Healthcare

Shots – Health News : NPR

The COVID Relief Bill Expands The Affordable Care Act. It Doesn’t Come Cheap : Shots – Health News : NPR

When Democrats pushed through a two-year expansion of the Affordable Care Act in the COVID-19 relief bill this month, many people celebrated the part that will make health insurance more affordable for more Americans.

But some health care researchers consider this move a short-term fix for a long-term crisis, one that avoids confronting an uncomfortable truth: The only clear path to expanding health insurance remains yet more government subsidies for commercial health plans, which are the most costly form of coverage.

The Campaign Against the Vaccines Is Already Under Way – The Atlantic

The Campaign Against the Vaccines Is Already Under Way – The Atlantic

Today’s anti-vaccine activists, however, enjoy a speed, scale, and reach far greater than those of Dr. Bond’s day. Bottom-up networked activism is driving the spread of anti-vaccine COVID-19 propaganda. Americans are about to see a deluge of tweets, posts, and snarky memes that will attempt to erode trust in the vaccine rollouts. Society’s ability to return to a semblance of normalcy depends on how effectively public-health authorities counter this misinformation and how assiduously media outlets and internet platforms refrain from amplifying it—but also on whether average Americans recognize that the material they click on and share has real-world consequences.

A growing share of lung cancer is turning up in never-smokers – STAT

A growing share of lung cancer is turning up in never-smokers – STAT

But when a PET scan in November 2019 revealed that Pike, a 33-year-old oil trader, wife, and mother of two in Edmond, Okla., had lung cancer — she had been coughing and was initially misdiagnosed with pneumonia — her first reaction was, “but I never smoked,” she said. “It all seemed so surreal.”

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Join the club. Cigarette smoking is still the single greatest cause of lung cancer, which is why screening recommendations apply only to current and former smokers and why 84% of U.S. women and 90% of U.S. men with a new diagnosis of lung cancer have ever smoked, according to a study published in December in JAMA Oncology. Still, 12% of U.S. lung cancer patients are never-smokers.

Scientists disagree on whether the absolute number of such patients is increasing, but the proportion who are never-smokers clearly is. Doctors and public health experts have been slow to recognize this trend, however, and now there is growing pressure to understand how never-smokers’ disease differs from that of smokers, and to review whether screening guidelines need revision.

Poor Teeth

Poor Teeth

More than 126 million people in the US – nearly half the population – had no dental coverage in 2012, according to the US National Association of ental Plans. In 2007, the New York State ental Journal reported that while only one-tenth of general physician costs were paid out of pocket, nearly half of all dental costs were settled directly by patients. This reflects spending by the uninsured but also those sharing costs with coverage providers; most plans cover routine cleanings but leave patients to pay for 20 to 50 per cent of fillings, crowns and other big-ticket visits. or those who can’t afford to pay that difference, treatment is delayed and teeth continue to degrade.

But expense isn’t the only barrier to dental care. Those on Medicaid find that few dentists participate in the programme due to its low payout. And more than 45 million people in the US live in areas, often rural or impoverished, with dentist shortages, according to the US epartment of Health and Human Services. Medicare, as a general rule, doesn’t include dental.

NPR

The New Year Will Bring More Transparency In Hospital Prices : NPR

A new federal health care rule will require hospitals to publicly post prices for every service they offer and break down those prices by component and procedure. The idea behind the Transparency in Coverage rule is to let patients choose where to go, taking price into consideration.

The Trump administration's rule, which goes into effect this month, was made possible in part through the efforts of Cynthia isher, the founder and chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org. Patients from across the United States have told "stories of being blindsided by outrageous medical bills," isher told NPR's Weekend Edition. "This is the win to put affordable into the Affordable Care Act. It's golden."