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The number of uninsured people in the U.S. remained at a historic low in early 2016, according to a federal survey that found 8.6% of respondents without health coverage at the time of the interview. That translates to about 27.3 million people who lacked medical insurance when they were asked about it between January and March as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey. The previous survey, covering the whole of 2015, had put the figure at 9.1%, or about 1.3 million more people. CDC officials said the latest reduction wasn’t statistically significant. (Radnofsky, 9/7)

The nation's progress in getting more people covered by health insurance slowed significantly this year, the government confirmed Wednesday in a report that tempers a historic achievement of the Obama administration. About 1.3 million fewer people were uninsured the first three months of this year, driving the uninsured rate to a record low of 8.6 percent, according to the National Health Interview Survey, an ongoing project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/7)

As insurers exit Obamacare marketplaces across the country, critics of the Affordable Care Act have redoubled claims that the health law isn’t working. Yet these same critics, many of them Republican politicians in red states, took steps over the last several years to undermine the 2010 law and fuel the current turmoil in their insurance markets. Among other things, they blocked expansion of Medicaid coverage for the poor, erected barriers to enrollment and refused to move health plans into the Obamacare marketplaces, a key step to bringing in healthier consumers. (Levey, 9/7)

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it is planning to test out further steps to tighten the rules for ObamaCare sign-up periods that have drawn insurer complaints. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said that it will launch a pilot program in 2017 to test ways to put in place a “pre-enrollment verification system,” meaning a way to check documentation to make sure enrollees are actually eligible to sign up for ObamaCare through an extra sign-up period. (Sullivan, 9/6)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is expecting to pilot a program meant to clamp down on abuse of special insurance sign-up periods next year. The agency is seeking public comment as it drafts a pilot program to evaluate the pre-enrollment verification program, meaning how it is determined if a person is eligible to sign up at a certain time. Special enrollment periods are times when consumers are able to sign up for health insurance outside of the annual enrollment period, but health insurers say some people can abuse them by signing up for insurance only when they get sick, which can drive up costs for all consumers covered by a plan. (McIntire, 9/6)

Gov. Mark Dayton has named two replacements on the board of MNsure, the state's health insurance exchange. Retiring DFL state Sen. Kathy Sheran will replace Tom Forsythe as the member with expertise in health policy. Administration policy advisor Lauren Gilchrist will replace Kathryn Duevel as the member with "expertise in public health and disparities." Their terms will expire on May 5, 2020. (Catlin, 9/6)

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday appointed state Sen. Kathy Sheran and his senior policy adviser Lauren Gilchrist to sit on the MNsure board of directors. Sheran and Gilchrist will serve four-year terms on the board, which runs Minnesota’s state-operated health insurance exchange. The spots on the board had been vacant since May, when board members Tom Forsythe and Kathryn Duevel finished their initial terms. Under Minnesota law, the governor appoints the entire MNsure governing board: six spots directly, and a seventh filled by the governor’s Commissioner of Human Services. (Montgomery, 9/6)

Family & Children's Service is receiving $1.6 million from federal health officials to expand its statewide efforts to help people in underserved populations buy insurance on the federally run exchange. The Nashville-based organization, which leads Get Covered Tennessee, will receive the money to bolster a campaign to reach a variety of people across the state, including African-American, disabled, Hispanic, immigrant and rural communities. (Fletcher, 9/6)

As Congress returned from a seven-week recess on Tuesday, Senate Democrats again stymied a $1.1 billion plan to fight the Zika virus, demanding that Republicans drop an effort to block Planned Parenthood from receiving money to combat the mosquito-borne disease. Democrats, who had essentially blocked the same legislation in late June, had enough votes Tuesday to prevent Congress from moving emergency funding public health experts say is desperately needed as they prepare for the possibility that Zika will spread to other states along the gulf coast. The vote was 52 to 46, and Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill. (Hutteman and Tavernise, 9/6)

The next opportunity to attach Zika funding to must-pass legislation, perhaps the only chance in the near future, will be the legislative package to fund government beyond Sept. 30. “It’s probably … likely this will be in the end of the fiscal year wrap up,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters in the Capitol. “That would be my guess.” Republicans in both the House and Senate are considering options to approve Zika funding, according to aides. (Haberkorn, 9/6)

