First Edition: July 22, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Biden’s ‘Incremental’ Health Plan Still Would Be A Heavy Lift
The headlines about presidential candidate Joe Biden’s new health care plan called it “a nod to the past” and “Affordable Care Act 2.0.” That mostly refers to the fact that the former vice president has specifically repudiated many of his Democratic rivals’ calls for a “Medicare for All” system and instead sought to build his plan on the ACA’s framework. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of Biden’s opponents in the primary race and the key proponent of the Medicare for All option, has criticized Biden’s proposal, complaining that it is just “tinkering around the edges” of a broken health care system. (Rovner, 7/22)
Kaiser Health News:
A Conservative Group Paints Trump’s Drug-Pricing Experiment As ‘Socialist.’ Is It?
As part of its effort to curb high prescription drug costs, the Trump administration is considering an experiment that has triggered strong opposition from Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist’s powerful conservative organization, which the president typically counts among his supporters. One of the most visible elements of the group’s battle plan is a nationwide commercial, on which it has spent almost half a million dollars, according to estimates by ad tracker iSpot.tv. It has been on the air since May. (Luthra, 7/22)
Kaiser Health News:
How The Eastern Cherokee Took Control Of Their Health Care
Light pours through large windows and glass ceilings of the Cherokee Indian Hospital onto a fireplace, a waterfall and murals. Rattlesnake Mountain, which the Cherokee elders say holds ancient healing powers, is visible from most angles. The hospital’s motto — “Ni hi tsa tse li” or “It belongs to you” — is written in Cherokee syllabary on the wall at the main entrance. “It doesn’t look like a hospital, and it doesn’t feel like a hospital,” Kristy Nations said on a recent visit to pick up medications at the pharmacy. “It actually feels good to be here.” (Ridderbusch, 7/22)
The Associated Press:
2020 Dems Grapple With How To Pay For 'Medicare For All'
Democratic presidential candidates trying to appeal to progressive voters with a call for "Medicare for All" are wrestling with the thorny question of how to pay for such a dramatic overhaul of the U.S. health care system. Bernie Sanders, the chief proponent of Medicare for All, says such a remodel could cost up to $40 trillion over a decade. He's been the most direct in talking about how he'd cover that eye-popping amount, including considering a tax hike on the middle class in exchange for healthcare without co-payments or deductibles — which, he contends, would ultimately cost Americans less than the current healthcare system. (Schor, 7/19)
The New York Times:
Fact-Checking Trump’s Claims That Democrats Are Radical Socialists
How much truth is there to Mr. Trump’s characterization of the Democratic Party? Here is a fact check. ... It is true that every Democratic presidential candidate vying to replace Mr. Trump has called for increasing the federal commitment to health care, education and the environment, among other proposals. Those plans would generally require substantially more government spending, higher taxes, an increased public-sector role in private markets and a reversal of the deregulatory push championed by Mr. Trump. (Epstein and Qiu, 7/20)
The Washington Post:
The Trailer: The Democrats' Fault Lines On Health Care
All last week, while Washington was preoccupied with the president's Fox News-inspired war against four left-wing congresswomen, the Democrats running for president made pilgrimages to Iowa. Seventeen of them sat down with the Des Moines Register and AARP for 25-minute interviews about health care and aging — the most substantive big “cattle call” so far. It came at a critical time in the Democratic primary. Joe Biden kicked off the forums Monday by telling his audience that the Medicare-for-all plan supported by his highest-polling rivals would mean that “Medicare goes away as you know it.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) closed the forums Saturday by warning that the former vice president was lying and that his plan would improve Medicare: “We should not have distortions of what Medicare-for-all stands for.” (Weigel, 7/21)
The Hill:
Biden Campaign Rips 'Medicare For All,' Calls On Dems To Protect Affordable Care Act
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign expanded his critiques against “Medicare for All” and pressed its opponents to fight to protect and expand the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which the former vice president played a crucial role in ushering through Congress. Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director Kate Bedingfield detailed Republican efforts to overhaul the Obama administration’s signature legislation. (Axelrod, 7/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
What Is (And Isn’t) Medicare For All
