Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Trump's Changing Stances; Life On A Locked Ward; Low-Sodium Pizza
NBC News: A Full List Of Donald Trump's Rapidly Changing Policy Positions
In August, Trump was asked repeatedly if he still supported the single-payer health care he'd touted in the past. He said America should have a private system but repeatedly praised Canada and Scotland's socialized system. (Jane C. Timm, 10/11)
The New Yorker: Seventeen Days On A Locked Ward
Nurse Robert leans over me just after I settle into my chair and start writing in my journal. He has a habit of sliding his five-foot-four frame just close enough that I can see the lone hair curling out of the mole on his forehead. It’s near the end of his shift and musk is radiating off of his body. I wrinkle my nose and slam shut my notebook. (Taylor Elizabeth Eldridge, 10/9)
The New York Times Magazine: Pie In The Sky
Sodium is in pretty much everything we eat, in part because it tastes good and in part because it’s an effective and cheap preservative. Some 75 percent of the salt in our diets comes from packaged and restaurant food, leaving just about 25 percent under most people’s control. Many public-health officials say the single most important thing we can do to fight heart disease — still the country’s leading killer — is cut back on sodium. In June, the Food and Drug Administration released new preliminary guidelines for reducing sodium that it urged food makers to follow. As of now, the rules do not have the force of law. But food makers have seen the writing on the wall for some time. (Corby Kummer, 10/5)
The Atlantic: Our Pets, Ourselves
A new study suggests that we might consider taking some tips from our pet health-care system. A NBER working paper by Liran Einav and Atul Gupta at Stanford University and Amy Finkelstein at MIT finds that pet health care in the United States has exhibited growth, accessibility, and end-of-life spending patterns that almost directly mirror patterns in the American human health-care system. Their work suggests that pet health care is a useful comparison point for analysis and research. (Vann Newkirk, 10/7)
Vox: The Obamacare Problem That Democrats Don’t Want To Talk About
[Julianna] Pieknik is a 37-year-old PhD student in Maryland, who shares a house with four roommates. She earns $42,000, which is just slightly too much to qualify for tax credits where she lives. This year, she paid a $250 premium for a plan with no deductible. Next year, to keep same level of coverage, she needs to pay $450 — and she doesn’t think she can afford that. So right now she’s facing a choice: Pay a lot more money, or scale back her level of coverage. (Sarah Kliff, 10/11)
The New York Times Magazine: Generation Adderall
The train to Enfield was hardly the greatest extreme to which I would go during the decade I was entangled with Adderall. I would open other people’s medicine cabinets, root through trash cans where I had previously disposed of pills, write friends’ college essays for barter. Once, while living in New Hampshire, I skipped a day of work to drive three hours each way to the health clinic where my prescription was still on file. Never was I more resourceful or unswerving than when I was devising ways to secure more Adderall. (Casey Schwartz, 10/12)
Stat: The ‘Swiss Agent’: Long-Forgotten Research Unearths New Mystery About Lyme Disease
he tick hunter was hopeful he had found the cause of the disabling illness, recently named Lyme disease, that was spreading anxiety through leafy communities east of New York City. At a government lab in Montana, Willy Burgdorfer typed a letter to a colleague, reporting that blood from Lyme patients showed “very strong reactions” on a test for an obscure, tick-borne bacterium. He called it the “Swiss Agent.” (Charles Piller, 10/12)
The Atlantic: When ‘Religious Freedom’ Leaves Children Dead
Jessica Crank had a swollen shoulder. Not just swollen: In May 2002, when the teenager’s mother, Jacqueline, finally took her to a walk-in clinic in Lenoir City, Tennessee, the nurse practitioner found signs of bone disintegration and “other indications of a serious medical condition” on the x-ray. She called the University of Tennessee emergency room and had them prepare for Jessica’s arrival and urgent treatment. (Emma Green, 10/6)
