Weekly Dose of Health News March 3-7, 2014
| Weekly Dose of Health News March 3-7, 2014 This week, along with several important articles about health care, the insurance industry and a new development in curing babies with AIDS, we are providing links to timely updates on the President’s budget and its effect on reducing innovation in the bio-pharmaceutical sector, which will undermine new medical advances and job creation. Please check out some of these updates on Medicare and intellectual property and innovation. President Obama announced more than $300 billion in payment cuts to Medicare providers in 2015 as part of his budget. Cuts to the Medicare program could increase spending for seniors and make it more difficult for them to get the medicines they need. Learn more about the benefits of the Part D program and how it saves seniors money. Why fix a program that already works? http://www.phrma.org/issues/medicare Protecting U.S. intellectual property is critical to support innovation. The fact that the president’s budget fails to do so could put continued research and development and medical advances in jeopardy. Learn more about how important protecting IP is to patients and share your thoughts on the topic.http://www.phrma.org/innovation/intellectual-property Doctors in private practice are concerned about their future under the Affordable Care Act. The New York Times writes about racial disparities in breast cancer mortality in cities across the United States, including New York City where a black woman is 19 percent more likely to die of the disease. Factors include less access to and lower quality screening and less access to and lower quality treatments. A new report concludes that enlisted persons with suicidal tendencies had these tendencies before entering the military. Capital New York reports that despite stiff opposition from the insurance industry, New York’s health exchange rules on out of network coverage may be enacted in the upcoming budget. The New York Times reports on the Obama Administration’s steps to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving Medicare benefits. Kaiser Health reports that 60,000 people with HIV/AIDS will be left uninsured in states that do not expand Medicaid. These people will be left without the benefit of anti-retroviral treatment, which is highly effective in treating HIV/AIDS and decreasing transmission to others. Another baby cured of HIV. The L.A. Times writes that the Obama Administration announced on Wednesday that consumers can keep their substandard health plans until 2017, i.e, plans that do not meet Affordable Care Act standards. The New York State of Health website reports that 557,840 people are enrolled in the state’s health exchange and that 870,595 people have completed applications for coverage. Capital New York reports that support for Governor Cuomo’s proposal to invest $65 million in a Statewide Health Information Network of NY, or SHIN-NY is growing.
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