On the day my wife and I were to fly home from London after a brief visit, we took a covid-19 test, as required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to travel The United States will not allow anyone to fly into the country who has tested positive for covid, and it is up to the airlines to enforce that.

My wife’s test was negative.Ìý

My test was positive.

She flew out.

I stayed put.

I stayed put and tried to figure out what to do next. And as anyone who considers traveling overseas should realize, the hard part isn’t getting there. It might not even be avoiding covid, though that’s getting tougher. It’s getting back to the United States.

I am not allowed to fly for 10 days. After that, if I have a negative test, I’m free to go.

But while in Britain, I don’t have to quarantine. The British government says I’m free to do whatever I want. I can ride the stifling Underground, visit beautiful museums, or stand in line for a crowded indoor concert. I could go full Typhoid Mary, if I wanted, and wander into quaint pubs, all without a mask. Hardly anyone in England seems to bother to wear one.

What I can’t do is ride an airplane, with air recirculated every three minutes, among people required to wear masks the whole time. Had I caught covid while in the U.S., I could freely fly from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco — masked, of course — without a problem. But not over the Atlantic.

So I was looking at 10 days of hotels, which are not cheap in London. It’s not as if I can call a friend here and say, “Hey, I got covid. Can I crash on your living room sofa?”

But a colleague who travels often to London made a suggestion: , the classic beach town on the English Channel. Hotels cost a third less there. Brilliant. (It’s seedy and charming and historical. Worth a trip.)

I rode the train down, and what had only been a scratchy throat did develop into a dry cough, some sneezing, a loss of appetite, and maybe even a slight fever. I wore a mask whenever I went out.

Meanwhile, covid cases were rising rapidly in Britain. Hospitalizations, too.

The British government estimated that nearly in England tested positive last week, about 6% of the population. British doctors on Twitter are warning again of stressed hospitals. Drugstores had masks, lots of sturdy masks, but not a single covid test. All Boots stores, the British equivalent of CVS or Walgreens, had printed signs that said they were all out and to try again tomorrow. Those signs were never taken down during my stay,Ìý and I hit several stores every day. While masked.

My symptoms quickly went away, and after four days I felt fine again. I continued to wear an N95 mask. My Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the half-dose Moderna booster recommended by the CDC apparently did the trick.

But, now, how do I get back? Here’s the problem. There is a chance that some little piece of the virus remains in my body. So if I take another test and it’s positive, I’m stuck here again — with no symptoms except a bleeding wallet. I didn’t want to take that risk.

Fortunately, a Facebook friend happened to post something about her husband, who was caught in a similar circumstance. His solution was to pay a private doctor to attest that 10 days after his first symptoms, he no longer was contagious. For $185 he got a legitimate “certificate of recovery” that deemed him “fit to fly.” And he got home.

I’m going to try that. Wish me luck — because if there’s one thing I’ve learned about traveling to another country during covid, it’s this: You may not get horribly sick, but your personal finances will feel the pain.

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Testing, as well as mask-wearing, is an important measure if the country ever hopes to beat covid, restore normal routines and get the economy running efficiently. To get Americans cheaper tests, the federal government now plans to have insurance companies pay for them.

The Biden administration that every person with private insurance can get full coverage for . You can either get one without any out-of-pocket expense from retail pharmacies that are part of an insurance company’s network or buy it at any store and get reimbursed by the insurer.

Congress said private insurers must cover all covid testing and any associated medical services when it passed the and . The have-insurance-pay-for-it solution has been used frequently through the pandemic. Insurance companies have been told to pay for PCR tests, covid treatments and the administration of vaccines. (Taxpayers are paying for the cost of the vaccines themselves.) It appears to be an elegant solution for a politician because it looks free and isn’t using taxpayer money.

1. Are the tests really free?

Well, no. As many an economist will tell you, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Someone has to pick up the tab. Initially, the insurance companies bear the cost. , a vice president at KFF who studies the Affordable Care Act and private insurers, said the total bill could amount to billions of dollars. Exactly how much depends on “how easy it is to get them, and how many will be reimbursed,” she said.

