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Viewpoints: CBO report on health law: Damaging the labor market or freeing workers from 'insurance trap'?

There are 7.8 million Americans working part-time who want full-time work, including a fry cook whose restaurant cut his hours to avoid Affordable Care Act mandates and confronted President Obama in an online Google Q&A last week: "We can't survive. It's not a living." Mr. Obama changed the subject to raising the minimum wage. But he can't dodge reality forever as the evidence piles up that ObamaCare is harming the labor market.

6 Feb 2014

HHS to insurers: You may have to add more doctors, hospitals in Obamacare plans

Other stories today examine the administration's enrollment effort and how many people it could reach if it just focused on 116 of the nation's 3,143 counties. Also examined is how the insurer WellPoint's bottom line is changing because of the law.

6 Feb 2014

GOP gubernatorial candidate says Mass. should seek Obamacare waiver

Charlie Baker, a former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care who is running for governor, said Massachusetts ran into problems because it tried to meld its successful state law with new federal requirements. Meanwhile, a mini-health exchange in Florida, which will sell discount cards and other products to "fill benefit gaps," nears launch and Connecticut exchange officials announce they are close to their enrollment goals.

6 Feb 2014

GOP hammers "risk corridors" as bailout; Democrats worry about explaining law

Republicans are trying to tie a vote raising the debt ceiling to repealing the health law's "risk corridors," which help mitigate insurer risk. In the meantime, President Obama faces some pushback on the law's rocky rollout from his own party.

6 Feb 2014

First Edition: February 5, 2014

Today's headlines include stories detailing a new Congressional Budget Office report that found 2 million people who relied on a job for health insurance will quit working, reduce their hours or stop looking for a job because of new benefits from the health law.

5 Feb 2014

Scientists develop fully automated system to identify sepsis in infants within hours

New detection methods could shorten the detection of sepsis from days down to only a few hours. Sepsis is a possibly mortal bacterial infection. It affects neonates and young infants more severely since their immune system is not fully developed. Now scientists are developing a fully automated system, which can identify sepsis in infants within hours instead of days.

5 Feb 2014

Psoriasis registry: an interview with Dr. Andrew D. Robertson, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, National Psoriasis Foundation

Psoriasis is the most common autoimmune disease in the US, affecting 2 to 3% of all Americans. What causes psoriasis in any one individual will stem from a mixture of their genetic background and their environment.

4 Feb 2014

Researchers develop rehydration beverage to treat hypohydration in astronauts

How is living in space like playing in the Super Bowl? Both involve circumstances that cause the body to involuntarily lose water. Astronauts and athletes with low body water can suffer physical performance impairments and can develop symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, muscle cramps, light headedness, disorientation and, in severe cases, loss of consciousness.

4 Feb 2014

GOP candidates to campaign on state exchange glitches

Republican candidates in states that have had troubled exchange rollouts plan to campaign on those problems in gubernatorial and state legislative races later this year, reports The New York Times. Other news outlets report on developments in Kentucky, Oregon, Rhode Island, Maryland, Minnesota, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

3 Feb 2014

Vitamin C and E supplements blunt endurance training

Vitamin C and E supplements may blunt the improvement of muscular endurance - by disrupting cellular adaptions in exercised muscles - suggests a new study published today [3 February] in The Journal of Physiology.

3 Feb 2014

Why employers may eye health law exchange plans

Premiums for plans sold through the online marketplaces are lower, across the board, than the average premiums for the majority of Americans with work-based coverage, according to a report by PwC's Health Research Institute. Meanwhile, California lawmakers criticize the hiring of people with criminal records to be insurance counselors and labor leaders continue to complain the law will undermine coverage for their members.

31 Jan 2014

Report finds that health exchange insurance purchases are a good deal; HealthCare.gov has new section

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers report finds that the average premium on an exchange is lower than the average premium of an employer-sponsored health plan. Meanwhile, the federal health online marketplace has added a new section to allow consumers who have already signed up for insurance to report life changes. Finally, news outlets provide updates on state exchanges in California, Hawaii, Connecticut, Maryland and Minnesota.

31 Jan 2014

Trevena prices initial public offering of common stock

Trevena, Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company involved in the discovery and development of G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biased ligands, today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 9,250,000 shares of common stock at a price of $7.00 per share.

31 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 31, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about the retirement announcement by Rep. Henry Waxman and the health policy legacy he will leave behind.

31 Jan 2014

State highlights: N.Y. insurer will reinstate young adult coverage

A selection of health policy stories from New York, California, Virginia, South Carolina, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia and Colorado.

31 Jan 2014

New insight into mammalian circadian rhythms could lead to therapies for metabolic disorders

We've all heard about circadian rhythm, the roughly 24-hour oscillations of biological processes that occur in many living organisms. Yet for all its influence in many aspects of our lives - from sleep to immunity and, particularly, metabolism - relatively little is understood about the mammalian circadian rhythm and the interlocking processes that comprise this complex biological clock.

30 Jan 2014

Running is more effective than walking for breast cancer survivors

Previous studies have shown that breast cancer survivors who meet the current exercise recommendations (2.5 hours of moderate intensity physical activity per week) are at 25% lower risk for dying from breast cancer.

29 Jan 2014

How will the president handle Obamacare in state of the union?

The White House press secretary said that the law "is absolutely worth" any past or future political repercussions.

28 Jan 2014

Researchers identify how mutated protein can cause high blood pressure

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have identified how a mutated protein can lead to holes in a protein sitting in a cell's membrane. Such holes cause high blood pressure, and the discovery can now lead to new and better medication for high blood pressure.

28 Jan 2014

Some consumers finding surprises as they explore health law implementation

Many plans offered on the health marketplaces will take an unexpected chunk out of consumers' wallets, Politico reports. Meanwhile, The Associated Press examines a dilemma for some parents who find that their children qualify for Medicaid and can't go on the same plan as the parents.

28 Jan 2014