Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: A Father's Illness; Exposing Lead; And Creating While Sober
Catapult: Here If You Need Me: Learning To Be Present While Fighting For Your Father
When they lose my father’s medicines in the days and weeks, then months, to come, I demand emergency provisions. When it is clear that the wrong pills and the wrong doses have been slipped into the treatment, I am not easily consoled. When they accidentally bring my father someone else’s cure, I am aggressively self-righteous. (Beth Kephart, 1/10)
The Washington Post: They Helped Expose Unsafe Lead Levels In Flint’s And In D.C.’s Water. Then They Turned On Each Other.
LeeAnne Walters’s four children were breaking out in rashes in 2014. Her teenage son became so weak he could no longer carry his book bag or walk up the stairs. One of her toddler-aged twins continued to miss developmental milestones. And her own hair started falling out, and has yet to fully grow back. Walters suspected the water in her Flint, Mich., home could be to blame. In 2015, she tested it and discovered dangerous chemicals, including elevated lead levels. But when she sent her findings to government officials, they insisted publicly that the water was safe, even though they had already issued multiple water-boil advisories because of possible contamination with harmful bacteria. (Perry Stein, 1/16)
GQ: Creating While Clean
This is a story about sober musicians—about the life that has led them here, and about the life that they live now—but there is no single story here. Some drank, some used drugs, some did more or less everything, and they did so to very different degrees. Some found themselves at the edge of the precipice, or worse; others simply re-routed from a path or trajectory that they came to see as unwise. Some were clean before the end of their teenage years; some only surfaced into sobriety much later in their lives. (Chris Heath, 1/15)
BuzzFeed: 34 Devastating Stories About How People Are Still Crushed By Medical Debt
We asked the BuzzFeed Community how medical debt (which for this story does not necessarily mean it is in collections) impacts their lives. The stories are intense: Some continue to deal with six-figure debt that originated before the ACA was implemented; some have large debts from services that were not covered by insurance and thus are not covered by rules that cap how much you pay each year out of pocket. Others shared details about the cycle of mental health issues resulting in medical debt that, in turn, impacts their mental health. (Venessa Wong, 1/17)
Mother Jones: Meet The Person Behind Trump’s War On Medicaid
The Twitter accounts of federal government officials aren’t usually known for spicy hot takes. But on Halloween afternoon, Seema Verma, the head of a bland-sounding agency called the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), sent out a tweet that quickly caught the ire of every lefty on Twitter. (Patrick Caldwell, 1/14)
Wired: One Couple’s Tireless Crusade To Stop A Genetic Killer
In retrospect, it might have been a clue. But in early 2010, when Kamni Vallabh first began to complain that her eyesight was failing, there didn’t seem to be much cause for concern. She was 51; maybe middle age was catching up with her. (1/15)
Vox: MS Treatment: Study Shows Chemo And Stem Cell Transplant Can Reverse The Disease
By the time Amanda Loy turned 28, her multiple sclerosis had progressed to the point that she could no longer work full time. Her hands and legs felt numb all the time, her bladder always felt full, and she had to rely on a cane to walk for more than 10 minutes. After she gave birth to a son a year later, in 2008, the symptoms worsened. It was around then that she decided to travel from her home in Anchorage, Alaska, to Chicago to inquire about a new treatment she’d heard about at a Seattle hospital. (Julia Belluz, 1/15)