2. Will the insurance company just swallow those imposed costs?

If companies draw from the time-tested insurance giants’ playbook, they’ll pass along those costs to customers. “This will put upward pressure on premiums,” said , vice president and coordinator for health policy at the Center for American Progress.

Major insurance companies like Cigna, Anthem, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna did not respond to requests to discuss this issue.

3. If that’s the case, why haven’t I been hit with higher premiums already?

Insurance companies had the chance last year to raise premiums but, mostly, they did not.

Why? Perhaps because insurers have so far made so much money during the pandemic they didn’t need to. For example, the industry’s profits in 2020 increased 41% to $31 billion from $22 billion, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The NAIC said the industry has continued its “tremendous growth trend” that started before covid emerged. Companies will be reporting 2021 results soon.

The reason behind these profits is clear. You were paying premiums based on projections your insurance company made about how much health care consumers would use that year. Because people stayed home, had fewer accidents, postponed surgeries and, often, avoided going to visit the doctor or the hospital, insurers paid out less. They rebated some of their earnings back to customers, but they pocketed a lot more.

As the companies’ actuaries work on predicting 2023 expenditures, premiums could go up if they foresee more claims and expenses. Paying for millions of rapid tests is something they would include in their calculations.

4. Regardless of my premiums, will the tests cost me money directly?

It’s quite possible. If your insurance company doesn’t have an arrangement with a retailer where you can simply pick up your allotted tests, you’ll have to pay for them — at whatever price the store sets. If that’s the case, you’ll need to fill out a form to request a reimbursement from the insurance company. How many times have you lost receipts or just plain neglected to mail in for rebates on something you bought? A lot, right?

Here’s another thing: The reimbursement is set at $12 per test. If you pay $30 for a test — and that is not unheard of — your insurer is only on the hook for $12. You eat the $18.

And by the way, people on Medicare will have to pay for their tests themselves. People who get their health care covered by Medicaid can obtain free test kits at community centers.

A few free tests are supposed to arrive at every American home via the U.S. Postal Service. And the Biden administration has where Americans can order free tests from a cache of a billion the federal government ordered.

5. Will this help bring down the costs of at-home tests and make them easier to find?

The free covid tests are unlikely to have much immediate impact on general cost and availability. You will still need to search for them. The federal measures likely will stimulate the demand for tests, which in the short term may make them harder to find.

But the demand, and some government guarantees to manufacturers, may induce test makers to make more of them faster. The increased competition and supply theoretically could bring down the price. There is certainly room for prices to decline since the wholesale cost of the test is between $5 and $7, analysts estimate. “It’s a big step in the right direction,” Gee said.

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Hacerse pruebas, así como el uso de máscaras, es una medida importante si el país quiere vencer a covid, recuperar las rutinas de la vida diaria y conseguir que la economía funcione eficazmente. Por eso, el nuevo plan del gobierno federal para que los estadounidenses consigan pruebas más baratas consiste en que las compañías de seguros las paguen.

El gobierno de Biden que toda persona con un seguro privado podrá obtener al mes sin costo. Se pueden recoger en una tienda que forme parte de la red de una compañía de seguros o comprarlas y que la aseguradora reembolse el gasto.

El Congreso estipuló que las aseguradoras privadas deben cubrir todas las pruebas de covid-19 y cualquier servicio médico asociado al aprobar el First Coronavirus Response Act y el .

La solución de que el seguro pague se ha utilizado con frecuencia durante la pandemia. Se les ha pedido a aseguradoras que paguen las pruebas de PCR, los tratamientos de covid y la administración de vacunas. (Los contribuyentes están pagando el costo de las vacunas).

Parece ser una solución “elegante” para un político porque parece que es gratis y que no se utiliza el dinero de los contribuyentes.

