COLUMBUS, Ohio - The federal health insurance marketplace is now open, and this fall, there's more help to guide Ohioans through the process of finding coverage.

After cutbacks over the past few years, the federal government has quadrupled the number of navigators to help people find health insurance for 2022.

Zach Reat is the director of health initiatives with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, which is coordinating the "Get Covered Ohio" campaign. He said there are more than 50 trained, certified and licensed navigators in Ohio who can simplify the process.

"We can help people enter in all of their information to qualify for tax credits and subsidies," said Reat, "understand the different health insurance plans that are available, and then make sure they are selecting the plan that is best for them and fits into their budget."

More than ten health insurance companies are offering marketplace plans in Ohio for 2022, and all but three counties have three or more options.

December 15 is the deadline to sign up for marketplace coverage that begins January 1. Appointments with a navigator can be made online, at 'getcoveredohio.org.'

Reat explained that the American Rescue Plan is providing improved financial assistance that can lower premiums, with four out of five people eligible for a plan that may cost $10 a month or less. Also, he noted, millions more people will qualify for tax incentives to lower their premiums.

"So, even if people have been to the marketplace and found the plans unaffordable in years past," said Reat, "it's definitely worth going and shopping, and you can do that again with the assistance of a navigator."

Some 201,000 Ohioans were enrolled in plans this year, about 2% more than in 2020. Reat said most are people who don't have access to insurance through an employer.

"Like people who are self-employed," said Reat, "people who are working several different sort-of gig economy jobs, and other individuals maybe who are doing consulting work, or other work that's not through a larger employer that offers health insurance."

Navigators can also help adults and families with low incomes enroll in Medicaid.

With costs growing, health care is set to be a major theme in Olympia this year.

Sam Hatzenbeler, health policy associate for the Economic Opportunity Institute, said state lawmakers have made progress, but care is still becoming increasingly unaffordable.

Hatzenbeler pointed out some Washingtonians have to make tough decisions.

"They're forced to choose between getting needed medical care and buying food, putting food on the table, paying rent, paying their car bill," Hatzenbeler outlined. "People shouldn't be forced to choose between these necessary pieces of being a human."

Across the U.S., the average worker's premium contribution has increased almost 300% over the past two decades. And Americans spend more than $1,500 each year on prescription drugs.

To tackle drug prices, state lawmakers hope to establish the Prescription Drug Affordability Board. Lawmakers approved a similar board in 2020, but Gov. Jay Inslee vetoed it because of its price tag. The Senate version of the bill had a public hearing this week.

Another measure, Senate Bill 5688, would give the attorney general oversight to ensure market consolidations don't result in increased cost.

Hatzenbeler noted the attorney general also would ensure care is not restricted.

"For example, some Catholic mergers and acquisitions have resulted in reduced access to reproductive care, gender-affirming care, end-of-life care, things like that," Hatzenbeler explained. "We want to make sure that consolidations don't result in this diminishing of care."

The bill includes a health equity assessment as well. It had a public hearing this week.

Hatzenbeler added another important provision to her organization is in the budget, and would increase funding for health care to immigrants. She reported 105,000 immigrants in the state lack health care.

Hatzenbeler emphasized low-income people, people of color and front-line workers in particular have shouldered a disproportionate impact from the pandemic.

"We have an opportunity this session to correct some of those long-standing inequities," Hatzenbeler asserted. "And make sure that health care is not only more affordable and higher quality for those people who are disproportionately impacted, but for all of us."

Excessive screen time can cause a host of negative side effects in kids, but as some Indiana schools go virtual because of the omicron variant, prolonged interaction with technology can be unavoidable.

Dr. Derek Sprunger, a professor of clinical ophthalmology in the Indiana University School of Medicine's Ophthalmology Department, said parents still can still use several methods to moderate their kids' screen time. He advised limiting kids' exposure to non-education-related technology.

"I don't say eliminate, but cut back," he said, "and there's no exact amount of time that you should or shouldn't be doing this, but if you're doing a lot through school, more than typical, cut back on your outside-of-school time, like gaming and things like that."

Sprunger said excessive screen time can cause several short-term health effects, including eye fatigue, blurred vision and headaches. According to the Mayo Clinic, it also can lead to irregular sleep and impaired academic performance.

In addition to those side effects, Sprunger added that overusing technology also can advance long-term nearsightedness.

"This is a more permanent thing," he said. "The things we talked about earlier, if you cut usage of your screen time, that will reverse. Once you induce nearsightedness, that can be a more permanent problem."

Dr. Scott Edmonds, chief eye-care officer at United Healthcare, recommended the "20-20-20" rule, breaking up screen time to limit eye strain: For every 20 minutes folks spend staring at a computer, he said, they should take 20 seconds to observe something at least 20 feet away.

"That break takes you away from the blue light, lets your pupil go to its normal size, lets your muscles in your eye relax, lets your focusing muscle relax," he said. "All that, every 20 minutes, will really help you be more comfortable with screen time."

In a September report from the Pew Research Center, about 70% of parents said their children are spending more time in front of screens than they did pre-pandemic.

More than 2.5 million Americans stutter at some point in their lives, and a Michigan researcher is among those learning more about the genetics of stuttering.

There is no known cure for it, but experts say newly identified genes associated with stuttering can help them find out if there are links to other conditions or possible treatments.

Shelly Jo Kraft, who directs the Behavior, Speech and Genetics lab at Wayne State University, said the new genes are helping researchers learn more about the factors that contribute to stuttering, or protect people from risk.

"We've known stuttering is inherited for a long time," she said, "but there's been a lot of community misinformation about stuttering, a lot of stigma, a lot of misconception about why someone stutters."

She said having more information about how the genes operate that lead people to stutter can help push back against those misconceptions - to show that stuttering isn't a personality trait, or caused by a traumatic event.

In addition to learning more about the genetics of stuttering, Kraft said, the research is showing that the condition is much more prevalent than once thought. At least 5% to 6% of children and 1% of adults experience stuttering, but she said that may be an undercount.

"A lot of children do stutter for a transient amount of time during childhood," she said, "and with the help of therapy, with the help of their parents and natural things that parents do in response to stuttering, the stuttering goes away."

Kraft, who has collected DNA samples from roughly 1,800 people who stutter from 250 families globally, has partnered with a research lab at Vanderbilt University to expand their reach to a worldwide repository of DNA information.