Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Caregiving Profession Needs Overhaul; Youth In America Are Struggling With Mental Health
USA Today: COVID Great Reckoning Hastens A Crisis Of Caregivers Shortage
Epitomizing these concerns are those workers who provide caregiving support and services to older adults and people with disabilities, at poverty-level wages. Even prior to the pandemic, turnover was high: 1 in 4 nursing assistants and 1 in 5 home health aides reported that they were looking for new jobs. (Ai-jen Poo and April Verrett, 9/20)
USA Today: Caregivers In America Need Help: Time For Paid Federal Family Leave
I knew that having a baby wasn't supposed to be easy, but I never imagined that it would be this hard. After a cesarean section that resulted in medical complications, however, I was in tremendous physical pain. (Carli Pierson, 9/20)
Modern Healthcare: In The Mental Health Crisis, Black Children Remain At Heightened Risk
As America works to adapt its healthcare services and public policy to meet the needs of children suffering from the current mental health epidemic, it is important that history does not repeat itself—with Black children being left behind. (Michelle Wimes, 9/20)
Los Angeles Times: The Mental Health System Failed Our Son, But We Hold On To Hope
We haven’t seen our son in 66 days, and counting. Hopefully by the time you read this, we’ll have seen his face — probably too skinny, probably scared, hopefully not still angry — at his next mental health court hearing or with a conservatorship in hand. Until then, we hope he is safe as he can be on the seventh floor of high-observation housing at L.A. County’s Twin Towers jail in Chinatown, there on a vandalism charge after being arrested in Walnut for breaking a bus window. (Edward and Bea Stricklan, 9/20)
Stat: Preventive Services To Improve Americans' Health Are Now On Trial
The ACA remains under legal attack, and one key part of it is in jeopardy. In early September, a U.S. district judge in Texas ruled in a lawsuit, Braidwood Management Inc. et al. v. Becerra, that a part of the popular provision guaranteeing preventive care services without cost-sharing for those in most private health plans violates the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (Anand Parekh, 9/20)
Dallas Morning News: Medicaid Reform In Texas Can Help More Than 400,000 Children Get Coverage
While our organizations, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Texans Care for Children, do not always agree on every policy issue, we do strive to collaborate on policy solutions where we can. In this case, we agree that the Texas Legislature has a unique opportunity to fix unintended bureaucratic barriers in Medicaid that are hurting the children for whom much of the program was intended. (David Balat and Alec Mendoza, 9/21)
