First Edition: May 17, 2023
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
Lawyer Fees Draw Scrutiny As Camp Lejeune Claims Stack Up
David and Adair Keller started their married life together in 1977 at Camp Lejeune, a military training base on the Atlantic Coast in Jacksonville, North Carolina. David was a Marine Corps field artillery officer then, and they lived together on the base for about six months. But that sojourn had an outsize impact on their lives. Forty years later, in January 2018, Adair was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She died six months later at age 68. There’s a chance her illness was caused by toxic chemicals that seeped into the water military families at the base drank, cooked with, and washed with for decades. (Andrews, 5/17)
KFF Health News:
An AI Chatbot May Be Your Next Therapist. Will It Actually Help Your Mental Health?
In the past few years, 10,000 to 20,000 apps have stampeded into the mental health space, offering to “disrupt” traditional therapy. With the frenzy around AI innovations like ChatGPT, the claim that chatbots can provide mental health care is on the horizon. The numbers explain why: Pandemic stresses led to millions more Americans seeking treatment. At the same time, there has long been a shortage of mental health professionals in the United States; more than half of all counties lack psychiatrists. Given the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that insurers offer parity between mental and physical health coverage, there is a gaping chasm between demand and supply. (Rosenthal, 5/17)
KFF Health News:
State Lawmakers Eye Forced Treatment To Address Overlap In Homelessness And Mental Illness
Many of the unhoused people in Portland, Oregon, live in tents pitched on sidewalks or in aging campers parked in small convoys behind grocery stores. Mental illness can be part of the story of how a person ends up homeless — or part of the price of survival on the streets, where sleep and safety are scarce. Homeless people in Multnomah County, which includes Portland, die about 30 years earlier than the average American. These grim realities have ratcheted up the pressure on politicians to do something. (Dembosky, Templeton and Feibel, 5/17)
KFF Health News:
Study Reveals Staggering Toll Of Being Black In America: 1.6M Excess Deaths Over 22 Years
Research has long shown that Black people live sicker lives and die younger than white people. Now a new study, published Tuesday in JAMA, casts the nation’s racial inequities in stark relief, finding that the higher mortality rate among Black Americans resulted in 1.63 million excess deaths relative to white Americans over more than two decades. (Szabo, 5/16)
KFF Health News:
Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
On the KFF Health News Minute this week: Artificial intelligence is coming to dinner, and why maternity wards are closing in states with anti-abortion laws. (5/16)
The New York Times:
North Carolina Legislature Reapproves Abortion Ban, Overriding Governor’s Veto
North Carolina’s Republican-dominated legislature upheld a bill Tuesday night that will ban most abortions after 12 weeks, overriding the Democratic governor’s recent veto of the new restrictions. The success of the override was a victory for Republicans and a critical test of their new, but slim, supermajority. The vote, taken in both chambers in back-to-back sessions, means a dramatic change for abortion access in North Carolina, where abortion is currently legal up to 20 weeks. The vote also restricts access for women across the South, some of whom have traveled to North Carolina for abortions from states where the procedure is largely banned. The new law is set to take effect July 1. (Kelly, 5/16)
The Hill:
Montana Governor Signs Ban On Second Trimester Abortion Procedure
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed a bill into law on Tuesday that will effectively ban abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Gianforte’s office said in a release that the legislation will restrict dilation and evacuation abortions, a form of abortion primarily used during the second trimester of pregnancy, except for cases of medical emergency where the child would not survive outside of the womb. (Gans, 5/16)
AP:
Montana Abortion Clinics Ask Judge To Block Law That Bans Second-Trimester Abortion Method
Planned Parenthood of Montana on Tuesday asked a state judge to temporarily block a law that bans the abortion method most commonly used after 15 weeks of gestation, arguing it is unconstitutional. The organization filed the complaint over the law to ban dilation and evacuation abortions just hours after Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s office announced he had signed the bill. (Hanson, 5/16)
Roll Call:
Republicans Weigh Changes To Law Meant To Protect Abortion Access
The chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee said Tuesday that Republicans could pursue changes to a 1994 law meant to protect access to reproductive health care clinics. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., made the comments at the outset of a hearing on the so-called FACE Act, where the parties clashed over the issue of abortion and heard about clinic access, firebombings, FBI oversight and food stamps. (Macagnone, 5/16)
The New York Times:
How a 150-Year-Old Law Against Lewdness Became a Key to the Abortion Fight
The resurrection of the Comstock Act is part of a larger legal effort by abortion opponents to force abortion pills off the market. The central battle currently is a lawsuit, brought by a consortium of anti-abortion organizations and doctors in Texas, which has already made a brief stop at the Supreme Court and is now scheduled for argument on Wednesday before a federal appeals court. (Bazelon, 5/16)
AP:
Democrats Keep Pennsylvania House Majority, Positioning Party To Prevent Limits On Abortion Rights
Democrats maintained their narrow Pennsylvania House majority Tuesday by winning a special election and along with it continued control over how the chamber will handle abortion, gun rights and election law legislation. ... The Democrats’ victory in the Delaware County district means first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro will have at least one chamber to aid his agenda going into the final month of budget negotiations. The result could also affect a proposed constitutional amendment limiting abortion rights that legislative Republicans are one House floor vote away from putting before voters as a referendum. (Scolforo, 5/17)
The Washington Post:
Abortion Laws Triggered Dozens Of Health Complications, New Report Says
A new report has identified dozens of examples in which medical providers say pregnant patients received care in the past year that deviated from care they would have received before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — a sign, researchers said, of a pattern of serious health complications triggered by abortion bans. While no nationwide data has yet emerged to show the extent of these complications, the report, being released Tuesday by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco and shared with The Washington Post, offers a first-of-its-kind summary of anonymized examples from medical providers across the country. (Kitchener, 5/16)
The Washington Post:
Negotiators See Progress On Debt Ceiling, As Biden’s Liberal Allies Worry
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sounded confident that an agreement could be reached ahead of a June 1 deadline to raise the nation’s borrowing limit or risk a global economic catastrophe. Biden gave a similar assessment, though major differences remain between the two sides before a deal can be struck. (Stein, Siegel, Sotomayor and Goodwin, 5/16)
AP:
Job Cuts, No Social Security Checks: How Consumers Could Be Pinched By A US Government Default
All the hand-wringing in Washington over raising the debt limit can seem far removed from the lives of everyday Americans, but they could end up facing huge consequences. Millions of people in the U.S. rely on benefits that could go unpaid and services that could be disrupted, or halted altogether, if the government can’t pay its bills for an extended period. If the economy tanked due to default, more than 8 million people could lose their jobs, government officials estimate. The economy could nosedive into a recession. (Superville, 5/16)
Military.Com:
Republicans Vow To Boost Veteran Spending Amid Debt Ceiling Fight
The Department of Veterans Affairs would get an $18 billion budget bump next year under a plan released by House Republicans on Tuesday amid a knockdown, drag-out political fight over raising the U.S. debt ceiling. The GOP bill would give the VA about $153 billion in discretionary funding in 2024, up from $135 billion that the department got this year -- and slightly above the $143 billion the Biden administration requested for next year. (Kheel, 5/16)
Reuters:
White House Wants To Improve Access To Opioid Overdose Reversal Medication
President Joe Biden's administration is seeking to meet with the makers of the life-saving medication naloxone used to reverse opioid overdoses, in an effort to increase access and reduce cost, a spokesperson for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said. (5/17)
Stat:
Depression Hits New High Among Americans, Per Survey
More than a quarter of American adults are depressed, a 10% surge from nearly a decade ago, according to the latest Gallup survey. The data come as the Biden administration tries to overhaul mental health care costs and boost the number of health care workers licensed to practice behavioral health care. Congress in this year’s budget also allotted hundreds of millions of dollars to mental health care grants and programs, many of them trained on children or substance misuse. (Owermohle, 5/17)
CNN:
Chronic Pain Is Substantially More Common In The US Than Diabetes, Depression And High Blood Pressure, Study Finds
