Latest news with #UniversityofPittsburgh
Business Insider
19 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Millions of Americans could pay up to $1,247 more for Affordable Care Act health insurance next year
Middle-class Americans have a new cost to worry about next year: Pricier health insurance premiums. A Biden-era policy expanding eligibility for Affordable Care Act subsidies is set to expire at the end of this year, and there doesn't seem to be much legislative appetite to extend it. Without those subsidies, out-of-pocket premium costs are set to go up by an average of 75% — imposing another financial burden on Americans and potentially leading to some opting out of coverage altogether. For some Americans, that could mean a $1,000 or more a year increase in health insurance. An analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the enhanced ACA subsidies reduced net premium costs by 44% in 2024, with 93% of those enrolled in the marketplace receiving some form of premium tax credits. In 2024, around 19.3 million Americans enrolled in the marketplace received premium tax credits — the subsidy beefed up by both the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. How much enrollees received depended on their income and the initial costs of their local plans. Miranda Yaver, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh and a healthcare fellow at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, said that the enhanced subsidies were a "game changer" for Americans who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but still may struggle to make ends meet. Business Insider has reported on these workers, known as ALICE or asset-limited, income-constrained, employed. They make too much to qualify for robust assistance, but still struggle to pay their bills. "If you're piecing together some better-than-minimum-wage jobs, but still hourly jobs, this means that health insurance becomes much more accessible, and that means that you can get the care you need and not have to fear as much about getting sick," Yaver said. Subsidies expanded who was eligible for ACA health insurance Some GOP legislators have argued that the policy expanded ACA eligibility too much and offered relief to higher earners while remaining costly to the country. A CBO projection found that making the policy permanent would increase the deficit by $335 billion over the next decade and reduce revenues by $60 billion. "It is particularly concerning that, by removing the income eligibility limit, some of our nation's highest earners are now eligible for government assistance," Reps. Jason Smith and Jodey Arrington, who respectively chair the House Ways and Means Committee and House Budget Committee, wrote in a 2024 letter. "In certain areas of the country, a family making as much as $599,000 in 2023 could qualify for taxpayer-funded subsidies." Before the subsidies, only Americans earning between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty line qualified, or between $15,650 and $62,600 based on the current cutoff for a single American. That 400% limit was expanded under the new structure, meaning that some Americans with ACA coverage were newly eligible to have some premium relief, especially older beneficiaries. Those who made above the 400% line, but were spending over 8.5% of their household income on premiums, became eligible for subsidies. Christen Young, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center on Health Policy, said that those newly eligible Americans saw savings of around $10,000 to $15,000 a year on their premiums. "Those are the people who are facing particularly large increases in premiums when these enhancements expire," Young said. A 2024 KFF analysis found, for instance, that Americans making $40,000, or 266% of the federal poverty line, could see their annual premiums increase by $1,247 annually. "If you take a single parent of one child earning $50,000 a year, that family is saving about $1,700 because of the enhanced premiums. They're going to see their premium increase by about 80% next year when the subsidy enhancements go away," Young said. "A family of four with a household income of $130,000, they're saving $8,000 a year with these enhancements, and they'll see their yearly premium increase by about 60 to 70% next year." When health insurance costs go up, healthy young people tend to drop coverage With the expiration looming at the end of the year and premiums expected to rise, many younger and healthier Americans may decide to opt out of coverage. This could, in turn, raise costs even more for those who remain on ACA plans. Without that younger and healthier group, it becomes more expensive to insure the remaining Americans, and costs go up across the board. "It's insurance companies correcting for the fact that the people who are going to be enrolled in their plans will probably not be as healthy," Yaver said. A projection from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that should the measures lapse, 4.2 million more Americans would be uninsured by 2034. "One of the things that is really critical to health insurance is being able to essentially spread the risk of insuring people so that we can essentially bring younger and healthier people into the insured population," Yaver said. There is a possibility that Congress could step in and extend the subsidies, although that looks unlikely, as it would have to have bipartisan approval. The potential end of the subsidies also comes as Americans face a mixed economy: The labor market is seeing shifts, but still chugging along. Inflation is creeping higher, and consumer sentiment is looking dreary — albeit not as low as it has been. "The average American would have a very difficult time accommodating an unexpected $1,000 expense. That could be a medical, dental expense, home repair, car repair, you name it," Yaver said. "It's very easy to end up spending a thousand dollars in the American healthcare system."