A divided Senate on Tuesday again rejected a funding bill to fight the Zika virus, proving that Congress’s months-old stalemate went resolved over its lengthy summer recess. In a 52-46 procedural vote, the Senate failed to win the 60 votes necessary to move forward and end debate on a conference report with the House on the issue. Democrats nearly unanimously voted to block the $1.1 billion funding bill, which was approved by House Republicans in June but has now failed three times in the Senate because of divisive language targeting Planned Parenthood. (Ferris, 9/6)

The Senate GOP’s top advocate for Zika funding said Tuesday the best chance of getting money out the floor this month is by attaching it to the must-pass government spending bill. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is endorsing a plan to save the much-disputed public health package by wrapping it into the stopgap spending bill that’s due in Congress by Sept. 30. (Ferris, 9/6)

Congress has less than a month to agree on how to fund the government as lawmakers eye close races back home that could weaken the GOP's hold on the House and possibly tip control of the Senate. Although Minority Leader Harry Reid has mentioned the possibility of a government shutdown, most in Congress, which returned to work Monday after a seven-week break, are avoiding that possibility. (Muchmore, 9/6)

Seven months after President Obama first requested emergency funding to respond to the Zika crisis, an end to the congressional impasse over the money might finally be in sight. But first, the partisan politics are likely to stew for a little while longer. (Scott, 9/7)

Congress has had difficulty accomplishing much in this session, even where a potential health crisis like the Zika virus is concerned. Here are five questions that help explain the debate. (Hutteman, 9/6)

Researchers have found that the Zika virus can live in eyes, and research in mice may help explain why some Zika patients develop eye disease, including a condition that can lead to permanent vision loss. In a study published Tuesday in Cell Reports, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis describe the effect of Zika virus infections in the eyes of mouse fetuses, newborns and adults. The study suggests that the eye could be a reservoir for the virus. (Sun, 9/6)

The World Health Organization on Tuesday clarified — once again — its advice on sexual transmission of the Zika virus, saying that couples living in areas where it is circulating should be offered contraception and counseling to help decide whether to become pregnant. A spokeswoman said the agency made the announcement to clear up earlier confusion over whether it was advising women to avoid pregnancy during the epidemic. The W.H.O. is not offering such advice, although, she conceded, officials did appear to have said as much in June. (McNeil, 9/6)

The world’s largest condom maker by volume says it views the spreading concern about the Zika virus as a long-term boost for demand. Malaysia-based Karex Bhd.’s share price has jumped 9.5% since early September. On Aug. 29, Singapore authorities announced they had identified 41 cases of Zika virus infection that were transmitted locally. The total number of cases of Zika transmissions reported in Singapore has reached 258 as of Monday, and new cases have been reported recent days in Malaysia and the Philippines. On Wednesday, Malaysia confirmed its first case of the Zika virus in a pregnant 27-year-old woman. (Ngui, 9/7)

A Tampa firefighter who lives in Pinellas County is the first person with a locally-transmitted case of Zika in the Tampa Bay area. (Ochoa, 9/6)

Walk into the intensive care unit in just about any American hospital, and you’ll be bombarded with beeping and blaring noises and flashing lights. It may look high tech. It’s not. It’s “no different than it was 50 years ago,” said Dr. Peter Pronovost, a critical care physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. “There are stacks and stacks of machines with wires sticking out of them. It’s chaos.” (McFarling, 9/7)

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration effectively banned the antibacterial chemical triclosan from soaps. But you can you still find it in your toothpaste. That’s because the best-selling toothpaste brand, Colgate Total, convinced the F.D.A. that the benefit of triclosan in toothpaste outweighs any risks. (Saint Louis, 9/7)

Your very first moments of life can influence your risk of obesity for years, a new study shows. Babies delivered via caesarean section were 15% more likely to be obese as kids, teens and young adults than were babies who made the trip through the birth canal, according to the report Wednesday in JAMA Pediatrics. The risk associated with a C-section was even greater for babies whose mothers had no apparent medical need for the procedure. Compared with babies born vaginally, these babies were 30% more likely to be obese between the ages of 9 and 28, the study found. (Kaplan, 9/6)

One of the most spectacular feats of such creatures as bats, bees and snakes is hibernation. For months at a time, these animals essentially go into power-save mode. Their temperature drops, metabolism slows down and oxygen consumption is limited to minimal levels. This basic adaptation helps them survive the harshest of environmental conditions. A new study raises the extraordinary possibility that humans may be able to put themselves into a kind of hibernation state as well — but in a way that hurts us rather than helps us. (Cha, 9/6)

