The Health News USA March 12 2018

• In the face of surging prescription drug prices, some US states are proposing to import medicines in bulk from Canada, where many drugs are cheaper thanks to government price controls. Vermont lawmakers are considering legislation to create an agency which would buy popular prescription medicines in bulk from Canada, and then distribute to pharmacies in the state. Utah, Oklahoma and West Virginia have proposed similar measures. The desperate move comes as the cost of pharmaceuticals is expected to grow faster than other US healthcare spending in the next decade.
• Premiums under Obamacare will increase from 12% to 32% next year unless the federal government steps in, according to a study that examines the fallout from President Trump’s attempts to chip away at the program. The nationwide analysis, released Thursday by California’s insurance exchange, said repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” to hold insurance is the main driver, jacking up rates by 7% to 15% in 2019 and up to 10% in the following two years, as younger and/or healthier people decide not to get coverage.
• The study in the Journal of Health Economics has concluded that newborns who resemble their fathers will be healthier a year into their lives than those who don’t. The research suggests that fathers with children who resemble them are more confident that the child is theirs and are more motivated to spend time with them. And the more time they spend together, the more attentive a parent can be to their child’s health needs.
  

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 12th of March 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/01/prescription-drugs-costs-us-import-canada

In the face of surging prescription drug prices, some US states are proposing to import medicines in bulk from Canada, where many drugs are cheaper thanks to government price controls. Vermont lawmakers are considering legislation to create an agency which would buy popular prescription medicines in bulk from Canada, and then distribute to pharmacies in the state. Utah, Oklahoma and West Virginia have proposed similar measures. The state senator Ginny Lyons, who sponsored the Vermont bill, said that without government price controls, “pharmaceutical companies are getting away with murder,” in the US.
….
The desperate move comes as the cost of pharmaceuticals is expected to grow faster than other US healthcare spending in the next decade. Meanwhile, unpredictable – and sometimes dramatic – increases in drug costs make it nearly impossible for states to budget year-to-year. Medicaid, the public health program that insures seventy million poor and disabled Americans, is jointly run by the state and federal governments. But states have a  legally available to with manufacturers.
….
According to a Bloomberg News analysis,American insurers typically negotiate a discount of forty one percent. That puts the cost of the drug at seventeen thousand seven hundred dollars a month in the US. But in the United Kingdom, that drug costs sixteen thousand seven hundred seventy dollars a month, and in Canada fourteen thousand four hundred ninety three.

The United States has the most expensive health system in the world; Americans pay on average three times more than British people for . Prescription drugs are be no means cheap in Canada: surveys suggest it is one of the most expensive countries in the world after the US, and a recent study found that nearly  sacrifice groceries or heating to afford pharmaceuticals.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/8/obamacare-rates-set-rise-12-32-percent-2019-study/

Premiums under Obamacare will increase from twelve percent to thirty two percent next year unless the federal government steps in, according to a study that examines the fallout from President Trump’s attempts to chip away at the program. The nationwide analysis, released Thursday by California’s insurance exchange, said repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” to hold insurance is the main driver, jacking up rates by seven percent to fifteen percent in two thousand nineteen and up to ten percent in the following two years, as younger and/or healthier people decide not to get coverage.

Mister Trump’s decision to slash the enrollment period and the promotion of Obamacare’s exchanges will contribute to price increases, as people fail to sign up, while his twin moves to offer plans that don’t comport with the two thousand tens coverage requirements will have a relatively modest impact, boosting rates by the low single digits.

Consumer behavior itself, such as the mix of enrollees and their use of health services, is likely to increase premiums by seven percent in each of the next three years. The analysis said the cumulative effect is that premiums could rise by more than ninety percent through two thousand twenty one.
….
Signups appear to dip slightly this year, from twelve point two million in two thousand seventeen to an estimated eleven point eight million, despite Mr. Trump’s antipathy and his claims that his predecessor’s signature law was already “dead.” The administration and congressional Republicans say Obamacare’s economics were wobbly even before Mister Trump came along, after lackluster enrollment resulted in double-digit price increases and the exodus of major insurers from the program. The White House says middle-class Americans are desperate for cheaper options.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-care-news/articles/2018-03-07/study-babies-who-resemble-fathers-are-healthier

The study in the Journal of Health Economics has concluded that newborns who resemble their fathers will be healthier a year into their lives than those who don’t. The research suggests that fathers with children who resemble them are more confident that the child is theirs and are more motivated to spend time with them. And the more time they spend together, the more attentive a parent can be to their child’s health needs.

Researchers behind the report, titled If Looks Could Heal: Child Health and Paternal Investment, studied seven hundred fifteen families in which babies lived only with their mothers. Fathers spent an average of two point five  more days per month with their child if they closely resembled them than fathers who had children who did not closely resemble them.

“Those fathers that perceive the baby’s resemblance to them are more certain the baby is theirs, and thus spend more time with the baby,” study co-author Solomon Polachek, a distinguished research professor of economics at Binghamton University, told EurekAlert. This extra time with their fathers resulted in improved health. The newborns had fewer asthma attacks, fewer healthcare visits for illnesses and fewer emergency room visits, according to the study.
….
Polachek and co-author Marlon Tracey, an economics professor at Southern Illinois University, stressed having a father aids in the well-being of a child throughout their entire life. They encourage fathers who do not live with their children to still frequently be involved in the parenting process.