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Wednesday, December 20, 2017
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Happy Wednesday, everyone! I'm still collecting your predictions about what 2018 will mean for health and medicine — send them my way at
[log in to unmask].
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Your rundown of what's happening in health care on Capitol Hill
There’s a year-end flurry of health care news on Capitol Hill. Here’s what you need to know:
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The House and Senate have both passed a massive tax overhaul.
It would eliminate the penalty for not having health insurance, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will translate to 13 million fewer insured people by 2027.
It would also still allow people to deduct out-of-pocket medical expenses and would cut the corporate tax rate for biopharma companies.
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There are two ACA stabilization bills on the table.
The bills, which aim to stabilize health insurance markets and lower premiums, might get tied into a bigger spending bill needed to keep the government running. But it’s
unclear what will happen: House Republicans aren’t keen on the measures, and conservative groups have criticized them because they don’t explicitly ban federal funding of abortion services.
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There still isn’t any answer on extending funding for CHIP,
which covers 9 million kids. CHIP funding is running dangerously low — 16 states say they’ll run out of federal funds by the end of January, and another 31 states expect to exhaust their federal funding by the end of March, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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Suicide rates are higher among this group of teens
An alarming new
survey of high school students finds 40 percent of young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning have seriously considered suicide in the past year. The survey of more than 15,000 high school students
also found that 25 percent of young people who identified as LGBQ attempted suicide, compared to six percent of their heterosexual peers. That suicide risk was particularly high among bisexual boys, 39 percent of whom had seriously considered suicide. One
of the study's authors, Theodore Caputi of the University of Pennsylvania, tells me the findings should be a call to action: "We’re hoping that the public health community and all stakeholders working with teens will recognize the pressing significance of
this issue and work to reduce the pressures and stressors likely causing this heath disparity."
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The risk of rattlesnake pills
Health officials say a Kansas resident has come down with a salmonella infection after taking rattlesnake pills purchased in Mexico. The pills — which contain dehydrated, ground-up rattlesnake meat — are
often marketed as a therapy for conditions like cancer and HIV infection, which they haven’t been proven to treat. It’s not the first time rattlesnake pills contaminated with salmonella have
sickened someone. The CDC’s advice: Tell your doctor if you’re popping rattlesnake pills.
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Inside STAT: Experts call for use of dengue vaccine to be halted in most cases
Prominent public health experts say that use of the world’s first dengue vaccine should be temporarily suspended, except in limited circumstances. They say that step is necessary after studies showed that
the vaccine could worsen — rather than prevent — future cases of dengue in some people who had not previously been infected with it. The vaccine's manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, has said the vaccine should only be given to people who've already had dengue.
But Sanofi has also suggested countries could still allow it to be used in places where so many people have been sickened by dengue, it’s reasonable to assume most people will already have been infected by age 9, when the vaccine can first be given. But most
people don't know if they've ever been infected, and there's no rapid test to determine if they have. STAT’s Helen Branswell has more here.
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A potential way to prevent preterm births
Preterm birth is a huge problem globally — last year, more than 15 million infants were born before 37 weeks. But a new
study suggests that a small ring used to keep the cervix closed can help reduce preterm births among pregnant women with a short cervix, who have a higher risk of going into labor early. Researchers ran a trial involving 300 pregnant women with
a short cervix, half of whom had the silicone ring, called a cervical pessary, inserted. Seven percent of women who had the cervical pessary had a preterm birth, compared to 15 percent of those who didn’t. The next step in the research: Run a similar trial
in several other health care facilities, since this study only included patients at one hospital.
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New tools to make HIPAA easier to understand
As the opioid crisis continues, health officials are trying to make it easier for families to get the information they need if a loved one has an urgent medical problem like an opioid overdose or a severe
mental health crisis. HHS has launched a slew of new
tools for doctors and hospitals to use when trying to figure out what information is OK to share in those kind of situations. The tools — which include decision-making charts and infographics — are meant to better inform
providers in those cases.
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What to read around the web today
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EPA delays bans on uses of hazardous chemicals.
New York Times
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Minnesota Health commissioner resigns in wake of agency's mishandling of elder abuse allegations.
Star Tribune
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Drug industry spent millions to squelch talk about high drug prices.
Kaiser Health News
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Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,
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