Saline nose spray is becoming increasingly popular as a treatment for allergies and sinus problems. And a study suggests the cheap, simple solution helps with severe nosebleeds, too. Two studies published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, used saline nose spray as a control when testing medications to treat severe nosebleeds caused by a rare genetic condition. (Shute, 9/6)

Sorry, little one, this news is going to pinch for a couple of seconds: This year’s flu vaccine will probably have to come in the form of a shot, not those two little puffs up the nose. Because when it comes to preventing the misery of the flu, that nasal spray vaccine has proved to be a bit of a flop. No, the adults don’t really know why. But when they went back over the past three flu seasons and did the math, they found that kids between 2 and 17 who got the vaccine made with live attenuated virus — the puff up the nose — were two-and-a half times more likely than children who got the shot (which uses an inactivated virus to teach the immune system) to get sick with the flu. (Healy, 9/6)

"We're saying, 'Shoot, now we've got to do the poke again,'" said Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson of Seattle Children's Hospital and the AAP. But, "we know the flu vaccine is the best shot at prevention and protecting those who are vulnerable from serious and even life-threatening infections from influenza." (Neergaard, 9/7)

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices found that FluMist was only 3 percent effective in children aged 2 through 17 during the previous flu season. "This 3 percent estimate means no protective benefit could be measured," the committee reported. In comparison, injected flu vaccines protected about two-thirds of the children in this age group. The CDC officially accepted that committee's recommendation on August 26, but didn't go out of its way to announce the policy. It posted its recommendation on a website. (Harris, 9/6)

Alabama legislators debated today how to use a $1 billion oil spill settlement with BP, seeking common ground on how much should go to coastal counties and how much should go to paying off state debts and to Medicaid. Senators made a key change after more than five hours of debate. The Senate removed $191 million slated for road projects in Baldwin and Mobile counties and added $300 million for the Alabama Medicaid Agency over three years. ... The House voted 100-0 not to concur with the Senate changes and to send the bill to a conference committee to try to reconcile the differences, which have staunch opposition from south Alabama lawmakers. (Cason, 9/6)

The oil wreaked havoc on the tourism and seafood industries along the coast. Studies of Baldwin County found elevated levels of depression among residents due to the spill, even three years after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Sen. Rusty Glover, R-Semmes, said Tuesday the coastal delegation could accept an amendment sponsored by Senate General Fund budget chairman Trip Pittman, R-Montrose – a Baldwin County senator – that would take $15 million from the road money and put it directly to Medicaid. But like other coastal legislators, he said they could not move further off that. (Lyman, 9/6)

Even if Alabama lawmakers find the money to fill an $85 million gap in the state’s Medicaid budget this year, that money could vanish in the blink of an eye. Federal audits of the Alabama Medicaid Agency, released this summer, claim that the state overcharged the federal Department of Health and Human Services by more than $90 million for services delivered years ago. Federal officials could ask for some or all of that money back, creating a new hole in the troubled program’s budget. (Lockette, 9/6)

Hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth region were overpaid by $27 million in federal funds to provide health care for the uninsured, according to a new order from the Obama administration, which is threatening to take the money back. Federal health officials allege that Texas has allowed private hospitals to leverage donations to local governments in order to improperly draw matching federal funds. Texas officials say they will challenge the decision, which appears to contradict an earlier directive by the Obama administration. (Walters, 9/7)

The state [of Maryland] will change the way it reimburses medical providers for drug rehabilitation under Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income people, to encourage more counseling services for addicts and emphasize its importance as part of treatment. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced Tuesday that it will reimburse for outpatient counseling separately from methadone treatment beginning next March, opening the door for more patients to get counseling. It also will allow the state to better track whether treatment centers are providing counseling. (McDaniels, 9/6)

Disability rights groups are attempting to intervene in an Appleton teenager’s decision to cease medical treatment and die of the incurable disease that has racked her body and left her in constant pain. Carrie Ann Lucas, executive director of the Colorado-based Disabled Parents Rights, said her organization is one of several that have asked for child-protection authorities to investigate the case of 14-year-old Jerika Bolen, whose decision to enter hospice care at the end of summer gained national attention. (Collar, 9/7)

Schools in New York state will be required to test their drinking water for lead contamination under a new measure signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. School districts will report the results to parents as well as local and state officials. Buildings found to have high levels of lead will have to develop and implement plans to fix the problem. (9/6)

