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Open enrollment season for health insurance is just around the corner. Starting November 1, Americans who don’t get coverage through work or the government will be able to sign up for health plans that take effect in 2019. Fewer will do so this year than last, according to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office. Last open enrollment, 11.8 million people signed up through the exchanges; roughly 5 million purchased plans “off-exchange” through agents or directly from insurers. This time, the CBO projects that just 12 million people in total will purchase individual-market plans — whether on or off the exchanges. Progressives claim this drop is the product of sabotage by the Trump administration. But fewer people will sign up because Obamacare has made coverage too expensive. Fortunately, the administration has teed up several executive actions that could make insurance more affordable for those who shop in the individual market. (Sally C. Pipes, 8/16)

This month, Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million to a former school grounds keeper in San Francisco who used its weed killer Roundup, and now is dying of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It’s the first ruling in more than 800 cases alleging that using Roundup gave its handlers cancer. The jury verdict is significant for Iowa farmers, whether or not they sued, because glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, is widely used on Iowa farms: more than 88 pounds of it per square mile, to be precise. Glyphosate use has "sharply" increased since the development of genetically modified crops, according to a 2015 World Health Organization report that said it was probably carcinogenic to humans. But Monsanto continues to maintain it isn't. (Rekha Basu, 8/16)

We live in a world of risk and risk assessment. The trouble is that if you or your child happens to experience a one-in-a-million event, a remote possibility becomes a certainty. That’s good when it’s the lottery, bad when it’s a disease. Many people also increasingly distrust the “experts” who are judging risk, especially when it comes to a child’s well-being. It’s one of the reasons why some educated and well-intentioned parents are opting out of vaccination programs, despite clear scientific and epidemiological evidence against doing so. (William F. Bynum, 8/16)

I graduated high school in 2010. In the fast-paced world of technological advancement, those eight years create a vast difference between my high school experiences and those of the students I am teaching now. I'll admit: I texted during class sometimes, staring at my teacher, my thumbs working furiously on the buttons of my flip phone inside my desk. Quick glance down to make sure the words had come out correctly, send the message, get back to work. Now, my students don't only want to use their phones when someone is texting them. They have games they want to play, social media they need to update, and clever apps that can scan their math problems and give them the answers. The availability of smartphones and all the services they offer have created students today who have a complete inability to accept the state of boredom. (Rosemary Curts, 8/16)

As we accrue more data on the benefits and harms from cancer screening, it is clear that the benefits do not always exceed the harms. This imbalance is particularly at issue in lung cancer screening by low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), for which 1 randomized clinical trial found a mortality benefit in high-risk smokers and ex-smokers, but 3 other randomized clinical trials found no benefit. In addition, data from the National Health Interview Survey show that most people undergoing screening for lung cancer do not fall in the recommended groups, and thus their harms of LDCT, including radiation exposure, will likely exceed the benefits. (Rita F. Redberg, 8/13)

At the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio), we have been following the proposed merger among the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center system, Lahey Health, New England Baptist Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital and Anna Jaques Hospital with great interest. While hospital mergers may seem outside the realm of biotech, after much consideration and review we had to strongly support this proposal. (Robert Coughlin, 8/16)

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) determined that the proposed merger between Partners HealthCare and Massachusetts Eye and Ear is likely to increase Massachusetts commercial health care spending by $20 million to a total of $60 million a year. ...Now up for review is what would be the second largest merger in Massachusetts health care to date: a proposed merger between the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center system, Lahey Health and a few other hospitals. (Rev. Burns Stanfield and Bonny Gilbert, 8/16)