Politico reports that this health law implementation issue remains an open question for about a dozen states. Some are on the brink of giving up for the first year but looking ahead to the next set of state legislature sessions. Meanwhile, news outlets report on related developments in Michigan, Texas, Ohio, California and Iowa.
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Massachusetts is often held up as a window into America's health insurance future, because it embarked on what came to be called the Romneycare reform six years ago. Like the Affordable Care Act provisions going into effect nationwide next year, Romneycare aimed to increase the fraction of the population with health insurance by imposing mandates on employers and employees and by subsidizing health insurance plans for middle-class families without employer plans.
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Today, at the World Health Assembly, top health officials from New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Fiji and Rwanda met to discuss the vital need for countries to integrate rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease prevention and control into national action plans.
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A University of Illinois researcher says that the cornerstone of our efforts to alleviate food insecurity should be to encourage more people to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program "because it works."
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In the long run, encouraging a baby to finish the last ounce in their bottle might be doing more harm than good.
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We have done it. We have decreased the increase in the cost of healthcare. ... Is this decline the desperately needed bend in the healthcare cost curve or just the impact of the depressed economy? ... A slower growth of healthcare cost would mean less burden on the individual family, freeing that family to invest in and live a higher quality of life.
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The estimate, which takes health spending and other factors into account, concluded that 1 in 7 seniors lives in poverty. Projections indicate that number could go up if certain Medicare reforms took effect.
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The negative effects of poorly controlled asthma symptoms on sleep quality and academic performance in urban schoolchildren has been confirmed in a new study.
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Today's headlines include stories examining how the approaching implementation of some health law provisions is highlighting key policy questions.
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The Los Angeles Times reports that states opting against expanded eligibility -- among them, some of the nation's unhealthiest -- could fall even further behind as the Affordable Care Act is implemented. News outlets also offer reports from Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Florida and Virginia.
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has put out most of the rules to implement coverage changes under the health care law, but a top official said Thursday that the public should expect more guidance on such issues as outreach and the enrollment of lawmakers and their staffs into the new marketplaces that will start accepting people in October.
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The Children's Center of Wayne County hosted its ninth annual Power of Possibilities Breakfast fundraiser, themed "Children Are the Heroes!" More than 500 community and business leaders gathered at Detroit's Westin Book Cadillac for the event presented by Ford Motor Company.
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Even as the politicized tax enforcement scandal expands, the Internal Revenue Service continues to expand its political powers thanks to the Affordable Care Act. A larger government always creates more openings for abuse, as Americans will learn when the IRS starts auditing their health care in addition to their 1040 next year (5/14).
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As the restaurant industry prepares to implement new rules requiring chains with 20 or more locations to post calorie content information, the results of a new study suggest that it would be beneficial to public health for all restaurants to provide consumers with the nutritional content of their products.
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Countries in which girls are commonly married before the age of 18 have significantly higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, report researchers in the current online issue of the journal Violence Against Women.
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Since many of the people who will gain insurance under the federal health law will likely get such individual plans through the state-based online marketplaces, or exchanges, researchers sought to identify the effects on vulnerable populations, some of whom with incomes above 400 percent of the poverty level and thus will not qualify for Medicaid or receive subsidies.
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Also in the news, updates from Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear announced he will proceed with the expansion; Michigan, where lawmakers advance a plan to expand Medicaid -- with conditions; and California, where a compromise proposal continues to be a hot topic.
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As the clock continues to wind down on state legislative sessions, the optional expansion of eligibility for the program looks unlikely in those states. But, in California, health care advocates offer a compromise approach on how to move ahead.
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Mosquitoes are deadly efficient disease transmitters. Research conducted at Michigan State University, however, demonstrates that they also can be equally adept in curing diseases such as malaria.
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Today, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, a major initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, announced His Excellency, President Alvaro Arz- Irigoyen of Guatemala (1996-2000), His Excellency, President Ricardo Lagos Escobar of Chile (2000-2006) and former Pan American Health Organization Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago as the organization's newest Neglected Tropical Disease Special Envoys.
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