Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senator Wants Justice Department To Investigate Prison Health Contractor
Reuters: Sen. Warren Urges DOJ To Stop 'Abusive' Prison Health Bankruptcy
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Thursday called for the U.S. Department of Justice to do more to stop what she called Corizon Health's "abusive tactics" in bankruptcy. Corizon, a prison healthcare contractor, placed a newly created affiliate, Tehum Care, into bankruptcy in Houston in February 2023 in order to avoid accountability for its "alarming record of patient neglect and malpractice" in prisons across the U.S., Warren said in her letter to DOJ's bankruptcy watchdog, the Office of the U.S. Trustee. (Knauth, 2/1)
On this week's testimony about online addiction —
The Hill: Durbin Compares Zuckerberg To Tobacco Execs After ‘Outrageous’ Statement
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday compared Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the nation’s largest tobacco companies’ executives, who testified before Congress in 1994 that they did not believe tobacco was addictive. In an interview on “CNN This Morning,” Durbin said Zuckerberg made an “outrageous statement” during the Wednesday hearing when he suggested there was no causal link between social media use and negative mental health effects. (Fortinsky, 2/1)
The Washington Post: Online Safety Legislation Is Opposed By Many It Claims To Protect
Lawmakers who grilled the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord and X on Wednesday all seemed to agree that protecting children’s safety online was a priority. Many of those children were less accepting of the idea, and they let their opinions flow as they listened to the hearing through a Discord server. “These senators don’t actually care about protecting kids, they just want to control information,” one teenager posted. “If congress wants to protect children, they should pass a ... privacy law,” another teenager said. Others in the server accused the lawmakers of “trying to demonize the CEOs to push their ... bills,” which were often described with profanity. They’re not alone in their opposition to the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill introduced in Congress by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D‑Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R‑Tenn.), and similar efforts by state legislatures. (Lorenz, 2/1)
