ICYMI: Georgia not leaving Healthcare.gov

CMS has suspended Georgia’s plan to leave the federal ACA marketplace in favor of one run by private companies. The gist of the decision: Private companies would steer consumers to the companies’ own plans, not explain options well, and “some shoppers would walk away with inadequate coverage or drop coverage altogether.”

To get a waiver, the Kemp administration needed to show that Georgia’s plan “provide coverage to at least a comparable number of residents as without the waiver,” which CMS said it did not.

Medicare Part B may get cheaper

CMS is considering a premium drop for Medicare Part B plans for a simple reason: Half of this year’s big 15 percent increase was due to the agency expecting to pay through the nose for Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm. But that’s off the table (except for clinical trials), so “the rationale for an increase that high is gone.”

On the other hand, mid-year changes simply aren’t done*, so it’s possible any premium cut could be postponed till 2023.

The company you keep

Protection … eventually

If someone in your house tests positive for Covid-19 and takes Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid to try to stay out of hospital, you might think, “Hey, lemme get in on that to protect myself.” Don’t bother.

Pfizer reports that Paxlovid doesn’t protect people from being infected — it just protects the infected from being hospitalized.

Avoid the unvaccinated

Hanging around with unvaccinated people — intentionally or not — increases the risk of contracting Covid-19 even if you’re vaccinated. So found public health researchers at the University of Toronto.

“What we kind of concluded is that the decision to not be vaccinated — you can’t really regard it as a self-regarding risk (because) you’re creating risk for other people around you by interacting with them.”

It’s like riding in a car with someone not wearing a seatbelt. You might think it’s their personal choice … until you’re in an accident with 265 pounds of unbelted Uncle Joe sitting behind you.

Marijuana and heart attacks

The bad news (if you, er, partake): A large study out of Stanford found that “People who use marijuana have an increased risk of heart disease and heart attack” because THC seems to cause inflammation in the lining of blood vessels.

“Our studies of human cells and mice clearly outline how THC exposure initiates a damaging molecular cascade in the blood vessels. It’s not a benign drug.”

But the good news is that there’s an easy way to stop that inflammation: genistein, which is found in soy and fava beans (and available as a supplement).

[G]enistein works quite well to mitigate marijuana-induced damage of the endothelial vessels without blocking the effects marijuana has on the central nervous system, and it could be a way for medical marijuana users to protect themselves from a cardiovascular standpoint.”

A nice Chianti couldn’t hurt, either.

It comes in like a wrecking ball

There could soon be an antidote to carbon monoxide poisoning. CO kills by binding to hemoglobin, preventing it from carrying oxygen. The only ‘cure’ is fresh air — and maybe a hyperbaric chamber in extreme situations.

A UC Santa Cruz chemistry team, though, is finding ways to break up the CO and the hemoglobin. They’re creating molecules that are even more attractive to the monoxide — chemicals that will not only bind to the ‘unattached’ CO, but that are sexy enough to attract the CO that’s already bonded.

This is just proof of concept at the moment, but with 20,000 people a year ending up in the ER with carbon monoxide poisoning, a simple, EpiPen-like antidote would be great.

Artist’s conception

Let them eat their meat

Vegetarian kids grow bigger and stronger than kids who eat meat … not.

Actually (Canadian researchers found), “those who eat a vegetarian diet had similar measures of growth and nutrition compared to children who eat meat.” In fact, “Vegetarian diet was associated with higher odds of underweight weight status.”

Real companies, fake press

Here’s an odd story: Someone sent a fake press release via PR Newswire (one of the world’s largest press release distributors) saying Opiant Pharmaceuticals and Hikma Pharmaceuticals had agreed to a licensing deal for Opiant’s experimental opioid overdose treatment.

Opiant’s stock price shot up 25% before being halted, and then the company announced that the release was fake. Who did it? No one knows, but whoever it was probably made a nice chunk of change.