Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Texas Activists Advocate Shoring Up Ailing Rural Maternal Health System
The Texas Tribune: Rural Providers, Advocates Push Texas Legislature To "Rescue" Maternal Health Care System
Twenty five years ago, the Texas Legislature passed a sweeping set of reforms to resuscitate the state’s collapsing rural health care system. Now, health care providers, advocates and local leaders are proposing similarly aggressive action to pull the rural maternity care system back from the brink. The Rural Texas Maternal Health Rescue Plan is a package of proposals they’re hoping lawmakers will champion in this upcoming session. (Klibanoff, 12/3)
The New York Times: Judge Steps Aside In ‘Shaken Baby’ Death Penalty Case In Texas
The Texas judge overseeing the case of Robert Roberson, convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter, has voluntarily recused herself from further proceedings, adding a new complication to a death penalty case that has drawn national scrutiny for its reliance on questionable evidence of “shaken baby” syndrome. (Goodman, 12/2)
The Colorado Sun: Colorado "Mad Moms” Want To Stop The Churn Of Mental Hospitals And Jail
The pattern goes like this: Barbara Vassis’ daughter, who has schizoaffective disorder, doesn’t take her medicine or is denied medication, goes into psychosis, gets arrested and goes to jail, is released to the streets, is admitted to a mental health facility, is released on day 13 or 14 because her Medicaid insurance runs out on day 15, does OK for a few days or weeks and then stops taking her medication again. Repeat. (Brown, 12/2)
KFF Health News: With Trump On The Way, Advocates Look To States To Pick Up Medical Debt Fight
Worried that President-elect Donald Trump will curtail federal efforts to take on the nation’s medical debt problem, patient and consumer advocates are looking to states to help people who can’t afford their medical bills or pay down their debts. “The election simply shifts our focus,” said Eva Stahl, who oversees public policy at Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that has worked closely with the Biden administration and state leaders on medical debt. “States are going to be the epicenter of policy change to mitigate the harms of medical debt.” (Levey, 12/3)
Updates from California —
Los Angeles Times: Dolores Madrigal Dead: Lead Plaintiff In Sterilization Case Was 90
On a fall morning in East L.A. in 1974, Dolores Madrigal and her husband, Orencio, ate breakfast while listening to ranchera radio station KWKW when a news segment aired that would change her life. The couple heard about how 100 people had protested in front of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center to decry the hospital’s years-long practice of sterilizing low-income women without their consent. The rally came in the wake of a lawsuit filed against the Boyle Heights hospital by three Mexican American women who alleged they were victims. (Arellano, 12/2)
San Francisco Chronicle: Church Or Ballet Could Count As Treatment For S.F. Welfare Recipients
When San Francisco voters earlier this year mandated that welfare recipients struggling with addiction take part in treatment, they may have envisioned a residential program or structured outpatient counseling sessions. But the nonprofit tapped to run the new city program says that treatment could also include more unorthodox approaches such as going to church or practicing ballet .Cedric Akbar, executive director of Positive Directions Equals Changes — the nonprofit that will run the new city program — told the Chronicle that treatment isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. (Angst, 12/2)
KFF Health News: California Falling Short Of Enrollment Goal As Mental Health Courts Roll Out Statewide
California’s new initiative to compel treatment for some of the state’s most severely mentally ill residents — many of whom are living on the streets — is falling short of its initial objectives. But with the program expanding from 11 counties to all 58 on Dec. 1, state officials are projecting confidence that they can reach their goal to help 2,000 adults by the end of the year. In the first nine months of CARE Court, 557 petitions were filed by first responders, families, or local health officials, all of whom can now request help for individuals who are ill. (Mai-Duc, 12/3)