New York Post
2 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
Expert outlines grim reality of MRI's dangers after man with 20-pound chain dies in machine mishap: ‘Snap his neck'
The Long Island man killed in a freak MRI accident stood no chance against the machine's magnetic field that pulled him in with enough force to 'snap his neck,' according to an expert in the field. A 20-pound chain that Kevin McAllister was wearing around his neck would have been yanked into the machine at Nassau Open MRI with 'hundreds of pounds' of force, Dr. Emanuel Kanal told the Post on Tuesday. 'Even if he was standing there holding the chain in his hands, the strongest weightlifter would not be able to prevent this kind of an accident from happening,' said Kanal, director of Magnetic Resonance Service at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. 3 Keith McAllister, 61, suffered multiple heart attacks after he was sucked into an MRI machine by his 20-pound metal chain. Facebook/Karim McAllister 'The problem is it's not a regular magnet, it's not a regular piece of iron. It's an unbelievably powerful magnet, and it's an unbelievably large piece of iron,' Kanal said, adding that the two factors resulted in 'hundreds of pounds of attraction in the direction of the magnet.' McAllister was pinned to the machine for over an hour by the massive exercise chain fitted with a padlock that he wore when he was allegedly led into the machine room by an MRI technician to help his wife who was having her knee examined, his family said. When he got 'within a few inches' of the machine, it could suddenly pull with 'such strength that it could have pulled sufficiently strongly to snap his neck,' Kanal said. 3 Family of McAllister claimed the 61-year-old was led into the machine room by a technician who did not tell the doting husband to remove his large metal chain. Brigitte Stelzer McAllister was pronounced dead at North Shore University Hospital the day after the bizarre accident with the cause being identified as three heart attacks, according to his family. '[D]epending on the status of his health, he may have had problems with cardiovascular disease before, and when the excitement happened, he could have had a heart attack just from the event itself,' Kanal stated. McAllister's wife described the haunting moments when her husband was breathing his last. 'His body went limp,' Adrienne Jones-McAllister told News 12 Long Island. 'He went limp in my arms and this is still pulsating in my brain,' she told the outlet through tears. Despite decades in the medical industry, Kanal said the bizarre manner of death is incredibly rare. 3 The MRI machine could have pulled McAllister with enough force to snap his neck, an expert told The Post. Brigitte Stelzer '[It's] extremely rare that someone dies because of an interaction with a strong magnetic field — probably fewer than a dozen times since MRI first became a diagnostic tool in the early 1980s,' the expert stated. His stepdaughter claimed the technician never warmed McAllister to take off the necklace that led to his demise. 'While my mother was laying on the table, the technician left the room to get her husband to help her off the table,' step-daughter Adrienne Jones-McAllister wrote in a GoFundMe. 'He forgot to inform him to take the chain he was wearing from around his neck off when the magnet sucked him in,' she wrote.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Study Reveals the Top Predictor of Heart Disease for Women Over 45
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." New research points to poor sleep as a cause of poor heart health in menopausal women. The study analyzed health data from about 3,000 women who participated in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. Sleep ended up being the biggest predictor of having a cardiovascular disease event and dying from any cause. The underlying causes of heart disease are varied and complicated, and doctors and scientists are still uncovering all the ways our genetics and lifestyle might affect our heart health. Now, new research published in the journal Menopause suggests that slacking on sleep can actually be a big problem for heart health, especially in menopausal women. What's behind the connection? Top experts in the sleep and cardiovascular fields explain why sleep is so tied to heart health and what this study means for you. Meet the experts: W. Christopher Winter, MD, is a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and host of the Sleep Unplugged podcast; Jennifer Wider, MD, is a women's health expert and co-host of the Open Wider podcast; Jessica Shepherd, MD, author of Generation M: Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause: Samar R. El Khoudary, PhD, MPH, study co-author and a cardiovascular and women's health epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health What did the study find? For the study, researchers analyzed health data from about 3,000 women who participated in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), which is an ongoing, longitudinal study of midlife women in the US. The researchers specifically looked at scores for Life's Essential 8, a health assessment tool created by the American Heart Association. After crunching the data, the researchers found that four components in Life's Essential 8 (blood glucose, blood pressure, sleep quality, and nicotine use) were the most important factors in predicting participants' future risk of developing cardiovascular disease. But sleep ended up being the biggest predictor of having a cardiovascular disease event and dying from any cause. And those who had better sleep quality had a lower risk of both of these outcomes. 'Midlife sleep quality may uniquely contribute to future event risk,' the researchers wrote in the conclusion. How is sleep related to heart health? There are a few potential factors at play here. 'Poor sleep can lead to inflammation in the body,' says Jennifer Wider, MD, women's health expert and co-host of the Open Wider podcast. 'Research shows that even relatively mild sleep problems can cause inflammation in cells that line the veins in the heart, which could significantly contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease.' But there can be an indirect impact of sleep on heart health, too. 