1. Pero ¿las pruebas son realmente gratuitas?

Pues no. Como te dirían muchos economistas: no existe el almuerzo gratis. Alguien tiene que pagar la cuenta. Al principio son las aseguradoras reciben la factura. , vicepresidenta de KFF, especializada en el estudio de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA) y de las aseguradoras privadas, dijo que podrían ser miles de millones de dólares. La cantidad exacta depende de “lo fácil que sea conseguirlas y de cuántas serán reembolsadas”, agregó.ÌýÌý ÌýÌý

2. ¿La aseguradora absorverá esos costos impuestos?

Si son listos, y pocos se atreven a decir que quienes dirigen las compañías de seguros no lo son, pasarán esos costos a sus clientes. “Esto presionará al alza de las primas”, afirmó , vicepresidenta y coordinadora de política sanitaria del Center for American Progress.

Las principales compañías de seguros, como Cigna, Anthem, United Healthcare y Aetna, no respondieron a las solicitudes para hablar sobre este tema.

3. Si es así, ¿por qué no han aumentado ya las primas?

Las aseguradoras tuvieron la oportunidad el año pasado de subir las primas, pero en general no lo hicieron.

¿Por qué? Principalmente porque hasta ahora han ganado tanto dinero durante la pandemia que no necesitaron hacerlo. Por ejemplo, sus ingresos netos en 2020 aumentaron un 41%, de $22,000 millones hasta los $31,000 millones, según la National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). De hecho, la NAIC comunicó que el sector continuó con la “tremenda tendencia de crecimiento” que comenzó antes de la aparición de covid-19. Las compañías presentarán pronto los resultados de 2021.

La razón tras estas ganancias es clara. Las primas se pagaron en base a las estimaciones y proyecciones que hicieron las aseguradoras sobre la cantidad de atención de salud que utilizarían los consumidores ese año. Como la gente se quedó en casa, tuvo menos accidentes, pospuso cirugías y, a menudo, evitó ir al médico o al hospital, las aseguradoras terminaron pagando mucho menos.

Devolvieron parte de sus ganancias a los clientes, pero se quedaron con muchísimo más.

Mientras los actuarios de las compañías trabajan en la predicción de los gastos de 2023, esto podría cambiar si prevén más reclamos y gastos. El pago de millones de pruebas rápidas es algo que incluirán en sus cálculos.

4. Independientemente de las primas, ¿las pruebas costarán dinero del propio bolsillo?ÌýÌý

Es muy posible. Si la aseguradora no tiene un acuerdo con una tienda en la que se pueda simplemente recoger las pruebas, se tendrá que pagar por ellas, al precio que establezca la tienda. Si ese es el caso, se tendrá que llenar un formulario para solicitar el reembolso a la aseguradora. ¿Cuántas veces una persona una persona ha perdido los recibos o simplemente se ha olvidado de enviarlos por correo para solicitar un reembolso? Muchas, ¿verdad?

Y otra cosa. El reembolso está fijado en $12 por prueba. Si se paga $30 por una prueba —nada inusual— la aseguradora solo se responsabiliza por $12. Al consumidor le toca pagar $18.

Y, por cierto, los beneficiarios de Medicare tendrán que pagar ellos mismos las pruebas. Y las personas que obtienen su atención médica de Medicaid pueden obtener kits de pruebas gratuitas en centros comunitarios.

La administración Biden acaba de en el que los estadounidenses pueden ordenar algunos kits de pruebas gratis, que pagará el gobierno federal.

5. ¿Ayudará esto a reducir los costos y a que sea más fáciles de encontrarlos?

Es poco probable que las pruebas gratuitas de covid tengan un impacto inmediato en el costo y la disponibilidad. Habrá que seguir buscándolas. Se estimulará la demanda, lo que a corto plazo puede hacer que sean más difíciles de encontrar.

