We have a responsibility to protect our elders from harm and assure that they receive the best care possible. The Connecticut General Assembly should act swiftly to pass a law requiring informed consent before the administration of pharmacological dementia treatment to senior citizens in long-term care.
Health
Stories about health care access and affordability in CT, as well as abortion, COVID, health equity and disparities, health systems and social determinants of health.
Dive Deeper: Abortion · Access Health CT · COVID-19 · CT Rural Hospitals
Posted inHealth
Malloy still conflicted on right-to-die proposal
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday that he remains conflicted about a controversial proposal to allow physicians to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill, mentally competent patients who request it.
Posted inHealth
Congress ‘doc fix’ would halt big drop in Medicare fees
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives hopes to unveil a proposal this week that would end years of tension and bickering between Congress and the nation’s doctors. A 21 percent cut to fees paid to doctors by Medicare is hanging in the balance.
Posted inHealth, Politics
On polarizing end-of-life issue, what changes minds?
Once again, lawmakers are considering the question of whether to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill, mentally competent people who request it. It’s a polarizing issue, one that many people view through profound, often painful personal experiences. So how do you change people’s minds?
Posted inHealth
In controversial health care bills, some agreement on transparency
Patients are increasingly being asked to take on a larger share of their health care costs. But for even the most avid bargain-hunters, comparison shopping for medical care can be a challenge, if not impossible. Can legislation change that?
Posted inHealth
Enrollment rose, but age distribution stayed the same in CT exchange
Although enrollment in private health plans sold through Connecticut’s health insurance exchange rose by 37 percent this year, the age distribution of customers was virtually unchanged, according to data released by the federal government Tuesday.
Posted inHealth
Access Health offers special April enrollment for health coverage
Access Health CT, the state’s insurance exchange, said Tuesday it will hold a special enrollment period during April to allow those who paid a penalty on their 2014 federal taxes for being uninsured to enroll for coverage for the balance of 2015 and limit penalties on their taxes next year.
Posted inHealth
Obamacare once again comes before the U.S. Supreme Court
On March 4, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in King v. Burwell, a case challenging the validity of tax subsidies helping millions of Americans buy health insurance. If the court rules against the Obama administration, those subsidies could be cut off for everyone in the three dozen states using healthcare.gov, the federal exchange website.
Posted inHealth
Legislators grappling with fast-changing health care landscape
The health care landscape is changing, and legislators are trying to figure out how to respond to an industry that is at once a top employer in many communities and a big driver of health care costs that are straining state, local and business budgets. Hospital officials say some of the proposals so far would take the state backwards.
Posted inHealth
Providers, advocates call Malloy Medicaid cuts short-sighted
Critics say Malloy’s proposal to cut Medicaid is financially short-sighted and threatens to undermine recent progress in a program that has added thousands of new members as part of the federal health law, expanded the network of providers willing to treat them, and reduced its per-client costs.
Posted inHealth
Access Health CT: 110,095 picked Obamacare insurance plans
The 110,095 private insurance customers includes 68,231 people who also had coverage through Access Health in 2014 and 41,864 new customers. Seventy-seven percent qualify for federal tax credits to discount their insurance premiums, while the rest must pay the full price for their coverage.
Posted inHealth
Should CT give terminally ill patients the ‘right to try’ unapproved treatments?
Since being diagnosed with ALS, Debra Gove has participated in eight studies, hoping to give researchers insights that could lead to a cure. She’s participating in a clinical trial, but knows there’s a chance she got a placebo, and that she’ll be dead before the treatment can be widely available. Should state lawmakers make it easier for patients like her to try unapproved treatments?
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Behind The Numbers podcast – Episode 2: Deep cuts, tax hikes and an end to deficits?
Connecticut Mirror Budget Reporter Keith M. Phaneuf and state Controller Kevin P. Lembo discuss Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s $40 billion biennial budget proposal and whether it would put state finances on a sustainable path into he future.
Posted inHealth
Mental health Commissioner Rehmer leaving for Hartford HealthCare post
Connecticut mental health and addiction services Commissioner Patricia Rehmer is leaving the agency to become a senior vice president at Hartford HealthCare, where she will lead the organization’s Behavioral Health Network.
Posted inHealth
Wadleigh named CEO of Access Health CT
Jim Wadleigh, who joined the state’s health insurance exchange as chief information officer in 2012, has been leading quasi-public agency on an interim basis since September.