Medicare for All has dominated the Democratic presidential campaign. Some candidates support Sen. Bernie Sanders' plan, but others have different ideas for how to get to universal coverage. WSJ explains what Medicare for All is, what it isn’t, and how some of the major health care plans out there would change the health insurance industry. (7/22)
The Hill:
Bullock: I Would Not Have Endorsed Health Care For Undocumented Immigrants On Debate Stage
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) said Sunday that he would not have joined his fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who raised their hands on the debate stage last month to indicate they favored providing health care to undocumented immigrants. “A lot of the discussion that’s been happening on the debate stage is a bit disconnected from people’s everyday lives,” Bullock, who did not qualify for the Democratic National Committee’s first debate but is set to participate in the second, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. (Budryk, 7/21)
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Delays Ban On Abortion Referrals At Family Planning Centers
The Trump administration has backtracked on an announcement five days earlier that had required federal funded family planning centers to immediately stop referring women for abortions, giving the clinics two more months to comply. In a rare Saturday night notice to Planned Parenthood affiliates, state governments and other organizations that receive federal family planning grants, Health and Human Services Department officials wrote that no group would be penalized yet for failing to obey with this and other rule changes. (Goldstein, 7/20)
The Associated Press:
Administration Pauses Enforcement Of Abortion Restriction
A notice sent Saturday night to representatives of the clinics by the Department of Health and Human Services said the government "does not intend to bring enforcement actions" against clinics that are making "good-faith efforts to comply." A copy of the notice, which includes a new timetable for the clinics, was provided to The Associated Press. The department had said last Monday that it would require immediate compliance. That caught clinics off guard and led Planned Parenthood and other providers to say they would defy the order. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/21)
Reuters:
Trump Administration Pauses New Rule Limiting Abortion Referrals: Report
The rule was intended to help Trump fulfill his 2016 campaign pledge to end federal support for Planned Parenthood, a non-profit group that runs about 600 healthcare clinics around the country and receives an estimated one-fifth of all Title X funds. Planned Parenthood has condemned the rule, saying it silences doctors and nurses and would harm their patients' health. (7/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
Abortion Rulings In Alaska Prompt Governor To Cut Court Funding
Alaska’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter is suing Gov. Mike Dunleavy after he said he would cut funding for the state’s Supreme Court in retaliation to abortion-related rulings. In a line-item veto, Mr. Dunleavy cut nearly $335,000 in funding for Alaska’s court system, which the Republican’s office said was the same amount the state pays annually to cover elective abortions under its Medicaid program. In February, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a 2001 decision that prevented restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortions. (Millman, 7/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
Judge Backs Non-ACA-Compliant Short-Term Health Plans
The Trump administration can continue to move ahead with its expansion of certain health plans that don’t comply with the Affordable Care Act, under a decision Friday by a federal judge. The ruling in Washington by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon dismissed a lawsuit by a plaintiff who had argued a Trump administration expansion of the so-called short-term health plans undermined the ACA. The plans are generally lower priced but can deny coverage based on consumers’ pre-existing health conditions. They also don’t have to cover the same benefits as ACA-compliant plans. (Armour, 7/19)
The Hill:
Federal Judge Upholds Trump's Expansion Of Non-ObamaCare Plans
"Not only is any potential negative impact from the 2018 rule minimal, but its benefits are undeniable," Leon wrote about the regulations. The plans aims to "minimize the harm and expense" for individuals who might otherwise decide not to purchase insurance because of high premiums, Leon added. (Hellmann, 7/19)
CNN:
Obamacare Alternative Upheld By Federal Judge
The ruling represents a win for the administration, which recently has suffered a string of setbacks in court over its efforts to chip away at the Affordable Care Act and to reduce health care costs. Short-term plans, which have been available for years and were originally designed to fill a temporary gap in coverage, are typically cheaper than Obamacare policies. But that's because they are allowed to exclude those with pre-existing conditions and base rates on an applicant's medical history, unlike Obamacare plans. (Luhby, 7/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
