FHI's Week in Review

Volume IV, Issue 49

Dec. 4 , 2017

CVS to Acquire Aetna

In a CNN report dated 12/3/17 it is revealed that CVS is buying health insurance giant Aetna.

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According to the article "If approved, the $69 billion acquisition -- $77 billion including debt -- would drastically remap the health care industry. It would also go down as the largest health insurance deal in history...Buying Aetna puts CVS in a better position to compete with other integrated health care providers, such as UnitedHealthcare (UNH) and pharmacy benefits manager Optum."

Senate GOP repeals ObamaCare mandate

Peter Sullivan reports for The Hill on 12/02/17 that " Senate Republicans have approved the repeal of ObamaCare's individual mandate as part of their tax-cut bill, a major step toward ending an unpopular part of the health-care law."

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According to Mr. Sullivan, "It's unclear what repeal of the mandate will mean for ObamaCare. Many experts and health-care groups warn that repeal will destabilize ObamaCare markets, leading to premium increases or insurers simply dropping out of certain areas. Without a financial penalty under the mandate for lacking health coverage, there is less incentive for healthy people to sign up and balance out the costs of the sick. Some experts counter that the effects will not be as severe as others say, given that there are doubts the mandate had a strong effect on people to begin with."

More than half of US children may be headed for obesity as adults

A computer analysis predicted that more than 57% of children in the U.S. will be obese by the time they turn 35, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine dated 11/30/17. Researchers analyzed data from five studies involving nearly 41,500 children and adults and found that severity of obesity in childhood was tied to an even greater risk of being obese by the age of 35.

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The authors' conclude that "On the basis of our simulation models, childhood obesity and overweight will continue to be a major health problem in the United States."

See related from the CDC on Childhood Obesity HERE.