HEALTH - The Salt Lake Tribune

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

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:31:11 MDT

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

By Jennifer Dobner The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 18, 2013 12:31PM 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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GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:59:35 MDT

GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR The Associated Press

Updated May 18, 2013 10:59AM MDT

Washington • Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will ensnare their biggest target: President Barack Obama’s health care law. There is a link, but it may only be coincidence. No one appears to have connected the dots factually, and it’s unclear whether they will. The Internal Revenue Service has a major role in carrying out the health care law, because financial assista...

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Confusion lingers in Utah over teen access to “morning after pill”

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:38:24 MDT

Confusion lingers in Utah over teen access to “morning after pill”

By kirsten stewart The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 18, 2013 10:38AM 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.

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...

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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...

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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....

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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...

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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...

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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...

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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 ...

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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...

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

Utah Indian tribe breaks into the health care business

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:39:00 MDT

Utah Indian tribe breaks into the health care business

By kirsten stewart The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 08:39AM MDT

A group of doctors is working with the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute to open a family health clinic in downtown Salt Lake City. Sacred Circle Health Care will be the first tribe-owned clinic located outside a reservation in Utah, say its founders. But that’s not all that sets it apart. The clinic is designed to be a moneymaker for the tribe — with the profits used to improve tribal members’ access to health care no matter where they reside. “Any money made by the Goshutes has to go to healt...

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Utah pesticide use not dangerous

Sat, 11 May 2013 01:01:06 MDT

Utah pesticide use not dangerous

By leonard m. blackham

Updated May 11, 2013 01:01AM MDT

As a government agency responsible for regulating Utah’s agriculture industry, we find it necessary to offer a balanced view of the role pesticides play in our food system. Brian Moench, in a May 4 op-ed, “Spray at your own risk,” offer a very narrowly focused and unrealistic view that all pesticides should be removed from the market because of their potential to do harm. This is simply an irresponsible position to advocate, especially for a doctor. Are pesticides risk-free? Certainly not. But t...

The limits of Medicaid

Sat, 11 May 2013 01:01:05 MDT

The limits of Medicaid

By m. royce van tassell

Updated May 11, 2013 01:01AM MDT

By m. royce van tassell In promoting Obamacare to Congress and the American public, President Barack Obama and other backers of universal insurance coverage frequently said that people lacking health insurance have worse health than those who have health insurance. As it turns out, the first meaningful study of that claim says there’s little difference. The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study by a group of Harvard and MIT researchers evaluating the physical and mental healt...

Guns and mental health care

Sat, 11 May 2013 01:01:05 MDT

Guns and mental health care

By susan pinegar

Updated May 11, 2013 01:01AM MDT

By susan Pinegar Legislation introduced earlier this year in the U.S. Senate aims to help frontline professionals safely de-escalate troubled individuals in crisis situations. It would provide training for educators, first responders, clergy and veterans, to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness and help individuals get treatment before they harm themselves or others. The Mental Health Care First Aid Act comes in direct response to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary and is se...

Obama declares health care law ‘is here to stay’

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:35:04 MDT

Obama declares health care law ‘is here to stay’

The Associated Press

Updated May 10, 2013 10:35PM MDT

Washington • Caught between nervous Democrats and emboldened Republicans, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped up the sales pitch on his health care overhaul as the final elements of his top domestic achievement go into effect. With his legacy and the law’s success at stake, Obama said: “The law is here to stay.” Behind the scenes, the White House readied a campaign-style effort to get healthy young people to sign up for the insurance “exchanges” in order to keep premium costs from skyrocke...

Pretend insurance

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:17:02 MDT

Pretend insurance

Updated May 10, 2013 05:17PM MDT

For Mother’s Day weekend, a maternal analogy for an important policy question: Picture U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the mom, a very busy woman with thousands of things to deal with. Picture Utah Gov. Gary Herbert as one of her children, a basically good kid who, like many young people, wants his own way with a lot of things, even if it really isn’t good for him, or anybody else. In order to keep little Gary occupied and out of her hair, mom places him in a child...

Utah’s Herbert thanks feds for health exchange split

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:56:04 MDT

Utah’s Herbert thanks feds for health exchange split

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 10, 2013 10:56PM MDT

Washington • Utah Gov. Gary Herbert expressed his gratitude Friday to federal officials who agreed to split the responsibilities for offering insurance through health care exchanges, and he suggested other states may want to follow this new Utah model. The deal, which the Department of Health and Human Services agreed to Friday, allows the state to operate its small-business exchange, known as Avenue H, while avoiding some of the more politically contentious portions of the Affordable Care Act....