The U.S. spent almost $3.5 trillion on hospitals, doctors, prescription drugs, medical devices and other health care services and items in 2017, according to new federal data.
The bottom line: That total was 3.9% higher than the country's health care tab from 2016 — lower than originally expected. But it still amounts to a pricey system with poor outcomes that has frustrated patients and eaten more of everyone's paychecks.
The next wave of state actions against the opioid crisis may focus on taxing them — depending on the outcome of an industry lawsuit against New York, the first state to try it.
Between the lines: Most of the bills that have been proposed would tax opioid painkillers and use the money for addiction treatment and prevention. But the health care industry argues that they're bad policy and, at least in the New York law's case, illegal. That case will be tested when oral arguments in the lawsuit begin Monday.
President Trump tweeted this morning that China's commitment to curtail fentanyl exports to the U.S. will have "incredible" results, although China has made a similar pledge before and experts say tackling the issue is complicated.
Between the lines: If China does take meaningful steps to crack down on fentanyl coming into the U.S., it could reduce the supply of the powerful drug in the U.S. Fentanyl, which is more potent than heroin, is a major contributor to opioid overdose deaths.
People near the poverty line who have access to health insurance through the Affordable Care Act are about 25% less likely to fall behind on a rent or mortgage payment than people who don't have coverage, according to a new study summarized in CityLab.
Details: The study compared people who fall into the ACA's "coverage gap," in states that haven't expanded Medicaid, against similarly situated people in expansion states (where there's no coverage gap).
The cause of a mysterious and rare polio-like illness that has infected at least 458 children since 2014, and may have killed a couple more than originally reported, is still being investigated by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention task force.
What's new: The CDC announced Monday that acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) appears to have peaked for this year in September and October. But the task force will continue seeking the elusive cause, which has "frustrated" investigators who are stymied by not finding the same pathogenin infected patients and because cases tend to be scattered sporadically throughout the U.S.
