Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: The GOP Health Proposal, A 'Soap Opera Virus,' And The Psychological Impact Of Bigotry
Vox: The American Health Care Act: The Republicans’ Bill To Replace Obamacare, Explained
The American Health Care Act was developed in conjunction with the White House and Senate Republicans. Two big questions — how many people it will cover and how much it will cost — are still unresolved: It will likely cover fewer people than the Affordable Care Act currently does, but we don’t know how many. And the Congressional Budget Office has not yet scored the legislation, so its price tag is unknown. (Sarah Kliff, 3/6)
FiveThirtyEight: Seven Groups That Could Complicate GOP Plans To Repeal Obamacare
It wasn’t easy, but Republican leaders in the House finally wrote and then released on Monday a bill to accomplish the party’s long-held goal of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The Trump administration is fully behind the repeal effort. And the Republicans have the votes, assuming everyone falls in line: They need 50 of the 52 Republicans in the Senate and 216 of 237 Republicans in the House to get the legislation adopted. (Perry Bacon, Jr., 3/7)
The New Yorker: Paul Ryan’s Health-Care Vise
In this new era of trying to pass bills that a Republican President will sign, the Freedom Caucus is among the first groups that [House Speaker Paul] Ryan needed to mollify. Obamacare uses relatively generous government subsidies to help individuals purchase health insurance on the private market. An early version of the Ryan plan replaced these subsidies with less generous refundable tax credits, which many conservatives dislike because Americans who pay no taxes would still be eligible for the credits. (Ryan Lizza, 3/7)
The Atlantic: The Conservative Uprising Against The GOP Health-Care Bill
House Republicans leaders on Monday embraced a legislative plan to replace the Affordable Care Act for the first time in the nearly seven years since Democrats enacted the transformative health-insurance law. Now, they have to sell it. (Russell Berman, 3/6)
The New York Times: Years Of Ethics Charges, But Star Cancer Researcher Gets A Pass
Dr. Carlo Croce is among the most prolific scientists in an emerging area of cancer research involving what is sometimes called the “dark matter” of the human genome. A department chairman at Ohio State University and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Croce has parlayed his decades-long pursuit of cancer remedies into a research empire: He has received more than $86 million in federal grants as a principal investigator and, by his own count, more than 60 awards. (James Glanz and Agustin Armendariz, 3/8)
Smithsonian Magazine: How A Soap Opera Virus Felled Hundreds Of Students In Portugal
The schools fell like dominoes across Portugal in May 2006, one after another calling upon government officials with reports of dozens, then hundreds of students struck with rashes, dizziness and difficulty breathing, just as year-end exams approached. Was it a mysterious allergic reaction, a chemical spill, a virus? (Lorraine Boissoneault, 3/6)
Vox: “Bigotry Complicates Everything”: A Psychologist On How Prejudice Harms Muslim Patients’ Mental Health
Prejudice is bad for our health. Discrimination is a source of chronic stress that keeps us from sleeping well, it weakens our immune systems, and raises our blood pressure. Equally important is its impact on mental health. And Ben Herzig, a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating Muslim patients in the Boston area, sees it all the time. (Brian Resnick, 3/8)
The Washington Post: Despite A Mother’s Plea, Her Mentally Ill Daughter Was Sold A Firearm. Here’s Why She Sued.
She called the police. Then ATF. After that, the FBI. Janet Delana was desperate to stop her mentally ill adult daughter from buying another handgun. (Marimow, 3/6)
The New York Times: You May Want To Marry My Husband
After learning she doesn’t have long to live, a woman composes a dating profile for the man she will leave behind. (Amy Krouse Rosenthal, 3/3)
