Anthem's Affordable Care Act plans were "slightly profitable" in 2017, executives said Wednesday during a fourth-quarter investor call. The insurer ended the year with 1.3 million ACA members — 850,000 coming from the law's insurance exchanges.
Yes, but: Despite the ACA market profits, and Anthem's $3.8 billion in total 2017 earnings, the insurer decided to bail on many ACA marketplaces. Anthem now expects total individual-market enrollment will drop by 60% this year. Other insurers similarly profited from ACA plans in 2017.
Brenda Fitzgerald, the embattled director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has resigned. Fitzgerald has consistently faced questions about financial conflicts of interest, and those questions intensified yesterday after Politico reported that she had purchased stock in tobacco companies after taking the helm at the country's top public health agency.
Why it matters: Fitzgerald is the second high-profile health official to step down in roughly the first year of the Trump administration. Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price resigned last year over his use of private jets.
Trump didn’t have much to say about health policy during the State of the Union last night. But we’re definitely at a health care crossroads right now. So I asked a handful of the smartest policy experts for their assessments.
What they’re saying: The state of the health care system is... all over the place, depending on who you ask. But most experts agree that it's in a time of upheaval and uncertainty.
Brenda Fitzgerald, Trump-appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency," Politico reports.
Why it matters: The move seems to run counter to the CDC's mission of curbing smoking — as a leading cause of disease and death — in the United States, and raises ethical questions.
In recent years, polio cases were 73% more common in areas of Pakistan experiencing insecurity from conflict, and vaccination rates were about 5% lower during those periods, according to a new study.
Why it matters: Pakistan is one of only three countries that hasn't eradicated the virus, and insecurity is often cited as a reason.
"[B]ut the science to support this claim was surprisingly weak," study author Amol Verma from the University of Toronto tells Axios. "Our study provides strong scientific evidence that insecurity is an important obstacle to polio eradication in Pakistan, which is one of the last reservoirs of polio in the world."
On average, Medicare beneficiaries are spending about 41% of their Social Security income on out-of-pocket health care costs, according to new research from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And half of all Medicare beneficiaries spent roughly 14% of their total income — not just from Social Security — on health care.
Why it matters: Health care is eating up more and more of everyone’s income — but that’s an especially difficult burden for seniors, who often live on fixed incomes.
