HEALTH - The Salt Lake Tribune

Analysis: Medicaid expansion would save Utah millions, cover 123K uninsured

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:22:29 MDT

Analysis: Medicaid expansion would save Utah millions, cover 123K uninsured

By Jennifer Dobner The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 23, 2013 04:22PM MDT

Utah could save $131 million and extend health insurance to more than 123,000 of its uninsured residents over the next 10 years if state officials opt to fully expand Medicaid, according to a cost-benefit analysis released Thursday. If Utah chooses not to expand, however, Medicaid will cost the state $177 million due to increased enrollment as those who are currently eligible, but not enrolled, are spurred to seek coverage. Under the Affordable Care Act, virtually everyone must have health insur...

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Report: Nation’s kids need to get more physical

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:41:13 MDT

Report: Nation’s kids need to get more physical

By JENNIFER C. KERR The Associated Press

Updated May 23, 2013 09:41AM MDT

Reading, writing, arithmetic — and PE? The prestigious Institute of Medicine is recommending that schools provide opportunities for at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day for students and that PE become a core subject. The report, released Thursday, says only about half of the nation’s youngsters are getting at least an hour of vigorous or moderate-intensity physical activity every day. Another concern, the report says, is that 44 percent of school administrators report slashing big c...

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Health care profiteers

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Health care profiteers

Updated May 23, 2013 01:01AM MDT

In “The limits of Medicaid” (Opinion, May 11), M. Royce Van Tassel criticizes Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) for not improving health, though he agrees that it “nearly eliminated catastrophic out of pocket medical expenditures.” But this is a precise description of what an effective health insurance plan should do. Some people believe the propaganda of insurance companies that they make us healthier, but this is nonsense. They provide zero value to health (as the stu...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Intermountain Healthcare alerts patients to cumulative radiation exposure

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:31:29 MDT

Intermountain Healthcare alerts patients to cumulative radiation exposure

By kirsten stewart The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 23, 2013 12:31AM MDT

Roughly 25 patients a day are wheeled into Intermountain Medical Center’s “cath lab” for CT scans to look for calcium buildup in their coronary arteries. Coronary artery scans — the newest addition to radiologists’ growing arsenal of diagnostic tools — can aid doctors in diagnosing heart problems early. But they expose patients to 50 to 150 times the radiation of a chest X-ray, raising their risk for developing cancer later in life. “We want to make sure patients are getting tests only for the ...

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Obamacare, Part 2

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Obamacare, Part 2

By XXXXXX The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 21, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The following editorial appeared in Monday’s Washington Post: Thought you had seen the last of the fighting over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare? Since its passage in 2010, after all, it has survived Supreme Court review, innumerable challenges from House Republicans and Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful campaign to evict its author from the White House. Nonetheless, with the heart of the reform set to take effect next year, its most contentious days may lie ahead. The law will affect...

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Study: Fever-reducing drugs don’t affect speed of children’s recovery

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:32:49 MDT

Study: Fever-reducing drugs don’t affect speed of children’s recovery

By Trevor Stokes Reuters

Updated May 20, 2013 10:32AM MDT

A review of past research finds that fever-reducing drugs have no effect on the speed of children’s recovery from an infection, contrary to the fears of some doctors and parents. Researchers have debated for decades whether lowering a sick child’s fever helps the recovery process or interferes with the body’s ability to fight the infection. Some previous research has shown that giving children fever-reducing “antipyretic” medications, such as acetaminophen, after vaccinations interfered with the...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Needing Medicaid

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:09:58 MDT

Needing Medicaid

Updated May 19, 2013 11:09PM MDT

Medicaid provides health care for families and individuals with low income and resources. Many across the country wouldn’t otherwise have health care. Yet some say they don’t want to pay for others’ health care because people are too lazy to pay for it themselves. But Medicaid actually goes to those who really need it. When he was a year old, my little brother was adopted by my parents through Utah Foster Care. He came with many drug-related problems due to his birth mother’s addiction. In his ...

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Task force aims to end teen suicide in Utah

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:09:58 MDT

Task force aims to end teen suicide in Utah

By ray parker The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 19, 2013 11:09PM MDT

Provo school officials have not lost one youngster to suicide in the past seven years, a remarkable fact given suicide’s prevalence in other parts of the Beehive State. Greg Hudnall would like the entire state to share that Provo statistic, and he thinks he knows how to do it. “It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a community to save one,” said Hudnall, an associate superintendent at Prove School District. “Parents shouldn’t avoid talking about suicide.” Monday , Hudnall will talk a...

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Confusion lingers in Utah over teen access to ‘morning after pill’

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:40:14 MDT

Confusion lingers in Utah over teen access to ‘morning after pill’

By kirsten stewart The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 18, 2013 06:40PM MDT

Every week it seems new, conflicting information surfaces about Plan B, who can buy the emergency contraceptive and where. In April, a Reagan-appointed federal judge issued an order to make the so-called “morning after” pill available over the counter to everyone regardless of their age. The Obama administration is appealing the ruling. To muddy matters further, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this month declared pharmacies can sell Plan B over the counter to teens age 15 and over, p...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

High-risk Utahns’ health insurance will shift to federal management

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:44:28 MDT

High-risk Utahns’ health insurance will shift to federal management

By Jennifer Dobner The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 18, 2013 11:44PM MDT

Uninsurable Utahns will see their subsidized health insurance coverage plan shifted to federal oversight in July after funding ran short and state officials refused to take on the risk. The federally-funded HIP-Utah program covers individuals who have been rejected by insurers because they are too sick. The program was initially funded with $5 billion, but stopped adding new enrollees in February when the money began to run out. In late April, federal officials gave states just two options for...

