Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Is Evidence Of System Failure; Hunger Can Trigger A Psychiatric Emergency
USA Today Network via Reuters Connect: The Part Of The Cyclosporiasis Outbreak No One Is Talking About
Every summer now, it seems, we get the same headline: a cluster of cyclosporiasis cases traced to fresh produce, a recall, a brief wave of concern and then silence until next year. The news coverage almost always frames this as a food safety story – contaminated basil, bad lettuce, a supplier that slipped through the cracks. I want to offer a different diagnosis, because I've watched this exact pattern before, in a very different disease, and I recognize it immediately. (Dr. Tyler B. Evans, 7/16)
Stat: Medicaid And SNAP Cuts Are Exacerbating The Intertwined Problems Of Hunger And Mental Illness
The patient had come in for suicidal ideation. When I asked about his eating habits beforehand and access to food — routine for a psychiatric nutrition consult — he told me he’d lost his SNAP eligibility a few weeks earlier. (Cole Hanson, 7/16)
The Atlantic: You Don’t Need To Vote For Socialists To Get Universal Health Care
The trump administration is implementing the most sweeping rollback of social spending in American history. Millions of Americans are being thrown off Medicaid. The president and his Republican allies in Congress refused to extend enhanced subsidies for people buying individual health insurance on Affordable Care Act exchanges, which Democrats have warned since last year will cause millions more to lose coverage while health-insurance premiums spike for those still enrolled. Last week, as Democrats predicted, insurers on the exchanges announced premium increases averaging 14 percent, coming atop a 20 percent hike the previous year. (Jonathan Chait, 7/15)
The Hill: Cheaper Medicines Exist — Middlemen Are Keeping Them Out Of Reach
All too often, Americans go to the pharmacy and are stunned by what they’re asked to pay. The question is simple: “Isn’t there a cheaper option?” Frequently, there is. But patients aren’t making the final call and neither are their doctors. (Robert Zirkelbach, 7/15)
The Washington Post: I Smoked Cannabis For Nearly 20 Years. Here’s What I Wish I Knew At 13.
What I know now about cannabis, especially what it does to a teenager’s brain, I learned the hard way. When the Trump administration moved to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I — a designation that includes heroin and PCP — to Schedule III, alongside less addictive drugs, I applauded the decision. After all, I’d been arguing that case since high school. But now, months after medical cannabis was rescheduled, and with a formal Drug Enforcement Administration hearing on broader rescheduling underway, I’ve been digging into the research, and I’ve been forced to rethink everything I thought I knew. Here’s what I wish I’d realized at 13. (Monica Romano, 7/14)