California lawmakers have OK'd a Planned Parenthood-backed bill that creates new penalties for distributing secret recordings of discussions with health providers – but civil rights and media advocates say the measure goes too far. The bill, which passed Friday and now goes to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, targets activists such as the Center for Medical Progress -- which last year released secretly recorded videos purportedly showing activists discussing the purchase of aborted fetal body parts with Planned Parenthood representatives. (9/7)

The immediate loss of income could be a pinch for many of the 4,800 nurses who went on strike for the second time this summer in a prolonged contract dispute with Allina over health benefits. Nurses picketing at five Allina hospitals on Monday described a variety of survival strategies, from deferred mortgage and car payments to second jobs in nursing or other careers to moving back in with parents. (Olson, 9/7)

Allina Health and 4,800 Twin Cities hospital nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association remained at a stalemate Tuesday, the second day of an open-ended strike. Neither the Minneapolis-based hospital and clinic system nor the union announced plans to resume negotiations, and both said they want to start where they separately left off when talks resume. Yet Allina can’t necessarily guarantee that, Allina spokesman David Kanihan said. (Cooney, 9/6)

It was the early 1960s, and 9-year-old Eliseo Pérez-Stable was at home in Miami with the chickenpox, dreading his return to the third grade. ... The boy panicked. Scabs were forming over his blisters, but if they didn’t heal, he rationalized, perhaps he could stay home. One by one, he began to pick at them. It was a month before he was forced to return to class. His experiences as a young immigrant proved pivotal for Pérez-Stable, who grew up to become a physician and scientist, whose research has documented the impact of language barriers and other issues on the health of Latinos. At 64, he leads the National Institutes of Health’s division for funding and guiding minority health research. (Kelly, 9/6)

Before last year, the UW was one of scores of schools still using a 100-year-old curriculum that emphasized eight-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week lectures. Medical students didn’t escape the confines of the lecture hall and begin taking care of patients until their third year. Then last year, following a national trend, the School of Medicine tossed its old curriculum and began teaching students using a hands-on approach. (Long, 9/6)

The pharmaceutical industry is launching an ad campaign to promote cost savings amid criticism for high drug prices. The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), a top lobbying group for drug companies, is launching a “mid-seven figure” ad buy across the country to argue that drugs can save the health system money in the long run by curing diseases. (Sullivan, 9/6)

A top pharmaceutical lobbying group is launching an ad campaign to defend drugmakers that have been under fire for their pricing practices. “We’re under pressure and scrutiny like never before,” said Jim Greenwood, chief executive officer of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. The campaign, called “Innovation Saves,” says new drugs can save both lives and costs to the health-care system. BIO is spending “low- to mid-seven digits” on the ads, according Greenwood, or about $1 million to $5 million. (Chen, 9/6)

Mylan says middlemen and suppliers have forced them to jack-up the prices on EpiPens by hundreds of dollars, but two industry insiders say the company pays no more than $30 per device. (Popken, 9/6)

There’s nobody the drug companies are spending more to fight than Michael Weinstein. And Weinstein takes pride in their hostility. “That’s a badge of honor,” he said. A longtime HIV/AIDS activist, Weinstein is the driving force behind a drug price control initiative in California that could set a national precedent. It’s just the latest in a long string of legal and political fights he’s picked. (Robbins, 9/6)

Drug makers have been getting their $2.3 billion worth in Washington. That is how much they have spent lobbying Congress over the last decade. It may help explain why no legislative proposal to rein in rising prescription prices has gone anywhere. The latest outcry involving Mylan will put that hefty investment in influence to its biggest test. (Chon, 9/1)

The rising cost of naloxone—a 40-year-old drug that can reverse an opioid overdose—is prompting questions about the wisdom of allowing market forces to determine the price of a vital tool in the public health response to the nation's opioid crisis. Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen told Modern Healthcare last week that the cost of naloxone has prevented her department from blanketing the city with the drug as she had hoped. (Johnson, 9/3)

Outbreaks of the meningitis B disease in the U.S., along with the social-media frenzy that followed the death of a British toddler, have helped propel sales of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s vaccine well past initial projections for its use. The U.K. drugmaker is poised to deliver nine times the 2016 sales Novartis AG had forecast for vaccines including the meningitis B shot Bexsero, said Thomas Breuer, chief medical officer at Glaxo’s vaccines division. Glaxo acquired the business in March 2015, and revenue for vaccines last year was five times what Novartis had estimated, Breuer said. (Gokhale, 8/31)