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Medicaid nonsense

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:01:08 MDT

Medicaid nonsense

Updated May 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

M. Royce Van Tassell’s op-ed, “Medicaid access doesn’t improve health” (Opinion, May 12), makes no sense at all. If that title were the case, why does anyone need insurance, including Van Tassell? He cites studies that say people without health insurance don’t have worse health than those who do. Does a person who has diabetes and doesn’t know it have the same health as a person with insurance who goes to the doctor, discovers the diabetes and sets up a treatment plan? I am 80 years old and hav...

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Embrace clean air standards

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:29:41 MDT

Embrace clean air standards

By jeff miller

Updated May 18, 2013 10:29AM MDT

As a local Subaru dealer who works with one of the greenest brands in the nation, our air quality has become a major concern. The good news, however, is that new federal standards that could help dramatically improve our community’s air are being supported by a surprising alliance of car manufacturers and public health groups. Last winter, Wasatch Front residents struggled through 22 days of dangerously polluted air. Polluted air worsens breathing problems, shortens lives and especially jeopard...

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Hilman headed to new health insurance cooperative

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:36:56 MDT

Hilman headed to new health insurance cooperative

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 17, 2013 10:36PM MDT

Longtime health care policy advocate Judi Hilman will leave her post as director of the Utah Health Policy Project in July to join a new nonprofit health insurance cooperative. Hilman helped found UHPP nearly eight years ago. Her departure was announced Friday. She is planning to move to Arches Health Plan to serve as vice president of consumer engagement and strategic partnerships. Arches is Utah’s first health insurance cooperative formed under the federal Affordable Care Act. Hilman will ...

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Hatch calls for investigation of Obamacare funding

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:23:58 MDT

Hatch calls for investigation of Obamacare funding

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 17, 2013 01:23PM MDT

Washington • Congressional Republicans claim Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is trying to skirt federal law by fundraising for a nonprofit promoting the Affordable Care Act. They argue the move is a way to bypass the financial restrictions that Congress has imposed on the agency and they want the Government Accountability Office to investigate, according to a letter sent Thursday signed by five top Republicans, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, the ranking member of the Senate Fi...

Suit: Make EPA force Utah to cut winter pollution

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:09:01 MDT

Suit: Make EPA force Utah to cut winter pollution

By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 16, 2013 11:09PM MDT

WildEarth Guardians filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. District Court in Denver on Wednesday, saying the agency failed to uphold the Clean Air Act and to protect Utahns’ health by not making the state clean up fine-particle pollution. Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ climate and energy program director, said state regulators are putting the public health behind the interests of polluters. “Clean air delayed is clean air denied,” Nichols said in a news release....

Paying for ACA

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:03:52 MDT

Paying for ACA

By XXXXXX The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 16, 2013 08:03AM MDT

This week’s furor over the Internal Revenue Service’s selective scrutiny of tea party groups and the Justice Department’s secret collection of phone records from the Associated Press has obscured what may prove in the long run to be a more troubling ethical breach. Unable to secure funding from Congress to carry out the Affordable Care Act, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has responded with a bizarre error in judgment. Sebelius has been soliciting donations from the healt...

Health reform gap for Native Americans may affect few Utahns

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:08:53 MDT

Health reform gap for Native Americans may affect few Utahns

By Kirsten Stewart The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 15, 2013 08:08PM MDT

In Fort Duchesne, a federally funded health clinic offers free medical care — prenatal care, well-baby checks, dentistry and eyeglasses — to patients with Ute Indian ancestry. But under the Affordable Care Act, some of the clinic’s patients may have to either buy health insurance they don’t need or pay a tax penalty. American Indians are exempted from the act’s upcoming mandate to buy insurance, but its definition is limited to those who are members of approximately 560 tribes recognized by th...

Insurance ‘providers’

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Insurance ‘providers’

Updated May 15, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The letter “Pay to live” (Forum, May 8) talked how “health care providers” are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Not to put too fine a point on it, but “providers” — doctors, nurses and others who actually provide health care — are not the ones benefiting. The fiscal “good fortune” from the ACA is going to health insurance companies. In no sense can they be called “providers.” They don’t provide any care at all. They delay care. They deny care. They penuriously distribute our premium mone...

Study questions how sharply U.S. should cut the salt

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:16:02 MDT

Study questions how sharply U.S. should cut the salt

Updated May 14, 2013 10:16PM MDT

Washington • A surprising new report questions public health efforts to get Americans to sharply cut back on salt, saying it’s not clear whether eating super-low levels is worth the struggle. Make no mistake: Most Americans eat way too much salt, not just from salt shakers but because of sodium hidden inside processed foods and restaurant meals. Tuesday’s report stresses that, overall, the nation needs to ease back on the sodium for better heart health. But there’s no good evidence that eating ...

Misleading on Medicaid

Tue, 14 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Misleading on Medicaid

Updated May 14, 2013 01:01AM MDT

If one can define the terms of the debate, one probably will win. This observation came to mind when I read M. Royce Van Tassell’s “Medicaid access doesn’t improve health” (Opinion, May 12), ironically, on Mother’s Day. He claimed that a study comparing Medicaid-covered individuals versus uninsured individuals showed no difference in overall health. He asserted that Medicaid-covered people are leaching off the poor taxpayer. Van Tassell failed to mention the cost of expensive emergency room c...