Citizen Cartwright

Note to readers

Greetings from my iPhone!

I've been trying for hours to work around an Internet outage, and I have failed.

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Have a great day.

Obamacare insurers discriminating on pre-existing conditions?

Some insurance companies may be using high-dollar pharmacy co-pays to get around the Affordable Care Act's mandate against discrimination on the basis of pre-existing health problems, Harvard researchers say in the New England Journal of Medicine.

These insurers may have structured their drug coverage to discourage people with HIV from enrolling in their plans through the health insurance marketplaces by putting all HIV medicines, including generics, in the highest cost-sharing category of their drug coverage, the researchers say.

But, says Clare Krusing, director of communications for America's Health Insurance Plans, the findings by definition show that three out of four plans are offering HIV coverage at more reasonable rates. And patients with HIV can choose to move to one of those plans.

"This report really misses that point, and I think that's the overarching component that is important to highlight," Krusing says. "Consumers do have that choice, and that choice is an important part of the marketplace."

Another recent study analyzed drug coverage for several other high-cost chronic conditions — mental illness, cancer, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis — and found that at least half of the marketplace plans had engaged in discriminatory cost-sharing for one or more of those illnesses, the Harvard researchers say.

The federal government already appears to be taking action, says Lydia Mitts, a senior policy analyst for Families USA, a health consumer advocacy group.

In November, the Department of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule clarifying its stance on discriminatory drug coverage.

"If an issuer places most or all drugs that treat a specific condition on the highest cost tiers, we believe that such plan designs effectively discriminate against, or discourage enrollment by, individuals who have those chronic conditions," the proposed rule says.

Mitts is urging people to call regulators if they believe they're in a plan with discriminatory cost-sharing.

"It's important for consumers to know that if they find themselves in plans like this, they should be reporting it to their state insurance commissioner, the HHS Office of Civil Rights, and their health insurance marketplace," she says.

Another study shows the power of the placebo effect

The small study, of 12 people, suggests that Parkinson's patients seem to feel better — and their brains actually may change — if they think they're taking an expensive medication.

Essentially, we believe at deep levels that you get what you pay for, suggests the study, which is published online in the journal Neurology.  

Research also is said to show that we often think big pills work better than smaller ones, brand names outperform their generic equivalents, and even that red pills fight pain better than blue ones.

Our 'hourglass' economy: Demand is for luxury, budget brands

The emergence of a two-tiered economy — with wealthy households advancing while middle- and lower-income Americans struggle — is reshaping markets for everything from housing to clothing to groceries to beer, says The Wall Street Journal.

The spending rebound after the recession “appears to be largely driven by the consumption at the top,” says Barry Cynamon of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

As a result, many businesses are reorienting themselves to serve higher-income households, he says.

Also in the news

Islamic State offshoots springing up in Egypt, other countries

As Iraqi Kurds gain ground from the Islamic State, local Sunnis are wary

Raul Castro: U.S. must return Guantanamo before relations are normalized

Criticism of Holder dominates hearing on his possible successor, Loretta Lynch

Federal Reserve says it won’t raise interest rates before June at the earliest

Bill Gates says he's concerned about threat to humans of artificial intelligence

What you need to earn in a year to be in the top 1 percent of your state

Pesticides, plastics chemicals linked to earlier start of menopause

Ancient solar system is similar to our own

When I get down in the dumps about the way we humans can treat each other (e.g., the Islamic State), thinking about the big, big picture almost always makes me feel better.

And how about this?

Scientists using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope have discovered a solar system with five planets similar in size to Earth that's 117 light years away — the oldest known of its kind, formed 11.2 billion years ago.

The star, named Kepler-444, and its planets are two and a half times older than Earth and date to the "dawn of the galaxy," say researchers, whose work is published in the Astrophysical Journal.

"There may be civilizations out there with a head-start of a few billion years [on us]," says Tiago Campante of the University of Birmingham in England, who led the research team making the discovery.

"Imagine the level of technology," he says.

And trying to imagine billions of years of tech advances makes me laugh out loud as I sit here in the middle of the night putting together this blog.

Chemists figure out how to unboil an egg

The innovation could cut costs for cancer treatments, food production and other areas of biotechnology, according to findings published in the journal ChemBioChem.

You may soon be 3D-printing your food

In a twist on the old parental injunction, "Don't play with your food," you may soon be customizing your nutrition using a 3D printer.

For example, researchers have started to mash up carrots, peas and broccoli and then 3D print them, as a way to make dining more appetizing for elderly people who have trouble swallowing.

The 3D-printed vegetables are being served at retirement homes in Germany.

Also in the news

Seventy years after Auschwitz liberation, survivors urge a troubled Europe not to forget

Obama administration proposes to allow oil, gas drilling in Atlantic, limit It in Arctic

Obama scraps proposal to cut tax benefits of 529 college savings plans after backlash

Indiana to expand Medicaid on terms not previously allowed under federal rules

Arizona becomes first state to require high school students to pass citizenship test

Mountain-sized asteroid that passed close by Earth on Monday has a small moon

Researchers pushing for data-sharing and greater transparency in experiments

FTC says Internet-connected devices pose serious data security and privacy risks

Smithsonian considers establishing exhibition venue in London's Olympic Park

Researchers find association between sugary drinks and early puberty in girls

Office etiquette for flu season: Some workers giving gifts of face masks

The government's surveillance of cars

The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the United States — a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The main goal of the license-plate tracking program — run by the Drug Enforcement Administration and using high-tech cameras on major highways — is to seize cars, money and other assets as part of the fight against drug trafficking, according to one government document.

But the database’s use has expanded to hunt for vehicles associated with numerous other potential crimes, from kidnappings to killings to rape suspects, the WSJ says.

Many state and local law-enforcement agencies are using the database for their investigations, the paper says.

The database raises new questions about privacy and the scope of government surveillance, and it's unclear whether any court oversees or approves the intelligence-gathering, says the WSJ.

And the practice of asset forfeiture increasingly is coming under attack because of instances when law-enforcement officers take such assets without evidence of a crime.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, which includes the DEA, says the program complies with federal law. The agency says it's reduced the time it holds the data from two years to three months.