Reuters (1/29, Roy) reports, “More than a million fewer Americans have signed up for [ACA] plans for 2026, with enrollment dropping to about 23 million as monthly premiums for many soared due to the expiration of extra COVID-19 pandemic health insurance subsidies.” In 2025, about 24.2 million people signed up for the plans. According to data released Wednesday on CMS’ website, “nearly 3.4 million new consumers signed up for policies, while less than 19.6 million people were returning consumers.” According to KFF, the “total premium costs for subsidized [ACA] enrollees are expected to increase to an average $1,904 for 2026 from $888 in 2025.” Analysts also “said they expect the total enrollment to fall in coming months as Americans who were auto-enrolled fail to pay their premiums and are removed from coverage after three months.”

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— “Obamacare enrollment drops to about 23 million people for 2026,”Sriparna Roy, Reuters, January 29, 2026

The AP (1/28, Stobbe) reports CDC data indicate that US life expectancy increased “to 79 years in 2024 – the highest mark in American history. It’s the result of not only the dissipation of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also waning death rates from all the nation’s top killers, including heart disease, cancer and drug overdoses.” According to the AP, US life expectancy “rose at least a little bit almost every year” for decades, “thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, just shy of 79 years.” However, “it was relatively flat for several years before plunging as the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than 1.2 million Americans. In 2021, life expectancy fell to just under 76 1/2 years.” While it has started to rebound, experts note “the bad news is that the U.S. still ranks below dozens of other countries.”
        
CNN (1/29, McPhillips) adds that “there were 722 deaths for every 100,000 people in the US in 2024 – nearly 3.1 million deaths overall – according to final, age-adjusted data published Thursday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The 10 leading causes of death accounted for more than 70% of all deaths in the US in 2024, led by heart disease and cancer that killed more than 600,000 people each.” However, “death rates declined for each of the 10 leading causes of death in 2024, including a particularly sharp drop in unintentional injuries – a category that is largely comprised of drug overdose deaths.” The CDC data also show women can “still expect to live a few years longer than men but that gap is shrinking.”

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— “US life expectancy hit an all-time high in 2024, CDC says,”Mike Stobbe , AP, January 28, 2026

MedPage Today (1/28, Jeffrey) reports a study utilizing US commercial health insurance claims data found that “firearm injuries among parents were associated with increased rates of psychiatric disorder diagnoses and mental health visits in their children.” Researchers observed that “parental firearm injury was associated with 8.4 additional psychiatric diagnoses per 1,000 youths, as well as 23.1 additional mental health visits per 1,000 youths compared with controls averaged over the 12 months following the injury.” They noted the “increase was largest for trauma-related diagnoses such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with an additional 8.5 diagnoses per 1,000 youths versus controls averaged over the year.” The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (1/27, George) reports, “Higher stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disorder associated with repetitive head impacts often from contact sports like American football, were tied to increased odds of dementia, autopsy data showed.” Investigators found that “brain donors with stage IV CTE pathology and no other progressive brain disease had four times the odds of a dementia diagnosis compared with donors who had no CTE pathology (OR 4.48, 95% CI 1.97-10.90).” The data indicated that “donors with stage III CTE pathology were twice as likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared with decedents who had no pathology (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.91-3.77).” The findings were published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (1/26, Valentino-DeVries, Hill) reports, “Mental health workers across the country are navigating how to treat problems caused or exacerbated by A.I. chatbots, according to more than 100 therapists and psychiatrists who told The New York Times about their experiences.” Many mentioned the “positive effects of the bots,” such as “helping patients understand their diagnoses,” but they also raised alarms about the conversations that “deepened their patients’ feelings of isolation or anxiety. More than 30 described cases resulting in dangerous emergencies like psychosis or suicidal thoughts. One California psychiatrist who often evaluates people in the legal system said she had seen two cases of violent crimes influenced by A.I.” To date, Times reporters “have documented more than 50 cases of psychological crises linked to chatbot conversations since last year.”

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— The New York Times (requires login and subscription)