Pero la demanda, y algunas garantías del gobierno a los fabricantes, pueden hacer que se produzcan más rápido. El aumento de la competencia y de la oferta podría, en teoría, hacer bajar el precio. Desde luego, hay margen para que los precios bajen, ya que el costo al por mayor de la prueba es de entre $5 y $7, según estiman los analistas.Ìý “Es un gran paso en la dirección correcta”, señaló Gee.

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Three million cases and 133,000 deaths in the United States. Testing still takes too long, KHN reported — the Atlanta mayor had to wait eight days for results! — and, no, the numbers.

With nearly 60,000 new cases in one day, the United States set another COVID record. The United States leads the world, but not in a good way, as a headline in a KHN morning newsletter put it this week. Indeed, it is quite possible that President Donald Trump’s recent rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, , Reuters reported.

COVID News, Lots of It

The focus of the arguing this week was on back-to-school plans. School districts are trying to make that hard decision in order to protect children, staff members and parents. (Well, and the economy, for that matter.) The Atlantic published . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is to water down its reopening safety recommendations so, as Trump Monday, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!” Colleges are coming up with various plans to allow some students back on campus but offer few in-person classes.

Meanwhile, even more Americans have lost faith in Trump’s handling of the epidemic, according to a new poll released by ABC News/Ipsos: .

The beleaguered World Health Organization, to which Trump says he will cut U.S. funding, got embroiled in a controversy over whether airborne particles transmit the coronavirus. Scientific American a confusing story, while WHO acknowledges the evidence.

KHN published, with the Los Angeles Times, a very good story about how COVID-19 is starting to kill inmates on California’s death row at San Quentin. A prosecutor of one of the murderers who died wasn’t sympathetic. The Texas Tribune reports how the disease is and killing people who had very short sentences.

A few other stories from the week that shouldn’t be missed because they give you a good look at how government officials still struggle to get a handle on this crisis: Stat reports that the Food and Drug Administration “again risks being pulled into ” over hydroxychloroquine. Jim Fallows at the Atlantic did a masterful job of telling the , in the style of an aviation accident report. It’s well worth reading. This article in BMJ, the medical journal, is a little harder to read, but worth the effort for the provocative and contrary point it makes: The U.S. purchase of much of the world’s supply of the drug remdesivir, a possible COVID treatment, may be .

Put these two on your list for weekend reading, perhaps: The Washington Post’s horrific look inside infections and a New York Times story on in a series of maps and graphics.

The Toolkit

Every week there are new online graphics and other visual displays of COVID data that make it easier to understand what is going on in the epidemic. A few that I and the KHN staff found:

A from The New York Times.

Another , this one from the Milken Institute.

and risk calculations from the Harvard Global Health Institute. (Their server can be a bit slow. Be patient.)

Follow who is getting with this tool from ProPublica.

But wait: If you are assembling a toolkit, the great health reporter Charlie Ornstein of ProPublica has already done much of the work for you. Open up to find his very good collection.

Oddly Important News, More Odd Than Important

Well, for all the attention it was getting, some people seemed to think Kanye West running for president was big news. , and here is one thing he said that was health care-related:

The Italian in the health care industry. The Financial Times reports: “By corrupting local officials, organised criminals have been able to make vast profits from contracts given to their own front companies, establishing monopolies on services ranging from delivering patients in faulty ambulances to transporting blood to taking awayÌýthe dead.”

Here’s a of a socialite spreading COVID at a party of fellow swells.

To end on an uplifting note, because that’s important in these times, with 300 drones telling Koreans to wear masks and wash their hands. (And they do. Korea has one of the lowest infection rates in the world.)

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It was a short work week for those still able to work, but there was a considerable amount of health care news. That hasn’t changed.

The story that probably got the most attention was that the death toll in the United States from COVID-19 passed 100,000 people. It can be hard to get a handle on what that means. The Washington Post looked at the and track the deaths.

There will be more. The Texas Tribune noted how the coronavirus was a threat to . Nursing homes continue to be a major hot spot in this pandemic. Same goes for areas .

