{"id":1194,"date":"2020-03-11T08:15:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T15:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2020-03-09T20:22:01","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T03:22:01","slug":"no-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1194","title":{"rendered":"No News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the Idaho legislature in session, a pandemic\nthreatening, and health care costs on their steady climb I want to catch you up\non all the Idaho health care news. Well, this could be short. Just to save you\nthe time right off, I\u2019ll say there has been no health care news in Idaho this\nweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislature has considered some things, and is\nconsidering some things, but mostly, they have said they don\u2019t want to consider\nmost things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Health and Welfare went out on a limb and\nsuggested to the legislature that they be the repository for \u201cAdvanced\nDirectives\u201d. You know, there\u2019s that POST form<\/a>\nyour kids and your lawyer want you to sign to take the pressure off them when\nyou stroke out or hit your head falling off a ladder taking down the Christmas\nlights. It says whether you want everything done, machines and tubes, or you\njust want to be comfortable and let the end come. When the state set this up\nback in 2005, the Secretary of State was determined to be the depository of\nthese records. I assume these valuable documents are in a file. There are now\nover 40,000 of these. But try getting hold of your dad\u2019s off business hours.\nHealth and Welfare planned to make a secure website. The House didn\u2019t like the\ncost. So that idea died. I suggest you keep yours taped to the refrigerator;\nthen only get incapacitated near the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been no legislative suggestions to control health\ncare costs. But they are going to hobble the lawyers and debt collection\nagencies that want to garner your wages for what you owe on medical bills.\nFrank VanderSloot, billionaire CEO of Melaleuca has championed<\/a>\nthis one. The backstory is deep, but it really says something about our \u201cbest\nin the world\u201d health care system that we can support a cadre of lawyers and\ndebt collection agencies. And it says something about our legislature that such\nan idea has to come from a guy who \u201csaw a problem\u201d. Good for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A suggestion to limit \u201csurprise medical bills<\/a>\u201d\nhas gone through three iterations, but seems to be dead. It was nowhere near\nthe refrigerator so resuscitation is unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks like vaping products might be regulated like\ntobacco, since this bill got through the House. It faced tough opposition\nespecially from the legislator who owned a vape shop. He convinced 31 of his\ncolleagues to vote with him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Senate did kill a bill the House passed unanimously.\nIt would have allowed prescribers to treat heroin addicts over the phone. I was\nskeptical<\/a> that this\nwas a good idea, so in this case, no news is good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since we are speaking of no news, I\u2019m sure you are glad\nthat Idaho has reported no cases of the new, novel corona virus: Covid19. But\nwe\u2019re ready. Since the Feds are handing out dollars faster than you can wash\nyour hands, the Budget Committee appropriated $2M, expecting to get back $4M\nfrom a federal fund. How\u2019s that for double your money? And they didn\u2019t even\nhave to buy a scratch ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though Idaho has not seen any cases of Covid19, we had\nlots of reassurance from our State Epidemiologist, Christine Hahn. I don\u2019t know\nabout you, but I\u2019m comforted knowing our state even has one of those\nepidemiologists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, if you get a fever and a cough, if you feel sick,\nthe advice is you should stay home. Wash your hands while you sing \u201cHappy\nBirthday\u201d. You should cough into your elbow, but I suggest aiming for the\ninside, where it bends because I hurt my shoulder bad trying for the pointy\npart. Oh, and stay near your kitchen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Idaho legislature in session, a pandemic threatening, and health care costs on their steady climb I want to catch you up on all the Idaho health care news. Well, this could be short. Just to save you the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1196,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions\/1196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}