Trending News Today: Certain States Support Medicaid Expansion

The Texas Medical Center Health Policy Institute in Houston released a new survey that revealed a majority of individuals from Texas and Florida support Medicaid expansion, Kaiser Health News reported. The survey assessed attitudes towards the health care system and potential solutions in California, Florida, New York, Ohio, and Texas. Florida and Texas residents felt that the quality of health care was worse than it was 2 years ago. Furthermore, Texans reported 65% of people paid more out-of-pocket costs than they did 2 years ago. “Both Texas and Florida, the residents there are hurting and are turning to the idea of Medicaid expansion,” said Tim Garson, director of the Health Policy Institute. “This isn’t necessarily a political statement, this is simply, ‘What’s the data?’ And the data are Texas and Florida, the 2 without Medicaid expansion, are having perceived problems with cost and quality worse than the other 3.”

Anthem Inc Chief Executive Officer Joseph Swedish announced today that the antitrust process is moving forward as expected, despite growing concerns among investors on whether Anthem’s buyout of Cigna Corp would be able to get passed antitrust regulators. According to The New York Times, Swedish expects the US Department of Justice to reach a decision on the deal in near future. Nearly a year ago, Anthem announced plans to buy Cigna Corp in deal worth approximately $54 billion.

Researchers are developing an antibiotic that specifically targets the harmful bacteria and spares the microbiome, reported NPR. Typically, antibiotics are designed to kill as many bacteria as possible. The antibiotics are frequently unable to determine the difference between the microbiome and the harmful bacteria, making people more susceptible to developing infections from additional bacteria. Currently, researchers from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are testing Debio 1452, an experimental drug that targets staph bacteria.