Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: End-Of-Life Discussions; Selling Sugar; The Cadillac Tax
The Washington Post: A Nurse With Fatal Breast Cancer Says End-Of-Life Discussions Saved Her Life
I am a nurse, a nationally recognized expert in care of the aged and senior program officer at the John A. Hartford Foundation, which is devoted to improving the care of older people in the United States. Yet my perspective is not simply professional. For, you see, I live with Stage 4 (end-stage) inflammatory breast cancer. And while this metastatic cancer will one day kill me, the advanced-care planning conversations I have had with my health-care team have been lifesaving since my diagnosis. (Amy Berman, 9/28)
PBS NewsHour: How Data Is Helping Asthmatics Breathe Easier
Since 2012, an innovative project in Louisville, Kentucky, has been collecting data on hundreds of the city's asthmatics by attaching GPS trackers to their inhalers to help residents better manage their asthma, monitor air pollution and shape future public health policies. NewsHour's Christopher Booker reports as part of a Citi Foundation-funded series called Urban Ideas. (Booker, 9/27)
The Atlantic: The Money Spent Selling Sugar To Americans Is Staggering
Kellogg’s spent $32 million last year in advertising Pop Tarts alone. Coca-Cola spent $269 million advertising its flagship product (Coca-Cola). Pepsi spent $150 million just to advertise the brightly colored sugar-water that is Gatorade. It's the sugar water for people who do sports. These are numbers that Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, highlighted in a lecture at New York University on Thursday night. “Think about what that money could do for education, for social welfare,” Nestle implored. “But that money is spent getting people to buy sugar.” (James Hamblin, 9/27)
The New York Times: The Breast Cancer Gene And Me
I did not know I have the BRCA mutation. I did not know I would likely get breast cancer when I was still young, when the disease is a wild animal. I caught it fast and I acted fast, but I must have looked away: By the time of my double mastectomy, the cancer had spread to five lymph nodes. ... All I know is I have the BRCA mutation most unexpectedly, and, still in my 40s, I had the kind of cancer that meant three surgeries in six months. I did not know I was a carrier because I do not fall within testing parameters. Most insurance companies cover testing specifically for Ashkenazi Jewish women only once we present with breast cancer. Before that doomed moment, testing is only for women who have a family history of BRCA or who have had breast cancer at a young age, or who have close relatives with the disease. (Elizabeth Wurtzel, 9/25)
Vox: Bernie Sanders And Big Business Both Hate This Obamacare Provision — Because It’s Working
Obamacare’s Cadillac Tax has accrued a very eclectic crew of opponents that now includes both socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the conservative Chamber of Commerce. Public unions and private insurers have all lined up against the provision. But this isn't because the tax is some kind of a disaster. Opposition is getting fiercer because the tax is working. (Sarah Kliff, 9/28)
Smithsonian Magazine: Millions Of Americans Are Getting Lost In Translation During Hospital Visits
According to U.S. Census data released earlier this month, over 63 million Americans speak a language other than English at home, and over 25 million self-identify as having limited English proficiency. Rampant miscommunication compromises patient safety and quality of care while widening existing health disparities. Some technological solutions are on the rise, from videoconferencing sessions with interpreters to smartphone applications that act as digital translators, but these innovations have a ways to go before they can stand in for medically trained in-person aid. (Adam Hoffman, 9/28)
The Washington Post: Jails Are No Place For The Mentally Ill. I Was Lucky To Get Out.
I went to jail in 2007, around the time that Miami-Dade County Judge Steven Leifman succeeded in encouraging more comprehensive coordination between law enforcement and behavioral health treatment centers. After 46 days in jail, the resident psychiatrist identified me as having a mental illness and transferred me to a hospital. Case workers there deemed me eligible for the program, which puts people who aren’t considered a public safety threat into community-based treatment and offers mental health and drug addiction services. Without that program, I’m not sure where I would have ended up. (Justin Volpe, 9/23)