Medical, Leadership Problems Persisted At U.S. Indian Health Service Hospital, Report Finds
A long-troubled U.S. Indian Health Service hospital continued to be plagued by poor medical care, untrained staff and leadership turnover, despite improvements made there by top agency officials, a government watchdog said. A report being released Monday by the watchdog documents the intractable nature of some of the federal health system’s problems, even when additional resources are poured in. In a separate report, the watchdog found problems with how Indian Health Service hospitals prescribed opioids, saying that the agency’s failure to always follow its own regulations increased the risk of drug abuse and overdoses for patients. (Frosch and Weaver, 7/22)
The Washington Post:
Trump’s Presidency May Be Making Latinos Sick
Donald Trump’s presidency may be making some people sick, a growing number of studies suggest. Researchers have begun to identify correlations between Trump’s election and worsening cardiovascular health, sleep problems, anxiety and stress, especially among Latinos in the United States. A study published Friday using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the risk of premature birth was higher than expected among Latina women following Trump’s election. The new study is particularly powerful, experts say, because unlike ailments such as depression or stress that can be hard to quantify, births come with hard data. (Wan and Bever, 7/19)
The Washington Post:
Ohio’s Cuyahoga, Summit Counties Central To Legal Test On Opioids And Drug Company Responsibility
At Knuckleheads Bar & Grill, the subject on a sweltering Saturday afternoon was the drug crisis. More specifically, the recent disclosure that the CVS across the street received more pain pills — 6.4 million — over a seven-year period than any other drugstore in Cuyahoga County. “Location, location, location,” said Mike Gorman, 37, who was drinking and hanging out with friends. “It’s right near the highway, which makes it easy to access” from Cleveland. And there was the homeless encampment just beyond the CVS, over by the train tracks, behind the strip mall. It’s popular with heroin users, the regulars at the sports bar said. (Heller and Bernstein, 7/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
Drug Makers, Distributors Failed To Stop Suspect Opioid Shipments, Court Filing Alleges
Many of the nation’s largest drug manufacturers and distributors failed to implement even the most basic systems to halt suspicious drug orders as the opioid epidemic came into sharp focus, plaintiffs lawyers allege in a new court filing. The motion filed Friday by lawyers for two Ohio counties alleges companies failed to analyze potentially suspicious orders until after they had shipped, applied rudimentary controls on excessive sales that were easy for bad actors to game, and handed the job of halting shady orders to sales departments incentivized to keep pills moving. (Randazzo, 7/20)
The New York Times:
3,271 Pill Bottles, A Town Of 2,831: Court Filings Say Corporations Fed Opioid Epidemic
The Walgreens employee was bewildered by the quantity of opioids the company was shipping to just one store. Its pharmacy in Port Richey, Fla. (population 2,831) was ordering 3,271 bottles of oxycodone a month. “I don’t know how they can even house this many bottles to be honest,” Barbara Martin, whose job was to review suspicious drug orders, wrote to a colleague in a January 2011 email. The next month, the company shipped another outsized order to the same store. (Hoffman, Thomas and Hakim, 7/19)
The Associated Press:
Florida ‘Pill Mills’ Were ‘Gas On The Fire’ Of Opioid Crisis
Florida survives on tourism, but a decade ago thousands of visitors made frequent trips to the state not to visit its theme parks or beaches. Instead, they came for cheap and easy prescription painkillers sold at unscrupulous walk-in clinics. For a while, few in authority did much about it even though it was all done in the open with little oversight. The clinics started in the 1990s and began proliferating in about 2003, their parking lots filled with vehicles sporting license plates from Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and elsewhere. (Spencer, 7/20)
The Washington Post:
Drug Company Executives Said They Didn’t Contribute To The Opioid Epidemic. Nearly 2,000 Communities Say Otherwise.
On May 8, 2018, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee summoned five executives of the nation’s largest drug distribution companies to testify about the massive quantity of pain pills they had shipped into West Virginia, which has the highest opioid overdose rate in the country. The executives stood in the packed hearing room and raised their right hands as they were sworn in before testifying in front of the lawmakers. (O'Harrow and Higham, 7/20)
