Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
Trump Administration Revokes Federal Guidance Protecting Emergency Abortions: The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would revoke guidance to the nation's hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions to women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.
About health insurance/insurers
10.9 million projected to lose insurance in 2034 from ‘big, beautiful’ bill: The Congressional Budget Office estimates 10.9 million people will lose health insurance under President Donald Trump‘s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including 1.4 million who are in the country without legal status in state-funded programs.
The office’s analysis also found that the bill cuts taxes by $3.75 trillion but increase federal deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade.
Medicare Plan Switching Among Beneficiaries With and Without a History of Cancer: In this cohort study of 2852 older adults, 31.52% without a history of cancer and 29.61% with a history of cancer switched Medicare coverage in the 2 years following initial plan selection. Initial choice of Medicare Advantage or traditional Medicare plus supplemental coverage was associated with a low likelihood of plan switching among respondents with and without a history of cancer.
About the public’s health
The role of masks and respirators in preventing respiratory infections in healthcare and community settings: In summary, extensive evidence generated during the covid-19 pandemic confirms the superiority of respirators and supports the use of masks and respirators in the community during periods of high epidemic activity. Some gaps in research remain, including economic analyses, research in special population groups for whom masking is challenging, and research on countering disinformation.
Single Shot Against Both Influenza and COVID-19 Shows Promise in Phase 3 Trial: A novel multicomponent messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, mRNA-1083, demonstrated noninferiority to standard influenza and COVID-19 vaccines in adults aged 50 years or older, eliciting higher immune responses against most influenza strains (A/H1N1, A/H3N2, B/Victoria, and B/Yamagata) and SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron XBB.1.5), according to a pivotal phase 3 study.
Comment: The problem is that HHS pulled funding from Moderna to create such a vaccine.
Hypertension, Diabetes, and High Cholesterol Awareness Among US Adults: The proportion of US adults who were unaware of having hypertension increased significantly over the study period, particularly in young adults and women, while diabetes and high cholesterol level unawareness remained stable. By the 2021 to 2023 cycle, approximately 1 in 6 adults with hypertension and 3 in 10 with diabetes were unaware of their condition.
Study Supports Lowering Colon Cancer Screening Age: Key Takeaways
A single-center study supported recommendations to lower the colorectal cancer screening age from 50 to 45.
Screening colonoscopy outcomes were slightly less frequent in people ages 45-49 versus 50-54.
Only the risk of any adenoma was significantly lower in the younger age group.
About health technology
FDA will not appeal court decision striking down lab-developed test rule: The FDA has opted to not appeal a federal court decision that struck down the agency’s rule to regulate laboratory-developed tests as medical devices.