There are more new cases of chronic pain among US adults than other common long-term conditions like diabetes, depression and high blood pressure, according to a new study. The researchers say their findings “emphasize the high disease burden of chronic pain in the US adult population and the need for early management of pain.” (Dillinger, 5/16)
CNN:
Trust In Childhood Vaccines Holds Steady, Despite Skepticism Of Covid-19 Vaccines, Survey Finds
Divisive views on the Covid-19 vaccines haven’t shaken the broadly favorable views of routine childhood vaccines, a new survey suggests. Nearly nine out of 10 adults in the US say that the benefits of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines outweigh the risks – a share that’s remained unchanged since before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. (McPhillips, 5/16)
CIDRAP:
COVID Public Health Measures May Have Led To RSV Resurgence
A lack of exposure to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to the global resurgence of the virus in 2022 and 2023, finds a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics. (Van Beusekom, 5/16)
CNN:
Pfizer's Maternal RSV Vaccine Effective At Preventing Severe Infections In Newborns, FDA Says, But Flags Potential Risk Of Preterm Birth
Pfizer’s vaccine to protect newborns from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, by vaccinating their moms late in pregnancy cuts the risk that infants will need to see a doctor or be admitted to the hospital with a moderate to severe infection before 6 months of age, according to a new analysis by government regulators. Many parents have been eagerly anticipating this news, particularly after last year’s long and severe RSV season. (Goodman, 5/16)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Why It Could Be Harder To Avoid Getting COVID In The Future
The end of the national COVID-19 public health emergency has substantially shifted how coronavirus data is gathered and reported. The familiar, colorful community-level reports, graphs illustrating fluctuating case counts and jarring smartphone notifications that helped guide people through the first three years of the pandemic have largely disappeared. (Vaziri, 5/16)
Fox News:
New Report Suggests 'Panic Buying' Of Medications By Patients And Providers Caused Drug Shortages
As the "triple threat" of COVID-19, influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) caused a spike in patients seeking medication in the winter of 2022, drug shortages were the highest they had been in five years, according to a March 2023 Senate report. In terms of what caused the shortages, a new report from the Milken Center for Public Health in Washington, D.C., suggested those shortages stemmed from individuals and providers "panic-buying" more medications than they needed amid fear and confusion. (Rudy, 5/16)
Modern Healthcare:
Insurers, PBMs Restrict Access To Weight Loss Drugs As Demand Soars
When Tim Norfleet heard the Ohio Department of Education would pay for its workers to use anti-obesity drugs, he knew he wanted to sign up. Norfleet, 61, a federal programs specialist, said he had been mulling undergoing weight loss surgery after gaining 50 pounds since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and using a drug, combined with exercise and diet changes, seemed preferable to surgery. (Tepper, 5/16)
CNN:
Concern Grows Around US Health-Care Workforce Shortage: 'We Don't Have Enough Doctors'
There is mounting concern among some US lawmakers about the nation’s ongoing shortage of health-care workers, and the leaders of historically Black medical schools are calling for more funding to train a more diverse workforce. As of Monday, in areas where a health workforce shortage has been identified, the United States needs more than 17,000 additional primary care practitioners, 12,000 dental health practitioners and 8,200 mental health practitioners, according to data from the Health Resources & Services Administration. Those numbers are based on data that HRSA receives from state offices and health departments. (Howard, 5/16)
The CT Mirror:
CT Legislators Won't Create Mandated Nurse Staff Ratios For Hospitals
Mandatory nurse staffing ratios in Connecticut’s hospitals, a lauded concept that proponents said is sorely needed as facilities face staffing shortages, will not move forward this legislative session. Instead, lawmakers are shifting their focus to bolstering hospital staffing committees, which were formed to give workers a voice in staffing plans, and creating a statewide oversight panel that will act as a mediator if problems arise. (Carlesso, 5/17)
AP:
Elizabeth Holmes Loses Latest Bid To Avoid Prison And Gets Hit With $452 Million Restitution Bill
Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes appears to be soon bound for prison after an appeals court Tuesday rejected her bid to remain free while she tries to overturn her conviction in a blood-testing hoax that brought her fleeting fame and fortune. In another ruling issued late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila ordered Holmes to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of her crimes. Holmes is being held jointly liable for that amount with her former lover and top Theranos lieutenant, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who is already in prison after being convicted on a broader range of felonies in a separate trial. (Liedtke, 5/16)