The Washington Post:
New Opioid Data Spurs Widespread Condemnation, Calls For Action
This week, The Washington Post published a massive database that tracks the distribution of opioids in the United States from 2006 to 2012, specifically where — and how many — drugs materialized. During that period, 76 billion prescription pain pills were manufactured and shipped to pharmacies all over the country, fueling a public health epidemic that killed 100,000 Americans in those seven years. Policymakers, media outlets and others are using this data to understand the sheer scope of the crisis, and many are demanding accountability. (Itkowitz and Zezima, 7/21)
The Associated Press:
Q&A: Newly Public Data Maps Opioid Crisis Across US
The release of a massive trove of data from lawsuits over the nation's opioid crisis provides the most detailed accounting to date of the role played by the major pharmaceutical companies and distributors. In legal cases across the country, they have defended themselves as being little more than bystanders — dispensing government-approved drugs at the behest of prescribing doctors. (7/19)
The Washington Post:
‘We Were Addicted To Their Pill, But They Were Addicted To The Money’
America’s largest drug companies flooded the country with pain pills from 2006 through 2012, even when it became apparent that they were fueling addiction and overdoses. The Post shared its findings with a group of recovering addicts in southwest Virginia and asked them to respond. (7/21)
The Associated Press:
Audit: Hospitals Put Native Americans At Risk With Opioids
Government hospitals placed Native American patients at increased risk for opioid abuse and overdoses, failing to follow their own protocols for prescribing and dispensing the drugs, according to a federal audit released Monday. The report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General doesn't draw any conclusions about actual abuse or overdoses. But it said all five Indian Health Service hospitals it reviewed had patients who were given opioids in amounts that exceeded federal guidelines. (7/22)
Stat:
PhRMA Scrambles To Fight Potential Drug Pricing Reforms In Budget Deal
The drug industry’s lobbying group is calling on its lobbyists to push back on a potential budget deal that reportedly includes drug pricing reforms that will cost the industry $115 billion. In an email sent Thursday night to lobbyists both inside and outside the organization and obtained by STAT, PhRMA urged its small army of advocates to do all they can to block the potential deal, which is quickly becoming intertwined with a must pass, multibillion-dollar budget deal. (Florko, 7/19)
The New York Times:
Politicians Tackle Surprise Bills, But Not The Biggest Source Of Them: Ambulances
After his son was hit by a car in San Francisco and taken away by ambulance, Karl Sporer was surprised to get a bill for $800. Mr. Sporer had health insurance, which paid for part of the ride. But the ambulance provider felt that amount wasn’t enough, and billed the Sporer family for the balance. “I paid it quickly,” Mr. Sporer said. “They go to collections if you don’t.” That was 15 years ago, but ambulance companies around the nation are still sending such surprise bills to customers, as Mr. Sporer knows well. These days, he oversees the emergency medical services in neighboring Alameda County. The contract his county negotiated allows a private ambulance company to send similar bills to insured patients. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 7/22)
Politico:
Migrant Mental Health Crisis Spirals In ICE Detention Facilities
Federal inspectors visiting a California migrant detention center made a shocking discovery last year: Detainees had made nooses from bedsheets in 15 of 20 cells in the facility they visited. The inspection revealed the extent of a largely unseen mental health crisis within the growing population of migrants who are being held in detention centers in border states. President Donald Trump’s 2017 decision to reverse a policy that encouraged releasing vulnerable individuals while they await deportation hearings has left U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unequipped to deal with conditions ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia. (Rayasam, 7/21)
The Associated Press:
Protest Decries Plan To Detain Migrant Kids At Oklahoma Base
More than 100 demonstrators protested Saturday in withering heat outside an Oklahoma Army base against the Trump administration's plans to detain migrant children there. Japanese Americans and Native Americans are among those who took part in Saturday's march to Fort Sill and rally in front of one of its entrances, briefly blocking a city street. They chanted "Close the camps" and carried signs with messages including "Human Rights Matter," ''Love Trumps Hate," and "Liberty and Justice For All." (7/20)
The New York Times:
Start-Up Says It’s Changing Eye Care For The Better. Others See It Differently.