The Reopening

But another source of infections just might be the crowds of people who think all danger has passed and it’s time to frolic in close proximity with others.

You probably saw the photos and video of the crowds Memorial Day weekend in the pool at , Missouri, or on the boardwalk of , Maryland. Missouri health officials , but that is unlikely. Cities, states and counties may also with when it is safe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly removed a recommendation to limit singing in churches. (Singing has been shown to propel saliva particles.) So on it goes.

to open in July. Las Vegas casinos also announced their reopening and issued rules. Players can’t touch cards and slot machines will be fewer and farther apart.

Things That Don’t Change

Meanwhile, health care providers continue to find ways to make consumers pay more. The federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services said it will watch for “upcoding” of medical procedures — billing for a more expensive procedure.

We are already seeing it. KHN reporter Phil Galewitz wrote about a large bill for what was supposed to be a free COVID test. (This was not a fluke. We’ve already heard of other similar cases and will be writing about them.)

Drugmakers are also a source of concern. Critics note that the development of remdesivir, a possible COVID treatment, was heavily subsidized by the government, yet Gilead Sciences will be able to place whatever price tag it wants on the drug. Not that what was available , The Washington Post reported.

And Stat did an excellent analysis of how there was a lot less to President Donald for seniors. Stat also reported how executives of Moderna, a drug company that reported it was having success with a COVID vaccine, . The shares have as investors took another look at the hype.

Well played, Moderna. Well played.

— John Arnold (@JohnArnoldFndtn)

And NPR noted a White House staffer with .

Toolkits

All of us are looking for ways to measure the epidemic, to quantify it, to find patterns that either agitate or reassure. Here are a few classics and newer ones that I and the staff at KHN found this week.

ProPublica created a quite the companies that won federal contracts related to COVID-19. It helped them develop stories about some of those contractors. (Related stories: The federal government’s efforts to get Americans tested for the virus are still failing in myriad ways.)

• A tracking COVID-19
• A model that attempts to
• The
• The New York Times’
• KHN’s updated Pharma Cash to Congress. (Also a good story on newbie Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona scoring lots of it.)

Stuff You Should Know

For the past couple of weeks, you could hear discussion of “herd immunity” protecting us from the coronavirus bubbling up in conversations on cable TV news shows, on Twitter and among neighbors still observing social distancing. It’s the notion that if enough people are immune from a disease, the few who are not are protected. It’s the basic concept that makes measles shots so important; it protects the young children and vulnerable people who can’t be immunized. It’s why we want a coronavirus vaccine so quickly.

So The Upshot at The New York Times in a series of tight graphics. Their conclusion: “Even in some of the hardest-hit cities in the world, the studies suggest, the vast majority of people still remain vulnerable to the virus.”

• Here’s a about the deadly second wave of the 1918 epidemic.
• ABC News ” and why it is the crucial metric for reopening.
• The San Francisco Chronicle says can help the rest of us get through this.
• Reuters reports fewer of us are .
• And last but not least. Masks work: “We now have really clear evidence that wearing masks works — it’s probably a 50% protection against transmission,” said Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

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It should not go unnoticed that Jacinda Ardern, who has led New Zealand through the coronavirus pandemic with , is that country’s in 100 years.

I’m Damon Darlin, your guest writer for this edition of the Friday Breeze. We will have a rotating cast of writers for a few weeks to give you a breezy rundown of the week’s health care news.

You know, there were other things happening this week that mattered a bit more. of COVID-19. The toll is approaching 100,000 deaths in the United States. Many of the deceased among the COVID-19 casualties, according to a .

The New York Times reported, in one of the this week, that 36,000 fewer people in the United States would have died if only the country had locked down just one week earlier. If the U.S. had done it two weeks earlier, on March 1, “the vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided,” it reported.

Science magazine looked at the so-called . They examined a number of studies done across the globe in an attempt to understand how, if most people don’t transmit the virus, it spreads so much. It’s those circumstances in which it spreads massively that most intrigue the scientists.

