The Health News USA September 23 2017

Overview

• U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticized the legalization of marijuana in multiple states and warned that the federal law banning use and sale of the drug “remains in effect,” remarks that could stoke fears of a federal crackdown.
• As many as one in two Americans has some kind of illness or condition that was, at one time, considered a pre-existing condition by insurance companies before Obamacare. Before the Affordable Care Act, Americans could be denied health insurance if they had one of several of common health conditions like diabetes, asthma and even acne.
• Public health authorities on Tuesday declared an outbreak of the highly contagious liver disease hepatitis A in Los Angeles County, the third California region to see significant infections this year.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 23rd of  September 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/09/20/us-attorney-general-sessions-says-marijuana-still-illegal.html

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday criticized the legalization of marijuana in multiple states and warned that the federal law banning use and sale of the drug “remains in effect,” remarks that could stoke fears of a federal crackdown.”I’ve never felt that we should legalize marijuana,” Sessions said in response to a question from a reporter during a press conference in San Diego announcing record-breaking narcotics seizures by the U.S. Coast Guard in fiscal two thousand seventeen.

Since taking over the helm of the Justice Department in February, Sessions has made drugs, violent crime and illegal immigration his three top law enforcement priorities. It is still unclear exactly how his opposition to marijuana legalization will affect states such as Oregon, Washington, Colorado and California, which are among those that have legalized the medicinal and recreational use of pot. During the Obama administration, former Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued a memo spelling out the department’s enforcement policy on marijuana.
The memo said the department would continue to enforce federal drug laws, but would not prioritize marijuana enforcement in pot-legal states with robust regulatory regimes.
In remarks last week, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told an audience at the Heritage Foundation that the guidance outlined in that memo was now under review.
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A task force created by a February executive order and comprised of prosecutors and other law enforcement officials was supposed to study marijuana enforcement, along with many other policy areas, and issue recommendations. The group’s recommendations were due in July, but the Justice Department has not made public what the task force determined was appropriate for marijuana.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/20/health/most-common-pre-existing-conditions/index.html

By the numbers, it looks like Americans are one unhealthy nation and could therefore have a lot to lose, depending on how the health care debate concludes. As many as one in two Americans has some kind of illness or condition that was, at one time, considered a pre-existing condition by insurance companies before Obamacare. For older Americans, that percentage is even higher: About eighty six percent of your aging parents and grandparents, Americans between the ages of fifty five and sixty four, have one, according to government estimates. Before the Affordable Care Act, Americans could be denied health insurance if they had one of several of common health conditions like diabetes, asthma and even acne. Obamacare generally stopped that practice. The law, in most cases, made it illegal for insurers to deny coverage or to charge people more because they’d been sick. It also put an end to most of the lifetime and annual benefit payment caps carried by some insurance policies, even the typically more generous employer-provided ones.

The debate about repealing Obamacare is ongoing, which means it is unclear what a final replacement law would look like. The latest Graham-Cassidy bill would eliminate federal funding for the Medicaid expansion. It would remove the subsidies that lower premiums for people on Obamacare and eliminate subsidies that help with deductibles and co-pays.Instead, states would get a lump sum annually through two thousand twenty six, and the state would decide what to do with that money. Insurers would still have to cover everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions, but insurance companies could charge people more based on their medical history.  These are the most common conditions affecting Americans: Acne, anxiety, diabetes, sleep apnea, depression, chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), extreme obesity and cancer.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/hepatitis-a-outbreak-seen-in-los-angeles-county/ar-AAseecI

Public health authorities on Tuesday declared an outbreak of the highly contagious liver disease hepatitis A in Los Angeles County, the third California region to see significant infections this year. The Los Angeles County outbreak was declared because two of ten confirmed cases could not be traced back to either San Diego or to Santa Cruz County, some three hundred miles to the north, where there have been sixty nine hepatitis A cases since April, the Department of Public Health said.Of the other cases, four had been in San Diego and one had been in Santa Cruz during their exposure period. Three secondary cases occurred in a healthcare facility in Los Angeles County.

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The homeless are considered at high risk for infection because of poor sanitation. The latest annual tally found nearly fifty nine thousand homeless people in the nation’s most populous county. Hepatitis A spreads when someone comes in contact with an infected person’s feces, sometimes when hands are not properly washed after going to the bathroom or changing diapers and the virus is then spread through food or objects. It can also be spread through sex or by sharing drug paraphernalia.

In addition to vaccination and thorough hand washing, medical experts said people should avoid sex with anyone who has hepatitis A, and not share food, drinks, cigarettes, towels, toothbrushes or eating utensils.