The colorful ads on Facebook and Instagram promise a fantastic bargain: “Stop overpaying for contact lenses. Get 30 contacts delivered to your door for ONLY $1.” Captions like “wow” and “what a steal” splash across images of teal containers and lenses perched on fingertips, urging consumers to act fast. This social media marketing has been integral to the growth of the online contact lens start-up Hubble since its founding in 2016. It has raised more than $70 million from venture firms and companies like Colgate-Palmolive, which are attracted to its plan to disrupt the contact lens industry by providing a line of low-cost daily lenses through monthly $39 subscriptions. It’s like Dollar Shave Club — for eyeballs. (Maheshwari, 7/21)
Stat:
Alzheimer’s Scientists Return To Square One — And Outside Ideas Are Let In
At this year’s largest conference on Alzheimer’s disease, there was no big reveal. There were no major companies presenting late-stage data on promising therapies. There was little in the way of groundbreaking research. Instead, there was a sense from many researchers in the field that, after a string of high-profile clinical trial failures, there is nowhere to go but back to the drawing board. (Keshavan, 7/22)
The Washington Post:
More People Died In Car Crashes This Century Than In Both World Wars
Since the turn of the century, more Americans have died in car crashes than did in both World Wars, and the overwhelming majority of the wrecks were caused by speeding, drunk or distracted drivers, according to government data. “Where’s the social outrage? There should be social outrage,” said Robert L. Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. (Halsey, 7/21)
The Associated Press:
Instagram Expands Hiding 'Likes' To Make You Happier
Instagram is expanding a test to hide how many "likes" people's posts receive as it tries to combat criticism that such counts hurt mental health and make people feel bad when comparing themselves to others. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing service has been running the test in Canada since May. Now, Facebook said the test has been expanded to Ireland, Italy, Japan, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand. (7/19)
The Washington Post:
Nurses Are Teaching Doctors How To Treat Anti-Vaccine Fears And Myths
It’s late on a Tuesday night during the worst measles outbreak in decades, and doctors, nurses and other health-care providers are gathered at a medical center to learn better ways of talking to parents who are reluctant to vaccinate their children. Blima Marcus, an oncology nurse practitioner, leads the two-hour session on how to do a better job listening to and responding to parents’ questions — and, in the process, cultivating their trust. The key, she says, is hearing people’s questions about the science behind vaccines and addressing those directly. (Sun, 7/21)
The New York Times:
A Layered Approach To Preventing Drowning
Levi Hughes was 3 years old, on vacation with his family and five other families, when he slipped off the couch one evening last summer while the group was waiting for it to get dark enough for their annual crab hunt. The family was renting a vacation home in Alabama with a group of friends stretching back to Levi’s father’s residency in cardiothoracic anesthesia. “Our son drowned when there were six physicians in the room, 12 adults, 17 kids,” said his mother, Nicole Hughes, a writing teacher and literacy coach in Bristol, Tenn., who now works extensively in drowning prevention, including with the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Klass, 7/22)
The Associated Press:
New Standards Aim To Improve Surgery For The Oldest Patients
The 92-year-old had a painful tumor on his tongue, and major surgery was his best chance. Doctors called a timeout when he said he lived alone, in a rural farmhouse, and wanted to keep doing so. "It was ultimately not clear we could get him back there" after such a big operation, said Dr. Tom Robinson, chief of surgery at the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System. (7/19)
NPR:
Reversing Type 2 Diabetes With Diet And Exercise Takes Community Support
Chains, saws and old logging equipment litter the back field of Wendy Norris' family farm, near the county seat of Altamont, Tenn. Norris used to be part of the local timber industry, and the rusted tools are relics from a time when health woes didn't hold her back from felling hardwoods. "I was nine months pregnant," Norris says. "Me and my husband stayed about 10 or 15 miles in the middle of nowhere, in a tent, for a long time." (Farmer, 7/22)
The Washington Post:
How The Dust In Your Home May Affect Your Health
You vacuum it, sweep it and wipe it off your furniture. But do you know what it actually is — and how it may affect your health? Don’t feel bad if you’re clueless about your dust. Scientists are not that far ahead of you in terms of understanding the sources and health risks of indoor air and particles. That’s an issue, because people spend a lot of time indoors. Indeed, the average American stays within four walls for almost 90 percent of their day. (Filippelli, 7/20)
NPR:
How Microexpressions Can Make Moods Contagious
It's a common experience for family members or groups of friends: One person's mood can bring the whole group's energy down— or up. But why are we so easily influenced? In 1962, the reality television show Candid Camera offered a remarkable glimpse into a psychological phenomenon that helps explain how emotions spread. They did it through a now famous comedy stunt called "Face the Rear." It goes like this: We see an unsuspecting man walk into an elevator that has been secretly rigged with cameras. Two more people walk in after him. But weirdly, they turn to face towards the back wall of the elevator. (Simstrom, 7/21)
The New York Times:
Children Face Foster Care Over School Meal Debt, District Warns
A school district in eastern Pennsylvania faced criticism after sending letters this month to more than three dozen parents warning that if their debt for school meals was not paid, their child could be placed in foster care. “Your child has been sent to school every day without money and without a breakfast and/or lunch,” read the letter, which was signed by Joseph Muth, director of federal programs for the Wyoming Valley West School District. “This is a failure to provide your child with proper nutrition and you can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child’s right to food. If you are taken to Dependency court, the result may be your child being removed from your home and placed in foster care.”A warning letter that was sent to those whose child owed $10 or more for school meals. (Taylor, 7/20)
The Washington Post:
Medial Meniscus Root Knee Injuries Can Be Hard To Diagnose.