AP:
Arizona's Governor And Attorney General Announce Crackdown On Medicaid Fraud
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and other top state officials announced a crackdown Tuesday on Medicaid fraud, particularly honing in on illegitimate group homes. The Hobbs administration said many of those homes target tribal community members and have defrauded the state out of hundreds of millions of dollars. (5/17)
AP:
Louisiana House Passes Bill To Ban Gender-Affirming Care For Minors
Following suit with other Republican-controlled statehouses in the country, lawmakers in the Louisiana House passed a bill Tuesday that would ban gender-affirming medical care to minors, advancing the legislation to the Senate for further debate. The bill would prohibit doctors from performing “gender transition procedures” — such as hormone treatments, gender reassignment surgery or puberty-blocking drugs — on anyone under the age of 18 who is seeking treatment to “alter” their sex assigned at birth. The measure, which also establishes penalties for health professionals who provide such care, passed 71-24 mainly along party lines. (Cline, 5/16)
AP:
Missouri Terminates Emergency Rule To Limit Trans Care For Minors, Some Adults
Missouri officials on Tuesday abruptly terminated an unusual emergency rule proposed by the Republican attorney general that would have placed limits on transgender care for minors and some adults. The move was announced without explanation on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website, which said: “This emergency rule terminated effective May 16, 2023.” (Stafford, 5/16)
AP:
New Washington Law Keeps Drugs Illegal, Boosts Resources For Housing And Treatment
Washington lawmakers approved and Gov. Jay Inslee quickly signed a major new drug policy Tuesday that keeps controlled substances illegal while boosting resources to help those struggling with addiction. A compromise reached a day earlier by Democratic and Republican leaders sought to bridge a gap between liberals who believe drugs should be decriminalized and conservatives who insist the threat of jail is necessary to force people into treatment. (Komeda and Johnson, 5/17)
The Star Tribune:
Minnesota Lawmakers Finish Marijuana Legalization Bill; Final Votes Up Next
Minnesota is poised to legalize recreational marijuana as early as this week after legislative negotiators finalized the bill and readied it for last votes in the House and Senate. A conference committee tasked with merging the House and Senate marijuana bills into one finished its work on Tuesday. Among many changes, the committee set the tax rate for cannabis products at 10%, capped home possession of marijuana flower at 2 pounds and gave cities the option of limiting the number of cannabis retailers within their limits. (Faircloth and Johnson, 5/16)
The Baltimore Sun:
Study: Baltimore Children Moved From High-Poverty To Low-Poverty Areas Saw Their Asthma Improve
Children with asthma whose families participated in a Baltimore program that helped move them from high-poverty neighborhoods to low-poverty ones saw their disease get significantly better, according to a study published Tuesday. The children experienced fewer asthma attacks after moving and struggled with symptoms on fewer days — improvements on par with medication used to treat the chronic condition, said Dr. Craig Pollack, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Hopkins School of Nursing and one of the study’s lead authors. (Roberts, 5/16)
AP:
YouTube’s Recommendations Send Violent And Graphic Gun Videos To 9-Year-Olds, Study Finds
When researchers at a nonprofit that studies social media wanted to understand the connection between YouTube videos and gun violence, they set up accounts on the platform that mimicked the behavior of typical boys living in the U.S. They simulated two nine-year-olds who both liked video games. The accounts were identical, except that one clicked on the videos recommended by YouTube, and the other ignored the platform’s suggestions. The account that clicked on YouTube’s suggestions was soon flooded with graphic videos about school shootings, tactical gun training videos and how-to instructions on making firearms fully automatic. (Klepper, 5/16)
The Hill:
Soft Contact Lenses May Contain Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals,’ Research Finds
Many types of soft contact lenses available in the U.S. could contain toxic “forever chemicals,” new research has found. All 18 sets of soft contacts evaluated in a recent consumer study came back with various levels of organic fluorine — an indicator for the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). (Udasin, 5/16)