A U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate is unconstitutional, but ordered a lower court to take a fresh look at how much of the rest of the law should fall along with it.
What's next: This decision will likely keep the ACA's protections for pre-existing conditions in legal limbo well past the 2020 election.
A new AARP survey by the Harris Poll examined what's driving women 50 and older ahead of next year's elections and found health care on top. The survey also found that older women’s concerns about Trump are eroding, but not upending, his support with Republicans and independents.
Why it matters: As the House of Representatives prepares to impeach the president, the priorities for this group of high-propensity voters are closer to home and different from what their male counterparts care most about.
Drug use among teenagers is dropping, according to new federal statistics published in JAMA on Wednesday. Fewer teens are abusing prescription drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
Between the lines: Marijuana use is steady overall, but has shifted from smoking to vaping — and vaping THC products can be dangerous.
Five Bay Area school districts filed separate lawsuits against Juul Labs in San Francisco's federal district court Tuesday, alleging the e-cigarette maker has been targeting minors.
Why it matters: It's the latest litigation against Juul to make such allegations. New York filed a lawsuit last month accusing it of preying on and misleading teenagers with its ads and for failing to warn about potential health risks associated with using its products.
Federal prosecutors are suing CVS Health and one of its subsidiaries, alleging the companies dispensed drugs to seniors and disabled people in long-term care facilities even though the prescriptions had expired or "were otherwise invalid" — and then fraudulently billed federal health care programs for the tab.
The bottom line: A CVS spokesperson said the lawsuit was meritless, and the company intends to "vigorously defend the matter in court." But this is not the first time CVS has been enmeshed in federal allegations over shady prescription billing practices.
The Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, withdrew $10.7 billion from the company over the last dozen years, placing the money in trusts and overseas holding companies, according to an audit commissioned by Purdue and filed in bankruptcy court yesterday.
Why it matters: The revelation may reignite the debate over how much the Sacklers should be required to pay to resolve the thousands of lawsuits pending against Purdue for its role in the opioid epidemic, the New York Times reports. The family has offered to pay at least $3 billion in cash as part of a settlement, but some states have argued that the Sacklers should have to pay more.
Four specialties that are often out-of-network — anesthesiologists, pathologists, radiologists and assistant surgeons — raise employer insurance spending by 3.4%, according to a new study in Health Affairs.
Why it matters: Surprise medical bills are not only unaffordable for the patients who receive them, but also inflate everyone else's premiums.
Health care industry earnings fell 18% in the third quarter of this year, compared with the same period in 2018, due in part to the costs associated with opioids litigation, according to the Axios tracker of almost 170 health care companies.
Yes, but: The industry still churned out a 6.1% profit margin, and health care stocks are at the highest they've been all year because Wall Street foresees a very profitable election year.
A federal spending deal reached in Congress Monday is set to allocate $25 million toward gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the National Institutes of Health.
Why it matters: Scientific reports show that a lack of data on gun violence has delayed pivotal reforms despite persistent mass shootings. The Dickey Amendment, which states that funds provided to the CDC may not be used to "advocate or promote gun control," has complicated efforts to conduct gun violence research since it was passed in 1996.
