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What We're Reading: Colorado Asks Sanders to Help With Its Universal Healthcare Proposal
What we're reading, August 1, 2016: proponents of Colorado's proposed state universal healthcare want Bernie Sanders' help; thousands need new health coverage in Ohio and Connecticut; and the trouble with getting a patient off a prescription.
Colorado is considering a state ballot initiative that would establish universal healthcare for the state, and backers of the plan are reaching out to former presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders. Universal coverage was one of the cornerstones of Sanders’ presidential bid, and supporters of ColoradoCare are pitching Sanders to come and campaign on behalf of the measure, reported NPR. Opponents believe that the proposed program would be too expensive for small businesses and employees, and that Sanders should not jump in.
In Ohio, 22,000 people will have to find new health coverage after state’s insurance co-op collapsed. According to AP, these Ohioians may end up paying more for their coverage as they have to satisfy new deductibles and out-of-pocket minimums when they switch insurers. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, more than 14,000 adults on the Medicaid program are facing a similar situation. State budget cuts have led to a change in Medicaid eligibility, which means that thousands of adults will have to find new coverage, reported NBC Connecticut. Previously, households with 2 adults earning up to $32,000 were eligible for benefits, but that limit has gone down to $25,000 for the same 2-person household.
Getting a patient off a prescription can sometimes be a difficult task. A resident in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston wrote in The Washington Post that many older patients have long medication lists, and sometimes a physician needs to take responsibility for de-prescribing. Unfortunately, changes in physicians’ prescribing behaviors are not the only solution—patients also have to be willing to come off of medicines that are no longer useful.
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
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Navigating Health Literacy, Social Determinants, and Discrimination in National Health Plans
February 13th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the February 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on how health plans can screen for health literacy, social determinants of health, and perceived health care discrimination.
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Early Involvement Critical in Treating Immunotherapy-Induced Overlap Syndrome
April 19th 2024A series of case studies reveals the importance of early diagnosis and involvement of special teams of clinicians when dealing with potential cases of overlap syndrome, which encompasses myocarditis, myasthenia gravis, and immune checkpoint inhibitor–related myositis.
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Drs Raymond Thertulien, Joseph Mikhael on Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care Access
December 28th 2023In the wake of the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD, of Novant Health, and Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP, chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, discussed health equity research highlights from the meeting and drivers of racial disparities in multiple myeloma outcomes.
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Government agencies have created an online portal for the public to report potential anticompetitive practices in health care; there are changes coming to the “boxed warning” section for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T) to highlight T-cell blood cancer risk; questions about the safety of obesity medications during pregnancy have arisen in women on them who previously struggled with fertility issues.
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