Dorothy Beckett has been a runner for decades and knows her body well, so the 61-year-old biochemistry professor was puzzled when her knee hobbled for no apparent reason after a routine run. Beckett took two weeks off to let it rest and then tried an easy run. She was met with excruciating pain and decided it was time to visit a doctor. What Beckett never expected was that she was about to begin a long, seemingly endless journey to figure out and properly treat her injury. (Loudin, 7/21)
The Washington Post:
What’s The Best Time Of Day To Exercise, Morning Or Evening?
Some people are morning exercisers. For them, an early run or swim is as much a part of their wake-up ritual as that first cup of coffee. Others can’t abide the idea. They need a nighttime workout to rid themselves of the day’s stresses. Does it make a difference? Several recent studies suggest that it does. But it’s complicated. One recent paper indicates that morning exercise may activate certain genes in the muscle cells, boosting their ability to metabolize sugar and fat. While scientists say this finding requires further study, they think it ultimately might help those who are overweight or suffering from Type 2 diabetes. (Cimons, 7/21)
The New York Times:
The Downside Of Having A Sweet Tooth
Sweet dreams, sweet spot, sweet as pie, sweet young thing: All have a positive connotation. But what about sweet tooth, which Americans seem to have cultivated to great excess? The health effects of this obsession with everything sweet are anything but positive. In fact, recent reports have found that regular consumption of sugary drinks heightens the risk not only of tooth decay, obesity, fatty liver disease and Type 2 diabetes, but also of heart disease and premature death, even in people free of other risk factors. (Brody, 7/22)
The Associated Press:
Tennessee Must Mediate With Prisoners Over Hepatitis C Drugs
A federal judge on Friday ordered the state of Tennessee to mediate with a group of prisoners who are demanding treatment for their hepatitis C infections. The order by Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw came after a four-day trial that included emotional testimony from a mother whose son died of complications from hepatitis C while in state custody. Tennessee prisons saw at least 56 hepatitis C-related prisoner deaths between 2013 and 2017. (7/19)
The Associated Press:
Some Alaskans Feeling Pain Of Medicaid Dental Cuts
Budget vetoes by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy eliminated Medicaid dental coverage for adults — a $27 million cut that is having an impact. KTUU reports that Michael Shelden had plans to get dentures after having all his teeth pulled following years of dental pain. The plan fell through after the governor's veto, and Shelden said he can't afford the $2,000 down payment to proceed with his plan. (7/20)
The Hill:
Florida Public Schools Will Be Required To Provide Mental Health Education For Students
The Florida State Board of Education voted this week to require public schools to provide students with mental health education. Under the new directive, the department said in an announcement that schools will be required to “provide students in grades 6-12 at least five hours of mental health instruction” on an annual basis. (Foley, 7/20)
The Associated Press:
Baby's Family Mad About Hospital Bills In Cut-From-Womb Case
A Chicago-area hospital says it regrets sending bills to the family of a baby boy who died about seven weeks after attackers cut him from his mother's womb. Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn sent bills for Yovanny Lopez's care that totaled about $300,000, said the family's lawyer, Frank Avila. Some bills even referred to Yovanny as "Figueroa, boy" — the last name of Clarisa Figueroa, who is accused of orchestrating the attack on the baby's mother so that she could claim him as her own. (7/19)
Reuters:
CDC Links Two Deaths To Multi-State Salmonella Outbreak
Two people have died following a multi-state outbreak of salmonella infections linked to backyard poultry, U.S. health officials said on Friday. One death was reported in Ohio and the other one in Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (7/19)
The Associated Press:
Teen Activists Score Mental Health Days For Oregon Students
Oregon will allow students to take "mental health days" just as they would sick days, expanding the reasons for excused school absences to include mental or behavioral health under a new law that experts say is one of the first of its kind in the U.S. But don't call it coddling. The students behind the measure say it's meant to change the stigma around mental health in a state that has some of the United States' highest suicide rates. (Zimmerman, 7/21)
Los Angeles Times:
Desperate To Ease Homelessness, California Officials Look To New York 'Right To Shelter' Policy
Much about California’s homelessness crisis has confounded state and local officials. But what to do about the tens of thousands of people living outdoors has perhaps done so more than anything else. Searching for a solution, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, co-chairs of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Homeless and Supportive Housing Advisory Task Force, are looking to New York. They want California to enact a legal “right to shelter.” (Oreskes, 7/21)