The race for a vaccine to prevent further infections accelerated. So far, the results were mostly seen in the stock market. Moderna, a little-known drug company, announced preliminary results of its vaccine testing and its. The federal government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the agency overseeing the rapid production of a vaccine, gave Moderna $438 million. (One of its board members, Moncef Slaoui, was appointed the nation’s new “vaccine czar,” and to the industry are being questioned. The New York Times called them “vast.”)

Such publicity over vaccine development has raised the question of “.” KHN’s Jay Hancock took a look at how the pharmaceutical companies are trying to use publicity about their search for a vaccine to improve their damaged reputations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has faced withering criticism throughout this epidemic, came under fire again this week. This time, it was for messing up of epidemiology, supposedly its specialty. The federal agency was for the coronavirus, viral and antibody, which would mess up crucial metrics needed to determine if it is safe to reopen a state. Virginia was doing this same thing. The Atlantic said Georgia, Texas and Pennsylvania were also misreporting data.

By the way, the head of the CDC, Robert Redfield, said he by the White House.

In other fiddling-with-the-data news, a data analyst working for the because, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported, “her bosses told her to remove the raw data from the website, meaning that users could no longer download it for analysis.”

Meanwhile, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington that that state isn’t manipulating the data, just the graphic representation of it, so the results looked better.

We aren’t done yet with the data category. An night said that the Stanford University study you undoubtedly read about suggesting the coronavirus was not as deadly as was thought was sponsored by David Neeleman, the JetBlue Airways founder who has been saying the pandemic isn’t deadly enough to justify lockdowns. Stanford didn’t disclose the financial ties, according to BuzzFeed, or that scientists were concerned about the accuracy of the antibody tests the study was based on.

This report from NBC was intriguing. It on the much-touted technology for washing and reusing face masks that health care workers use. The federal government contracted with an Ohio research company to be the nation’s laundromat. NBC said the potential cost to taxpayers is $413 million.

Finally, because it’s a national holiday on Monday — no, really, check your calendar, it’s Memorial Day — I leave you with a host of things to worry about as the country struggles to reopen.

• Wearing gloves .
• Reopened office buildings .
• Then there are the in public buildings.
• Loud talking, as people do in bars or restaurants, in the air for 14 minutes.

Enjoy your long weekend. The ultraviolet light in sunshine is useful.

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Let’s dive into my “Department of Health Studies,” where I found several worthy of your time.

First, the scourge of fentanyl drug overdoses is rising most sharply among African-Americans. The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, which did the study, said the synthetic opioid is also a factor in the rise of death rates across other demographic groups.

The Washington Post:

A group of academics studying anti-vaccination posts on Facebook found that it’s driving the sentiment. While 86 percent of the posters were women, their motivation varied from conspiracy — as in poliovirus does not exist and pesticides caused the clinical symptoms of polio — to a belief in alternative medicine — eating yogurt cures human papillomavirus.

Science Direct:

Many news outlets reported on and its heavily promoted ability to detect an irregular heartbeat. The which has not been published or peer-reviewed, concluded the watch works.

CNN:

Moving on to data, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issued its this week. It’s a user-friendly display of a matrix of health indicators that lets you spot the country’s trouble spots. This year’s report,, tried to get at the relationship of the cost of housing to health. “The research reveals that in the most segregated counties nearly one in four black households spends more than half their income on housing, compared with one in 10 white households.”

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

Doctors will like this one: a study comparing . CEO salaries are five times higher than surgeons’ salaries, up from a ratio of 3-to-1 only 10 years earlier.

Healthcare Dive:

Drug prices remain the hot topic this week in health care news. The BBC looked at the compared with the prices in Great Britain and chortled a bit.

BBC News:

Elisabeth Rosenthal, the editor-in-chief of KHN, wrote an analysis in The New York Times of to cut insulin prices in the U.S. with an “authorized generic.” She writes, “It is, perhaps, a sign of how desperate Americans are for something — anything — to counteract the escalating price of drugs that Lilly’s move was greeted with praise rather than a collective ‘Huh?’”

