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(CNN) The Affordable Care Act is looking stronger for 2020 -- and the Trump administration is claiming credit for it, even as officials try to upend the landmark health reform law. The average premium for the benchmark plan will drop by 4% next year in the 38 states using the federal Obamacare exchanges -- the second year in a row of  lower rates . Six states that use healthcare.gov are seeing double-digit declines, though three are seeing double-digit increases. The Trump administration has approved requests by 12 states to create reinsurance programs, which shield carriers from high-cost patients and help reduce premiums. Officials pointed to this and other measures the administration has taken that have stabilized the individual market. Health care experts, however, say the  Obamacare  marketplace is stronger because insurers have raised rates high enough in recent years to make selling plans on the exchanges a profitable businesses. This is prompting ca...

Always sanitary products will remove the Venus symbol, historically used to represent the female sex, from its products to be inclusive of  transgender  and  nonbinary  customers. Transgender activists and allies had publicly urged Proctor & Gamble to redesign its pad wrapper without the gender symbol, a circle atop a cross. Among their arguments were that not all people who menstruate are women and that not all women menstruate. . jocelyn ✰ @phiddies tw// periods hi @ Always i understand that you guys love girl positivity but please understand that there are trans men that get periods, and if you could please do something about the symbol on your pad packaging, i’d be happy. i’d hate to have any trans males feel dysphoric. 656 6:23 PM - Oct 13, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 255 people are talking about this The change is the latest in  a series of actions  compani...

Early adopters of innovation in the NHS should be celebrated as much as the innovators themselves, a senior NHS figure has argued. Hugh McCaughey, national director of improvement at NHS England and NHS Improvement, made the comment during a panel session at NHS Expo in Manchester on 4 September. The session focused on the opportunities that growing digital capability and focus on personalised care could bring to predicting and preventing illness. And while there are exciting opportunities presented by innovators, there should be incentives and recognition for those who decide to be the guinea pigs and trial the technology at their trust, McCaughey argued. “Early adopters need to be celebrated as much as the innovators,” he said. “Has anyone seen an award being handed out to an early adopter?” McCaughey also suggested it took the NHS roughly 16-17 years to scale up an innovation. “Think of the lost opportunities for the staff and patients,” he said. He added that “things had to change”...

Digital mental health company SilverCloud Health has partnered with Microsoft Labs in Cambridge to explore how machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to personalise mental healthcare. Together, the companies are researching how digital therapeutics could be tailored to respond to each individual’s unique care needs. This includes providing early interventions that ensure patients have access to the right support at the right time, and in the right context. By applying machine learning and AI, Microsoft and SilverCloud hope to identify patterns of successful therapy that can be used to improve the effectiveness of digital therapeutics. Christopher Bishop, lab director for Microsoft Research in Cambridge, said: “SilverCloud Health is one of the very few digital mental health platforms that has been deployed at scale in routine clinical care, and currently has the largest real-world patient user base of its kind. “The aim of this project is very much aligned to ou...

A new online platform encouraging people to take care of their mental health has been launched. NHS England, Public Health England and leading mental health charities have teamed up to deliver  Every Mind Matters,  which offers advice on a range of mental health conditions including anxiety, depression and stress. The platform offers expert advice and practical tips as well as a quiz which provides a free personalised action plan recommending a set of self-care actions to deal with stress, boost mood, improve sleep and feel in control. Users are asked a series of questions on how often they feel down, stressed, have bad days and struggle to sleep before being offered a series of tips on how to manage their mental wellbeing. The plan can then be emailed to them. Verified apps for addiction, stop smoking services, mental health management, sleep, exercise and healthier lifestyles are also listed on the platform, helping using navigate the deluge of health apps available. The pla...