Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: 'Medicare For All's' Path To Popularity; The Law Behind Opioid Cases; The Lengths Debt Collectors Go To
The New York Times: How ‘Medicare For All’ Went Mainstream
On June 17, 2016, 15 prominent Democratic Party activists and elected officials gathered in a hotel conference room in downtown Phoenix. Their job was to formulate language for the party platform, which would be adopted at the following month’s national convention in Philadelphia. But the platform-drafting committee also had an unspoken mission: to defuse the lingering intraparty tension in the wake of Bernie Sanders’s spirited but unsuccessful primary battle against Hillary Clinton. (Draper, 8/27)
Politico: The Little Known Legal Doctrine Making Big Pharma Pay For The Opioid Crisis
On Monday, a state court judge in Oklahoma ruled that Johnson & Johnson must pay $572,102,028 to compensate the state for expenses related to combating the opioid epidemic. The decision was based on an expansive but reasonable reading of the state’s public nuisance law—an interpretation that demonstrates the explosive potential of this little-understood legal theory. Judge Thad Balkman’s decision does two things. First, it provides a road map for other courts to use in upcoming litigation against other pharmaceutical companies involved in the manufacture, sale and distribution of these addictive drugs. The reckoning is overdue. States should continue to be aggressive about deploying public nuisance law in the future. Second, it puts the scare into other Big Pharma companies that had a hand in creating and then fueling the crisis. (Culhane, 8/28)
The Atlantic: What Happens If You Don’t Pay A Hospital Bill?
On March 8, 2011, Joclyn Krevat, an occupational therapist in New York, was sitting at her computer when she received a most unusual LinkedIn request. The wording was the familiar: “I’d like to add you to my professional network.” The sender was familiar, too, but not for the reason Krevat expected. It was from a debt collector. (Khazan, 8/28)
Wired: Flint, Newark, And The Persistent Crisis Of Lead In Water
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: A US city is facing a public health crisis, after years of denying that it had a problem with lead in its drinking water supply. In 2016, that would have been a reference to Flint, Michigan. This month, it’s Newark, New Jersey, where city officials on Sunday resorted to handing out bottled water to affected residents. Lead has long been recognized as a potent neurotoxin. The health effects of lead exposure in children include lowered IQ and increased risk of behavioral disorders. Exposed adults are more likely to develop a slew of health problems including nerve, kidney, and cardiovascular issues. Pregnant women and babies are especially vulnerable, as even low levels are associated with serious, irreversible damage to developing brains and nervous systems. (Enking, 8/28)
The New York Times: How To Manage Your Mental Illness At Work
I dropped my freshly cooked lunch all over the carpet. It wasn’t the reason I broke down just outside my office, but it was all the excuse I needed. I fell to my knees, screamed at the carpet, and cried as I shakily cleaned up my food. Then I sat down to write this paragraph. The rest of my breakdown would have to wait until work was done for the day. Like 46 million Americans (according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness), I regularly deal with a mental illness that has the potential to disrupt my daily life. Some days it comes in the form of an emotional breakdown that stops everything I’m doing dead in its tracks. Most of the time, though, it is quieter. It can be a haze that makes work slow, or it can stifle ideas when I need them most. (Ravenscraft, 8/29)