'Lack of sleep may promote poor eating habits which over time can contribute to poor nutrition, diabetes, and heart disease,' Dr. Wider says. Consistent lack of sleep is also linked to high blood pressure, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, poor blood sugar control, and obesity, points out W. Christopher Winter, MD, a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and host of the Sleep Unplugged podcast. 'All of these are cardiovascular risk factors,' he says. What is considered 'poor sleep'? In the study, the sleep score was based on participants' responses to three questions about their sleep habits over the past two weeks, focusing on trouble falling asleep, frequent night awakenings, and early morning awakenings with difficulty returning to sleep, explains Samar R. El Khoudary, PhD, MPH, study co-author and a cardiovascular and women's health epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health. Why do menopausal women need to prioritize sleep for heart health? "As cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women, it is important to protect heart health as much as possible," says Jessica Shepherd, MD, author of Generation M: Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause. "As menopause affects every middle-aged woman, many post-menopausal women suffer from increased risks for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and sleep problems." But menopausal women in particular face potential issues with heart health due to declining levels of estrogen, Dr. Wider says. Estrogen is protective of the heart, she explains. As it drops in the body, a woman's risk of developing cardiovascular conditions, including heart disease, increases. "Sleep disturbances are common during the transition," El Khoudary says. "These issues, worsened by hormonal changes, vasomotor symptoms, and other factors, can increase with age and are linked to higher cardiovascular risk." Menopausal women also tend to see a "sharp increased risk" for sleep apnea, which usually leads to worse sleep and a higher risk of heart issues, Dr. Winter says. But Dr. Winter stresses that women shouldn't assume they're doomed to have poor sleep—and potentially developing cardiovascular disease as a result—during menopause. 'This is such a positive place for menopausal women to focus, because it is a variable that can be measured and improved upon,' he says. Ultimately, if you're struggling with sleep, it's a good idea to check in with a healthcare provider. Starting a good treatment plan could do more than make you feel well-rested the next day—it may support better heart health. You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50 Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
Pittsburgh college student says he returned to apartment to find 2 strangers living there
When a college student in Pittsburgh returned to his apartment after being away for a month, he found two strangers living there instead of his roommate. University of Pittsburgh student Maverick Crupi said he was blindsided last month when strangers suddenly moved in without notice from his landlord at the SkyVue Apartments. "I opened the door, I walked in, and everything in the kitchen that was there, that I had there, was no longer there," Crupi said. "And there was new pots, there was new pans, there's a candle." Crupi said he also found two naked strangers inside his apartment in the city's Oakland neighborhood. "This lady, she's probably like 35, 40 [years old], just naked, walks out, looks at me and starts screaming," he said. The college student said he was given no notice that his former roommate apparently sublet his room. After reviewing his contract, he believed it was in total violation of his rights as a tenant. "If you're going to rely on the contract to have me pay you rent every month and utilities and follow whatever addendums you have in there, then you, as the person that made the contract, need to follow it to a T, too." A clause in the contract states that replacing a resident or subletting "is allowed only when we expressly consent in writing," going on to say that "the remaining resident and replacement residents must sign an entirely new lease contract." But KDKA Investigates learned the contract Crupi signed was a "by-the-bed" lease, meaning while his apartment was a two-bedroom with a shared living space, he was only renting, paying for and leasing his bedroom. Several local attorneys told KDKA Investigates SkyVue was not in breach of the contract. "Because these were individual separate leases, then that's something where he's not really going to have much of a claim to the breach of the covenant of quiet and enjoyment here, just because new tenants were put in there without his prior knowledge or consent," attorney Daniel Stoner said. Stoner said that had Crupi and his former roommate signed a joint lease together, the subletting clause in his contract would have been effective. But even then, Stoner said it comes down to landlord discretion. "It is true that the landlord, that's really at their discretion and option if they want to enforce those clauses or not, and sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't," Stoner said. Several attorneys KDKA Investigates talked to say most tenant-landlord contracts typically are more landlord-friendly and weigh in favor of the property owner. "Look at your contract, look at the laws that are in the city, try to see if you're getting what you're entitled to. At the end of the day, the bare minimum, hopefully, at least you're getting that, and people are following their contract," Crupi said. Stoner said make sure tenants read and understand their contracts, and do not be afraid to ask questions. "Those are questions that you certainly should be asking, particularly if you are entering into a lease where you're renting out an individual bedroom and you're living in a unit with other people that are that are renting," Stoner said. If a tenant needs help with a contract, Stoner said to contact an attorney. He also suggested practicing good communication. Even so, Stoner said the landlord could have done a better job making sure this wasn't a surprise for Crupi. "If somebody did get hurt, the landlord could potentially be liable for all this," the attorney said. "This could have been easily preventable just by giving the guy a call or sending him a text or email to let him know this is happening."