The New York Times:

While we are on the topic of the high cost of health care, the federal government’s General Accountability Office and the sky-high bills the companies send patients. (KHN featured the problem in its “Bill of the Month” series and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did on the problem last year.) Bob Herman of Axios noted that the report found that the median price of medical helicopter transport in 2017 was $36,400.

Government Accountability Office:

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a fabulous article by another KHN staffer, Fred Schulte, who with Erika Fry of Fortune magazine wrote about the mess that electronic health records have become. It’s long, but so good at illuminating a problem that is largely invisible to patients.

Fortune:

The Baltimore Sun produced a great graphic, a live in the city. The accompanying article says: “More than 14 million gallons of sewage-tainted water has washed into Baltimore streams over the past two months, but city officials haven’t alerted the public of the contamination.”

The Baltimore Sun:

Enjoy the weekend with this selection of things to read.

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So I’ll do my best at filling in. Be kind, and check back next week for the really good stuff.

One of the biggest bits of news this week was a coughed-up blot clot from the lung. Not sure why that seemed to fascinate people. We can skip that, but feel free to look.

A more authentic bit of news was the report that health care spending slowed in 2017. It’s still growing, mind you, but growing more slowly. That’s not terribly surprising, because it has been slowing for a number of years. What Dan Diamond over at Politico calls “slowth.” It increased 3.9 percent to $3.5 trillion, while the year before it had grown 4.8 percent. Another way to look at it: Americans spend $10,739 per person on health care. HuffPost had a nice analysis:

Read the full report

The New York Times attempts to explain why enrollment in Obamacare is down. Any number of things could factor in, like higher employment at places that offer health insurance, no mandate forcing people to enroll or people signing up for Medicaid. Further study may present an answer.

This week, the Annals of Internal Medicine retracted a 2009 paper by Brian Wasinick, the now-discredited Cornell University researcher. The half-baked paper had claimed that the recipes in the more modern editions of the classic “Joy of Cooking” cookbook had more calories than the original. The always enlightening Retraction Watch website, which tracks medical and scientific research that has been undermined, has the whole story of the delightful sleuthing that led to the debunking. (And while you are on the site, peruse all the other Wasinick papers on food research that have been rescinded.)

One of my favorite writers on health care makes an often overlooked point about health insurance: Its goal ought to be the same as other insurance, that is, to safeguard the financial health of beneficiaries. And Aaron Carroll, who is also a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, says that several studies show it does exactly that.

Read the whole piece for yourself:

As a bonus on this topic, here is an academic paper surfacing this week on the effects of the Affordable Care Act on mortgage delinquencies. Spoiler: The value of fewer evictions and foreclosures is substantial compared to the cost of the ACA subsidies.

The Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that seeks to improve health care, Ìýwanted to know how the Affordable Care Act affected the uninsured and the insured. As its chart that summarizes its findings issued this week shows, there was considerable movement. The main finding was the number of young adults who switched from Medicaid to individual insurance — and the other direction as well.

Commonwealth also conducted a forum on which dealt with the financial consequences.

Forbes likes to compile those “30 under 30” lists. (I’ve long wished someone would go back and look at one of those lists from 20 or 25 years ago to see how the luminaries are doing now.) Anyway, it put together a list of people in the health care industry. Most are on the cusp of 30, which might tell you something about how hard it is to get a fast start in the industry. But one person on the honor roll is only 18. In case you were wondering, because I was, Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the ill-fated Theranos, was on a different “40 under 40” Forbes list in 2014. We hope these folks fare better.

This article ran a while back, but I got a kick out of it and just had to mention it. It looked at prehistoric health care. Researchers will never know how much Stone Age dwellers bored their hut mates with discussions of a paleo diet, but they are learning how they performed medical procedures that appeared to have worked.

May you survive another whirlwind week of health care news, until next Friday’s breezy recap.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

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