Question expensive stickers or price hikes, and drugmakers often point to their copay coupons and assistance programs that keep patients' costs low. Mylan certainly did last week, when its extreme EpiPen price hikes touched off a firestorm: It rolled out new copay assistance programs to douse the flames. Didn't work, unfortunately for Mylan--and unfortunately for the rest of the drugmakers that rely on copay discounts and other programs to woo patients to new brands or keep them on old ones when generics make their debuts. In fact, it stirred up Sen. Elizabeth Warren's curiosity. (Sagonowsky and Staton, 9/1)

When it comes to the cost of managing her daughter's diabetes, Stacey Stocking says she feels like a "hostage." The West Valley City mother of three pays for an insurance plan that is half her mortgage. She has a $2,000 deductible. She stuck with her job at a bank, instead of quitting as planned seven years ago, because she and her husband need the insurance. So when Stocking saw the news about the EpiPen — and its triple, then quadruple, then quintuple price increases — her first reaction was outrage. Her second was fear. (Chen, 9/5)

Almost a year ago, I argued that pharma needs to “heal thyself” on drug pricing – but I was skeptical the industry could end its addiction to price hikes far in excess of inflation, often taken several times in a single year. Today, Brent Saunders of Allergan laudably rose to the challenge. (Frank David, 9/6)

What better time for a presidential candidate to release a drug pricing plan, than with the EpiPen scandal in full swing? Adding to her previous proposal focusing on patient cost-sharing for drugs, Hillary Clinton has now announced several new ideas to address drug pricing (primarily) in the generic market. All in all, there are some decent ideas, despite some glaring flaws. (Yevgeniy Feyman, 9/5)

Drug pricing has emerged as a major concern across the country and is even beginning to factor into the United States presidential race. Outlandish prices for lifesaving generic drugs such as Daraprim and the EpiPen have caused people to doubt the value of all medicines, both new and old. This view was further fueled recently by a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in which the authors created a simulation model (“The Cardiovascular Disease Policy Model”) to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of PCSK9 inhibitors in those eligible for treatment based on the approved FDA labels for these medications. These drugs, specifically Praluent and Repatha, are the first of a powerful class of new LDL-c lowering agents which can reduce one’s LDL-c to unprecedented levels. (John LaMattina, 9/6)

Each time a drug company jacks up the price for an important or even life-saving treatment, there is public outcry. A flurry of news stories hit the papers, lawmakers and candidates denounce the practice and patients and parents object. Each time, the culprit responds by turning a blind eye to the public’s objections and pretending there is no problem. (Charles Bacchi, 9/6)

The American Medical Association wants the FDA to ban prescription drug commercials, which have been ubiquitous on American television since the late 1990s. In this video, we take a look at both sides of the debate over direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. (Joss Fong, 8/29)

Along with “stakeholders” (campaign donors), “investments” (government spending) and “obstruction” (Congress), one of our favorite political euphemisms is “improper payments.” That’s how Washington airbrushes away the taxpayer money that flows each year to someone who is not eligible, or to the right beneficiary in the wrong amount, or that disappears to fraud or federal accounting ineptitude. Now thanks to ObamaCare, improper payments are soaring. (9/6)

With Congress returning from its long summer recess this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could help improve the low standing of the entire institution by allowing a vote on the mental health reform bill that passed the House this summer by a 422-2 margin. Even though this is an election year and other major issues—including the budget—are on the table, helping people with severe mental health problems is an issue that unites both political parties, the American public, mental health advocacy groups and the nation's criminal justice and healthcare systems. (Merrill Goozner, 9/3)

Everyone agrees the Affordable Care Act exchanges need more people to sign up for coverage to make those marketplaces more stable. A larger number of enrollees -- especially a higher percentage of younger and healthier people -- would help convince nervous insurers to continuing selling plans in the exchanges and would moderate premium increases. But as I was reminded on a reporting trip here last week, many Americans haven't enrolled because they find the health insurance and healthcare system complex and confusing – before, during, and after they sign up for coverage. (Harris Meyer, 9/6)

[T]he focus on what’s going wrong with Obamacare makes it easy to lose sight of what’s going right. The law has ended the insurance industry’s most pernicious practices, fostered improvements in the way doctors and hospitals deliver care and brought the number of Americans without coverage to a historic low. Some state markets appear to be working just fine, and at least a few insurers are making money. The law’s achievements don’t make the problems any less real. But they do put those problems into perspective ― and suggest that fixing them is worthwhile. (Jonathan Cohn, 9/3)

