Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Crisis Pregnancy Centers Must Stop Deceiving Women; Who Decides If Abortion Is Necessary?
The Boston Globe: Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Manipulate Women
Pull up a crisis pregnancy center’s website and you might find an offer for a “free abortion consultation” or a rundown of the “facts” about the “abortion pill.” But these centers are not what they appear. (8/15)
Stat: 'Is An Abortion Medically Necessary?' Is Not A Question For Ethicists
Abortion raises many ethical questions. Determining whether an abortion is needed to save a pregnant person’s life or health is not among them. That’s a factual question requiring medical — not ethical — judgment. (Holly Fernandez Lynch, Steven Joffe and Emily A. Largent, 8/15)
Columbus Dispatch: What Will Be The Impact Of Ohio's Abortion Law On Kids?
As Ohio pediatricians, we were appalled when we learned about the 10-year-old girl who was raped and, unable to receive legal abortion care in Ohio, received an abortion in Indiana, where the procedure was legal. This is the future we had feared, unfolding before us, having caused additional hardship and unwarranted publicity for this girl who had already been traumatized. (Margaret Stager and Elise Berlan, 8/15)
Also —
The New York Times: Big Changes Are Coming for Health Care Costs
Even in their pared-down form passed by Congress, the changes to the U.S. health care system in the Inflation Reduction Act are momentous, politically and for the many patients struggling with drug costs. The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest health reform initiative since passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, more than a decade ago. And the fact that this new legislation passed despite the opposition of the drug industry — which, along with most insurance companies and hospitals, largely supported the A.C.A. — makes it, in a sense, even more of a statement about what’s politically possible in reforming the health system. (Larry Levitt, 8/13)
The New York Times: Successful Addiction Treatment Looks Like This
On a chilly spring evening in 2021, Tim Nolan set up a portable addiction clinic next to a McDonald’s dumpster, and he waited. His desk was the dashboard of his grey Prius, his office this parking lot, which smelled like frying oil and trash. The hatchback of the nurse practitioner’s car was full of hepatitis C testing kits, clean needles, fentanyl test strips — and pizzas. (Beth Macy, 8/15)
Bloomberg: The Doctor Won't See You Now: The UK's Cost-Of-Surviving Crisis
The prized and troubled National Health Service now has a backlog of 6.6 million patients waiting to see GPs, get scans or have operations. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the two candidates vying to replace Boris Johnson, have both pledged vaguely to address the issue, but they’ve spent most of the campaign arguing about tax cuts. (Therese Raphael, 8/15)
Stat: More People Should Be Tested For PFAS 'Forever Chemicals'
Nearly every American has been exposed at some point to a class of compounds known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short. (Ned Calonge, Jane Hoppin and Alex R. Kemper, 8/15)
