometimes referred to as “America’s Nobels,” the foundation lauded the recipients’ efforts to protect and enhance women’s health. Its praise of Planned Parenthood seemed designed to counter attacks on the nonprofit by President Trump and top congressional Republicans, who want to end all federal funding to the organization. Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion provider, already is barred from using federal dollars for abortions. The foundation also honored Michael N. Hall, a molecular biologist at the Biozentrum University of Basel, for discoveries involving the role of proteins called TOR in controlling cell growth. It said his discoveries “have broadened our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that underlie growth, development and aging.” (McGinley, 9/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Lasker Awards Honor Planned Parenthood And Research On Preventing And Fighting Cancer
The Lasker Awards, announced Wednesday, are given annually to recognize advancements in the prevention and treatment of disease. Each award carries an honorarium of $250,000. Dozens of past winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. (Healy, 9/6)