Welcome back to work, Congress! We see the Senate picked up right where it left off before its seven-week summer recess — blocking a bill to provide $1.1 billion for Zika prevention efforts because it would bar funding for Planned Parenthood and its affiliates. While you were out campaigning, fundraising or barbequing, however, the number of Zika cases in the U.S. more than doubled to 2,700, and people infected with the virus have turned up in every state. A total of 17 babies have been born with Zika-related birth defects (two in California), and about 1,600 pregnant women are known to have been exposed. (9/7)

Some four million children are born each year in the U.S., about half in areas where the mosquito species capable of carrying the Zika virus is found. If we assume that 3% of pregnant women in the U.S. will become infected over the next three years and at least 1% of children born to those mothers will be microcephalic, we can anticipate up to 20,000 microcephalic children. Humanitarian considerations aside, the estimated cost of caring for one such child over the course of his lifespan is $10 million. (W. Ian Lipkin, 9/6)

[A] single health center like ours, even an entire city like Houston known for its world-class medicine, can’t manage Zika alone. Nor can the state of Texas, which has admirably stepped up to allow Medicaid to pay for insect repellant for low-income pregnant moms. Governor Greg Abbott has allocated state and federal funds to help prevention efforts. All of the public health players are doing their part. Except the United States Congress. (Katy Caldwell, 9/6)

Securing funding to combat the Zika virus was supposed to be one issue on Capitol Hill that would be free of the political games that are typical in election years. That's because we have all seen the heartbreaking photos of Zika babies and heard the toll the virus has had on families in affected countries, including right here in the United States. The call for Washington to fund the effort to stop the spread of Zika was swift and bipartisan. (Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., 9/7)

Electronic health records slow doctors down and distract them from meaningful face time caring for patients. That is the sad but unsurprising finding of a time and motion study published in Tuesday’s Annals of Internal Medicine. A team of researchers determined that physicians are spending almost half of their time in the office on electronic health records (EHRs) and desk work and just 27 percent on face time with patients — which is what the vast majority of doctors went into medicine to do. Once they get home, they average another one to two hours completing EHRs. (Jonathan Bush, 9/6)

This week, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce released a new plan to impose more of Obamacare on their state. The Chamber acknowledged that their “guiding principle” in crafting the Medicaid expansion plan was simply to “take advantage of all federal dollars available.” As such, they’re lobbying for policymakers to expand Medicaid to a new welfare class of more than 700,000 able-bodied adults. (Nic Horton, Jonathan Ingram and Josh Archambault, 9/6)

2,615. That's the number of people who died in Northeast Texas in 2014 who wouldn't have died if mortality rates in the region were simply the same as in Texas overall. That's 16 percent of all deaths in the region that year. We don't always think of this region on its own terms, as a distinct part of Texas. If Northeast Texas were its own state, however, it would be the size of West Virginia and would rank 45th in the nation in overall mortality, sandwiched in between its geographic neighbors Arkansas (44th) and Louisiana (46th). Texas, by comparison, ranks 31st even if you include the Northeast region in the numbers. (David Lakey, Kirk Calhoun and Eileen Nehme, 9/6)

Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law requires government permission before a health-care facility can expand, offer a new service, or purchase certain pieces of equipment. These laws were enacted with the belief that restricting entry would lower health-care costs and increase availability of these services to the poor. But research has shown that COPN laws actually have the opposite market effect, reducing the availability of services and hospital beds. Not only is the COPN law not a solution to escalating hospital bills, but this lengthy and expensive application process also may hinder our state’s ability to attract private business investment to ensure a 21st century health-care system that meets the future needs of everyone. (John Watkins, 9/6)

Employers are increasingly contracting with firms that use big data to predict and promote employee health. By aggregating claims data, browser searches, and demographic information, these firms can foresee whether employees are at risk for health issues—and their associated costs—and target preventive resources accordingly. However, a recent report indicates that this analytic capability is being extended to predict not only diabetes or the need for back surgery but also whether an employee is or is considering becoming pregnant. This trend raises troubling questions about the appropriate limits of wellness program analytics. (Stephanie R. Morain, Leah R. Fowler and Jessica L. Roberts, 9/6)