Birth Control News and Research

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First Edition: August 25, 2014

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations include reports on Medicare ratings of nursing homes, the growing demand for home-health aides and accounts of the Obama administration's new contraception coverage rules.

25 Aug 2014

Religious employers are offered fix on birth control coverage

News outlets report that the regulations, expected to be published later today, will allow religious nonprofits -- and perhaps later religious business owners -- to notify the government that they object to providing contraception coverage. Federal officials would then arrange for the workers' insurance.

25 Aug 2014

First Edition: August 22, 2014

Kaiser Health News consumer columnist Michelle Andrews writes: "How much leeway do employers and insurers have in deciding whether they'll cover contraceptives without charge and in determining which methods make the cut? Not much, as it turns out, but that hasn't stopped some from trying. Kaiser Health News readers still write in regularly describing battles they're waging to get the birth control coverage they're entitled to" (Andrews, 8/22).

22 Aug 2014

Handicapping how 'Obamacare,' other health issues play into campaigns

The New York Times examines how the outcome of midterm elections and subsequent efforts to replace parts of the health law could factor into the presidential campaign landscape.

22 Aug 2014

State highlights: Calif. audit finds hospital payroll wrongdoing; Ill. plans Medicaid contraception boost; Minn. union vote

Audits of a state prison and psychiatric hospital detail hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper payments and financial problems, including outright payroll fraud, and medical staff and guards receiving questionable bonuses and holiday pay, according to reports released Wednesday (St. John, 8/20).

22 Aug 2014

GOP candidates make late-term abortions campaign trail issue

Republicans who see potential on the Senate political map are turning to this issue as a counter-attack to Democrats' messaging on birth control and personhood.

21 Aug 2014

GOP Senate candidate seeks wider birth control access and end to charges of war on women

Rep. Cory Gardner is the first Republican candidate to talk up a new Republican idea of making birth control available over the counter.

19 Aug 2014

Health law funds new search for health care improvements

News outlets report on aspects of the health law designed to foster and test innovation in the nation's health care delivery system.

11 Aug 2014

Justice Dept. seeks full court appeal hearing in health overhaul case

Last month, a three-judge panel ruled against the administration in the case Halbig v. Burwell, which is viewed as a blow to the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Stateline reports that, based on that ruling, only those states with clear state-based exchange credentials are on solid legal footing.

4 Aug 2014

Doctor offers 5 tips for reducing risk of deep vein thrombosis

For most people, a well-paying white-collar job definitely beats the kind of hard physical labor that can often lead to a variety of health problems as we get older – and we all love our modern conveniences.

4 Aug 2014

Health law critics ask Supreme Court to take case about subsidies

The appeal comes after the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond upheld the administration's use of subsidies on the federal insurance marketplaces.

3 Aug 2014

Birth control pills may increase risk for breast cancer

Women who recently used birth control pills containing high-dose estrogen and a few other formulations had an increased risk for breast cancer, whereas women using some other formulations did not, according to data published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

1 Aug 2014

First Edition: July 29, 2014

Today's headlines include coverage of the latest Medicare trustee report and the details of the veterans care legislation on Capitol Hill.

29 Jul 2014

Hardship exemptions allow some to continue to buy coverage on health law's marketplaces

Elsewhere, the San Jose Mercury News examines who can opt out of the health law's mandate to have insurance on religious grounds.

29 Jul 2014

Highlights: Texas abortion rates falls dramatically; start-up problems for Virginia's psychiatric reforms

A four-month-old psychiatric-bed registry that is supposed to provide up-to-the-minute information for Virginians who need emergency mental health treatment is being updated as seldom as once a day, state officials told a panel of lawmakers this week (Shin, 7/22).

25 Jul 2014

First Edition: July 24, 2014

Today's headlines include more analysis of this week's conflicting appeals courts' decisions regarding a key part of the health law.

24 Jul 2014

Questions abound as two appeals courts split on legality of health law subsidies

Two U.S. courts of appeals reached different decisions regarding the issue of whether the health law's subsidies can be used by consumers shopping for health coverage on the federal exchange, because their states opted against setting up their own online insurance marketplace.

24 Jul 2014