Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons On China's Theft Of U.S. Personal Medical Records And Surveillance Scenarios; On Abortion Rights, Physicians Have A Duty To Meet Their Patients' Autonomy
The Wall Street Journal: What Does Beijing Want With Your Medical Records?
Why would China steal the personal medical information of nearly 80 million Americans? That’s been the question since the Justice Department unsealed an indictment of two Chinese nationals for the 2015 hacking attack on Anthem, the health-care giant. Chinese cybercriminals have stolen all sorts of trade secrets from U.S. companies over the past decade or more, ranging from weapons blueprints to details for manufacturing solar panels. The thefts have been wide-ranging, but they’ve shared a common target: technical data and records that could give Beijing an economic or military advantage over its global rivals. (Christopher Porter and Brian Finch, 6/20)
New England Journal of Medicine: Abortion Rights In Peril — What Clinicians Need To Know
This year, 2019, has become a critical time for abortion rights, with an unprecedented surge of abortion bans sweeping across the United States. Through June 1, some 26 abortion bans have been enacted in 12 states, and many more have been introduced by state legislators.Yet state efforts to undermine abortion rights and access have been under way since the 1973 decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton affirmed the constitutional right to abortion. (Elizabeth Nash, 6/19)
Austin American-Statesman: The Right Is Coming For Birth Control, Too
If you had any doubt about where the renewed state-by-state arguments over abortion will creep, take heed. Women’s access to contraception, their right to determine if and when they will have children − not to mention their sexuality in general − will be swept up in the rush to see which state can send a case to the U.S. Supreme Court first with the hope of overturning Roe v. Wade. (Mary Sanchez, 6/19)
USA Today: My Doctor Colleagues Rejected Medicare For All So I'm Rejoining The AMA
A decade ago, I publicly relinquished my membership in the American Medical Association when it came out in support of the Affordable Care Act. I felt my colleagues were blindly favoring an insurance expansion that would jeopardize quality of care and add to a physician’s growing bureaucratic burden, while not guaranteeing access to actual health care amid prohibitive deductibles and narrow care network. I was right. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things about Obamacare that I now like, including the Medicaid expansion, the funding and expansion of federally qualified health centers in undeserved areas, and a team approach to health care delivery (Accountable Care Organizations). In fact, these parts of the law have worked out better than I anticipated. (Marc Siegel, 6/19)
The Hill: Fixing Health-Care Cronyism — Intentional And Unintentional
Have you noticed Americans’ health-care choices are continuing to shrink? Hanlon’s Razor states one should “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity,” but is that the case here? Over the past several decades, a combination of laws and exemptions from existing laws have effectively crushed consumer freedom in the health-care industry. One of the biggest culprits is a kind of state-based regulatory scheme known as “certificate of need” (CON). (Dr. Chad Savag, 6/20)
JAMA: Putting The New Alzheimer Disease Amyloid, Tau, Neurodegeneration (AT[N]) Diagnostic System To The Test
The field of neurodegenerative dementias, particularly Alzheimer disease (AD), has been limited by challenges in accurate diagnosis, but has recently been potentially revolutionized by the development of imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers. These biomarkers have influenced the diagnostic evaluation of symptomatic patients with cognitive impairment or dementia, particularly in dementia subspecialty practice. The primary biomarker modalities include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and CSF. (David Wolk, Stephen Salloway, and Brad Dickerson, 6/18)
Miami Herald: High-Capacity Magazines Hold More Than 100 Cartridges. A Gunman Would Have To Switch Magazines As Often.
As bad as the pace and scope of the nation’s mass shootings have become, with death tallies sometimes counted in the dozens, chances are good that they are only going to get worse. And you can blame gun manufacturers and firearms enthusiasts who are driving a market for ever-larger high-capacity gun magazines. The Trace reports that firearms accessory manufacturers “have developed a new generation of high-capacity magazines,” some holding 100 or more cartridges, meaning a gunman can more easily fire that many bullets before having to switch magazines. (Scott Martelle, 6/18)