Time of India
3 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
These 4 habits are key to heart health in middle-aged women, study reveals
As women enter their late 40s and early 50s, the transition through menopause brings more than just the end of menstrual cycles. It triggers a cascade of physiological changes that significantly impact cardiovascular health. From increased belly fat and hormonal fluctuations to higher risks of inflammation, metabolic syndrome, and vascular stiffening, this phase of life poses a critical turning point for heart health. A new study from the University of Pittsburgh, cited by the New York Post, sheds light on the most impactful habits that can help reduce cardiovascular risk. Analyzing data from nearly 3,000 women, researchers found that four specific behaviors — sleep, blood pressure, blood glucose, and smoking — had the greatest long-term impact on heart disease outcomes. 4 habits every woman should track to protect her heart 1. Sleep quality: a nightly reset for your heart Poor sleep isn't just tiring, it can be dangerous for your heart. According to the New York Post, the study emphasized that sleep disruptions during menopause are common and can worsen cardiovascular markers. Hormonal shifts affect circadian rhythms, leading to insomnia and fragmented rest. This, in turn, increases cortisol levels and insulin resistance, both of which contribute to heart disease. The American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) includes sleep as a vital metric for this reason. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Park Crescent at Alembic City, Vadodara – Luxury Homes from ₹2.20 Cr* Onwards Alembic City West Learn More Undo Researchers found that better sleep directly correlated with healthier blood pressure and glucose levels, two other key metrics for heart protection. 'Sleep can suffer with the symptoms of menopause,' said study co-author Samar R. El Khoudary, as quoted in Medical News Today. 'This has implications for heart health we can't ignore.' 2. Blood pressure: the silent strain on your arteries As estrogen declines during menopause, women become more vulnerable to elevated blood pressure. The New York Post reported that the study found significant arterial thickening and stiffness in women entering their 50s, a change often undetected until damage is already underway. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is known as the "silent killer" because it typically shows no symptoms until it's too late. Yet, it's one of the most modifiable risk factors. Lifestyle changes like reducing salt, managing stress, and exercising regularly can help control it. 'There's a change in vascular health, with increasing thickness and stiffness in the carotid artery,' El Khoudary noted. 3. Blood glucose: the hidden predictor of heart risk Even without a diabetes diagnosis, elevated blood sugar levels in middle age are a serious warning sign. According to the study referenced by the New York Post, blood glucose control was among the strongest indicators of future cardiovascular trouble in menopausal women. Insulin resistance tends to rise during this period due to hormonal and metabolic shifts, increasing the likelihood of plaque buildup in the arteries. Experts advise limiting processed sugar, maintaining a balanced diet rich in fiber and healthy fats, and staying active to manage blood glucose levels effectively. Regular screening is also vital, as many cases of prediabetes go unnoticed until complications arise. 4. Smoking: the most avoidable threat to the heart Despite decades of public health warnings, tobacco use remains one of the most damaging and preventable contributors to heart disease. The New York Post noted that smoking was one of the four top predictors of heart problems later in life, especially in postmenopausal women. Nicotine and carbon monoxide not only increase heart rate and blood pressure but also damage the lining of blood vessels, accelerating atherosclerosis. The benefits of quitting are immediate and profound. Just one year after quitting, the risk of coronary heart disease drops by 50 percent. Combined with improvements in sleep, blood sugar, and blood pressure, stopping smoking creates a compounding protective effect for the cardiovascular system. A call to action: know your numbers, take control 'Nearly 45 percent of women over 20 are living with some form of cardiovascular disease,' cardiologist Dr. Stacey Rosen told Fox News Digital, underscoring the need for early and proactive care. Yet, the good news is that most heart disease is preventable through informed lifestyle choices. Doctors recommend regular monitoring of cholesterol, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood sugar, all modifiable factors. The New York Post emphasizes the value of following the LE8 framework, which includes maintaining a healthy diet, exercising 150 minutes per week, and avoiding tobacco use. Your midlife years are not just about managing symptoms. They are a crucial window to strengthen your heart for the decades ahead.
