New York’s Ban On Selling Weight Loss Supplements To Minors Takes Effect
Muscle-building supplements are also subject to the new legislation. Separately, Colorado lawmakers advanced efforts to require state-regulated insurers and Medicaid to cover weight loss drugs for some people. TikTok, facing a ban, is also cutting down on posts highlighting disordered eating.
AP:
Selling Weight-Loss And Muscle-Building Supplements To Minors In New York Is Now Illegal
It’s now illegal to sell weight-loss and muscle-building supplements to minors in New York, under a first-in-the-nation law that went into effect this week. Experts say loose federal regulation of dietary supplements has resulted in these products sometimes including unapproved ingredients, like steroids and heavy metals, putting kids at risk. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversees the market, but it doesn’t test products before they’re sold. (Khan, 4/25)
CBS News:
Colorado Lawmakers Light Up State Agencies Opposed To Paying For Weight Loss Drugs: 'Perhaps It's Time They Go On A Diet'
A bill that would require state-regulated insurers and Medicaid to cover weight loss drugs for people who are obese or prediabetic cleared a major hurdle at the Colorado State Capitol. The bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee despite opposition from the Division of Insurance and Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Both insist the measure is cost-prohibitive. According to legislative fiscal analysts it would cost the state Medicaid system $86 million the first year alone. (Boyd, 4/25)
Los Angeles Times:
TikTok To Crack Down On Disordered Eating And Weight-Loss Posts
Saying it does not want to promote negative body comparisons, TikTok is cracking down on posts about disordered eating, dangerous weight loss habits and potentially harmful weight management products. The wildly popular social media app updated its community guidelines last week, introducing a slate of rules that it hopes will make the platform a safer place for its roughly 1 billion users worldwide. (Chang, 4/25)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
The Hill:
DeSantis: Florida ‘Will Not Comply’ With New Biden Title IX Rules
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday his state “will not comply” with recently unveiled changes to Title IX by the Biden administration.“ Florida rejects [President Biden’s] attempt to rewrite Title IX,” DeSantis said in a video posted to the social platform X. “We will not comply, and we will fight back.” The Biden administration on Friday unveiled a final set of changes to Title IX that add protections for transgender students to the federal civil rights law on sex-based discrimination. The changes will take effect in early August. (Suter, 4/25)
The Boston Globe:
Primary Care Access Is On Voters' Minds, Says New Poll
About a third of Massachusetts residents are dissatisfied with their ability to access primary care doctors and specialists, according to a new poll. Public health experts say those numbers, revealed in a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll ... are just the latest to highlight a growing capacity crisis in the state. Among the primary causes: Falling federal, state and private insurance reimbursement rates and structural changes in the healthcare industry that favor high-cost medical procedures over payments for preventive care. (Piore, 4/26)
KFF Health News:
California Is Investing $500M In Therapy Apps For Youth. Advocates Fear It Won’t Pay Off
With little pomp, California launched two apps at the start of the year offering free behavioral health services to youths to help them cope with everything from living with anxiety to body acceptance. Through their phones, young people and some caregivers can meet BrightLife Kids and Soluna coaches, some who specialize in peer support or substance use disorders, for roughly 30-minute virtual counseling sessions that are best suited to those with more mild needs, typically those without a clinical diagnosis. (Castle Work, 4/26)
Also —
NPR:
The Flint Water Crisis And Lead Poisoning, 10 Years Later
Almost a decade ago, pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha took to a podium in Flint, Mich. and demanded that the world pay attention to an unfolding water crisis. ... To save money, officials decided to switch the municipal water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River on April 25th, 2014. Flint is a majority-Black city, and at the time, an estimated 40% of residents lived in poverty. Many immediately noticed a difference in their water quality. (Kwong, Huang, Carlson, and Ramirez, 4/26)
CBS News:
The EPA Says Lead In Flint's Water Is At Acceptable Levels. Residents Still Have Concerns About Its Safety
The Environmental Protection Agency says lead in the water in Flint, Michigan, is lower than federal safety limits specify. It's been a decade since the city, attempting to save millions of dollars, inadvertently exposed more than 100,000 people, including vulnerable children, to lead seeping from aging pipes — and many residents still don't trust what's coming out of their faucets and showers. (Quraishi and Gauthier, 4/25)
