Bloomberg – Funding for cures bill remains sticking point for health groups
U.S. lawmakers finally reached an agreement on legislation to fund cancer research and accelerate new drugs to market. But the plan to pay for the proposal remains a sticking point for some health groups. The $6.3 billion bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act, gets more than half its funding by revoking $3.5 billion over 10 years that was supposed to go to a pot of money established under Obamacare to help prevent diseases such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes, increase vaccine use, and raise awareness about the harm caused by tobacco. “It’s bad public policy, and it really puts prevention at odds with curative treatment,” Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said in an interview.
Wall Street Journal – Donald Trump chooses Tom Price as health secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen top officials for health-care policy, picking House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R., Ga.) as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, the sprawling agency that will likely dismantle Democrats’ 2010 health-care overhaul.
Vox – By picking Tom Price to lead HHS, Trump shows he’s absolutely serious about dismantling Obamacare
Rep. Tom Price already has a plan for how to abolish Obamacare. Price will arrive with at HHS with a clear blueprint for what comes next. He is the author of the Empowering Patients First Act, one of the most thorough and detailed proposals to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Empowering Patients Act is less oriented toward protecting the health of people with lower incomes, of older age and does not ban rejecting people with preexisting conditions. Some of the changes include restructuring how tax credits are purchased for individual health insurance and removing Medicaid without a replacement .
New York Times – Local transmission of Zika virus is reported in Texas
A probable case of local transmission of the Zika virus has been reported in Texas, state health officials announced on Monday, making it the second state, after Florida, in which the infection is thought to have been carried from person to person by mosquitoes. State and county health officials are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the case. The state medical operations center has been activated to help with contact tracing, mosquito surveillance and public education.
NPR – Flu Vaccine During Pregnancy Not Linked To Autism
Getting the flu while pregnant doesn’t appear to increase the child’s risk of being diagnosed with autism later on, a study finds, and neither does getting a flu shot while pregnant.