Health Headlines for Friday, December 18
Obamacare Is Closing Insurance’s Race Gap
Bloomberg View
Whatever Obamacare’s shortcomings, a new paper shows one place where the law has been a clear success: narrowing the race gap in health insurance. So why aren’t more Democrats shouting that from the rooftops?
Drug-Price Poster Boy’s Arrest Unlikely to Curb Industry’s Hikes
Blumberg Business
Threatening one tiny drug company’s CEO with prison isn’t going to stop drugmakers from raising prices on products.
HMO giant Kaiser Permanente plans to open a medical school in Southern California
Los Angeles Times
MO giant Kaiser Permanente plans to launch a medical school in Southern California, bucking the healthcare establishment and promoting a new generation of physicians that looks more like the community it serves.
Judge blocks city board of health flu vaccine mandate for kids
Capital New York
The city’s board of health does not have the authority to require children receive the flu vaccine before entering city-run day care or preschool, according to a New York State Supreme Court ruling.
Syracuse’s first medical pot dispensaries almost ready to open
Syracuse Post Standard
Don’t expect neon lights and glass jars brimming with cannabis buds when Bloomfield Industries opens one of Central New York’s first medical marijuana dispensaries in Salina next month.
AstraZeneca to Buy Stake in Acerta Pharma
Wall Street Journal
AstraZeneca PLC on Thursday said it would buy a 55% stake in biotech company Acerta Pharma for $4 billion, in the U.K. drugmaker’s latest effort to rebuild its pipeline.