What We’re Reading: ACA Sign-Up Surge; Hospitals Fight Climate Change; Secondary Cancers, CAR T Link

ACA Enrollment Surges This Year, Particularly in Red States

A record 21.3 million Americans signed up for health insurance this year using the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, according to CNN. CMS announced Wednesday that nearly 5 million more people signed up for ACA policies this year than last year. Also, notably, about a quarter of those who selected plans were new consumers. Several states, many being led by Republicans, saw massive sign-up increases; in particular, West Virginia and Louisiana saw the largest increases with 80% and 76% more sign-ups, respectively. Additionally, ACA policies were most popular in Texas and Florida, where 1.1 million and nearly 1 million more residents signed up, respectively. This increase comes as former President Donald Trump renewed his promise to repeal Obamacare, vowing to replace it with a better plan despite not yet unveiling one.

Health Care Providers Request Hospitals to Help Fight Climate Change

A recent Commonwealth Fund survey of clinicians found that nearly 80% of health care providers think it is important for their hospital to minimize its environmental impact, according to Axios. This is because the health care industry accounts for 8.5% of US greenhouse gas emissions, with hospitals being responsible for the largest portion of those emissions. The survey of 1001 clinicians found that those working at nonprofit hospitals or health systems were slightly more likely than those working in for-profit or government-run facilities to value their employer’s environmental policies. Also, of those in leadership positions, about 7 in 10 said their organization is already taking steps to reduce waste and energy consumption, while only about 1 in 3 reported setting or measuring emission targets. Conversely, some hospitals are making efforts to curb their environmental footprints with, as of November, 86 hospitals and health systems signed onto the Biden administration’s health sector climate pledge to cut their emissions in half by 2030.

Secondary Cancers Potentially Connected With CAR T-Cell Therapy, FDA Says

Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have shown promising results in treating relapsed or refractory hematologic cancers, the FDA noted a potential link between CAR-T products and the development of T-cell cancer, according to the New England Journal of Medicine; this is because the CAR transgene has been detected in the malignant clone in some cases. The lack of adequate lymphoma samples makes it difficult for the FDA to determine whether T-cell cancer is associated with the CAR construct. Consequently, the authors explained the importance of clinicians reporting the occurrence of any new cancer in patients who received CAR T-cells and monitoring them for new cancers throughout their lives. They also noted the need for comprehensive tumor-testing strategies to assess the risk and nature of secondary cancers when using CAR-T products as the next generation is being developed.