What Caught Our Eye: High-Risk Pools, "Trumpcare," Childhood Cancer Survivors, Medicaid Spending, Trump's FDA Deregulation - NCCS - National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship

What Caught Our Eye (WCOE), March 3, 2017
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention.

Affordable Care Act

“States Be Warned: High-Risk Pools Offer Little Help At A High Cost”

Do high-risk pools offer little help at a high cost to states? Lessons from the #ACA's PCIP program give us insight https://t.co/dBz5BZt3vK

— Health Affairs (@Health_Affairs) February 28, 2017

“Recently, House Republican Leadership announced a new ‘State Innovation Grants’ program as part of its plan and draft legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These funds could be used for high-risk pools among other purposes… Putting prior experience aside, the ACA itself offers insight into this type of program and, as our report for the Century Foundation suggests, high-risk pools’ flaws may be more fatal than previously thought.“

My @NewYorker Comment on the growing recognition of the good #Obamacare has done and the effect on #Trumpcare https://t.co/qmjzAwi4PF

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) March 1, 2017

“The pitchforks are changing hands. In 2009, it was Democratic members of Congress supporting health-care reform who were set upon by outraged constituents. When they passed the Affordable Care Act anyway, it cost their party control of Congress in the 2010 midterm elections… But Obamacare, it turns out, has done a lot of good… Now Republicans in Congress are facing the wrath of constituents who don’t want to lose those gains.”

“Trump Proposed 5 Specific Policies to Replace Obamacare. Here’s How They Work.”

https://twitter.com/sarahkliff/status/836784724387348480

“President Donald Trump used his first congressional address to deliver a five-point outline of some policies he supports in an Obamacare repeal-and-replace plan.

Trump only briefly explained each, but what he described are in line with what we know House Speaker Paul Ryan and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price support.”

Want to cover people with pre-existing conditions? First question: Who pays? https://t.co/zjRj3oje26 via @WSJ

— Anna Mathews (@annawmathews) January 12, 2017

“Congress has begun the work of replacing the Affordable Care Act, and that means lawmakers will soon face the thorny dilemma that confronts every effort to overhaul health insurance: Sick people are expensive to cover, and someone has to pay.”

Despite a disappointing fourth quarter of 2016, Molina remains a fan of the Affordable Care Act overall. https://t.co/2Br4V0S8cO

— Kaiser Health News (@KHNews) March 2, 2017

“Some large health insurance companies have suffered losses under the Affordable Care Act, leading to a few high-profile exits from the online marketplaces. Humana is just the latest, announcing in January that it will stop offering health insurance on the ACA health exchanges at year’s end.

But the administrators of a smaller, California-based insurer — Molina Healthcare — managed to turn a modest profit in the early years of the 2010 health law and break even in 2016. How did they do it?”

New poll this a.m.: Voters want more federal $ for Medicaid, but almost half don't think Trump will spend https://t.co/QFnJrxq6JK

— Mary Ellen McIntire (@MelMcIntire) February 28, 2017

“A plurality of voters wants the federal government to spend more on Medicaid, a new Morning Consult/POLITICO poll finds.”

“Would Trump’s FDA Deregulation Create An Age of Miracles? Don’t Bet On It”

My look at the FDA under Trump, with data on 24 drugs that FDA did not approve when other countries did. https://t.co/f3hWjvKuTe

— Matthew Herper (@matthewherper) March 1, 2017

“In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump made a dramatic appeal for lowering the hurdles new medicines face in gaining approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But Trump’s promises–that reduced regulatory standards would result in more cures reaching the market and lower drug prices–may be hard to keep.”

“Childhood Cancer Survivors Benefit from Reduced Radiation Treatment”

Another sign of steady improvements in cancer treatment: Second cancer rate is way down. By @LaurieMcGinley2 https://t.co/l9vqAH9UU0

— Laura Helmuth (@laurahelmuth) February 28, 2017

“The rate of second malignancies in survivors of childhood cancer is declining — an improvement linked to reduced radiation treatment of the first disease, according to a new study.”

Colorectal is a disease of aging, but it's increasing among young adults.https://t.co/KRmTOiRiUp

— Roni Rabin (@RoniNYTimes) February 28, 2017

“Cancers of the colon and rectum have been declining in older adults in recent decades and have always been considered rare in young people. But scientists are reporting a sharp rise in colorectal cancers in adults as young as their 20s and 30s, an ominous trend.”

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