Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Annual Open Enrollment Is About Making More Money; New Meds Make Dementia Less Scary
Los Angeles Times: Open Enrollment Is Healthcare's Most Expensive Lie
To give the illusion of choice, we’ve built a multibillion-dollar theater production called 'open enrollment' that costs more to stage than many small countries spend on their entire healthcare systems. (Neal K. Shah, 10/27)
Stat: How Dementia Is Becoming A Disease People Can Live With
Diagnosis is interesting. Treatment is exciting. I’ve fond memories from early in my career prescribing medications that within minutes relieved patients smothering from congestive heart failure, pulled them back from near death from septic shock, or slowed the progression of their diabetes or heart disease. (Jason Karlawish, 10/27)
Newsweek: Gutting Special Ed Shows How Little America Thinks Of Its Children
If Office of Special Education layoffs remain in place, the office’s ability to monitor the constitutional rights of disabled students will suffer severely. (K. Ward Cummings and Anne Tapp Jaksa, 10/24)
Stat: More Pharmacies Are Closing. I Worry About My Father
When my father needs insulin, he drives 25 miles round trip to the nearest Walgreens in a remote corner of California. That trip takes him about 50 minutes, nearly an hour every time he needs his medication, if he has a car available. It is the only pharmacy within that distance where he can get his medication, a flu shot, or basic health advice. (Guadalupe Hayes-Mota, 10/27)
The Boston Globe: Why Undermining Vaccines Endangers Americans’ Freedom
Right now, that foundation of freedom is under assault — and the threat isn’t a virus. It’s the deliberate campaign to dismantle confidence in vaccines, which has now reached the highest levels of government. (Former White House covid response coordinator Ashish K. Jha, 10/27)
