Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Rural Medicine Has Lessons For American Health Care; Covering Ozempic Will Save Money
The Kansas City Star: Missouri Small Town Health Care Lessons Can Save US Medicine
On paper, the drive from Kansas City to Osage Beach is only a couple of hours. In health care terms, it can feel like another world. Yet what holds together in Missouri towns such as Butler, Warsaw and Osage Beach may be what saves American medicine when the next wave of pressure hits larger cities. (Holland Haynie, 10/20)
The Atlantic: Ozempic For All
GLP-1s are much more likely to succeed at scale. As of last year, an estimated 15 million adults were taking these medications. The millions of eligible adults on Medicaid, however, are mostly not covered, and this population generally cannot afford to pay out of pocket. (Emily Oster, 10/20)
Stat: Public Health Students Must Learn To Grapple With Uncertainty
We teach graduate students in public health, one of us focusing on management, one on communications. Like many in public health, we are deeply disappointed by the toxicity surrounding the subject these days. We worry about the field, its leadership, and its leading institutions. Our students at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health share these concerns. (Michaela Kerrissey and Richard J. Tofel, 10/21)
Stat: New CMS Catheter Policy Puts Patients At Risk
Catheters physically save my life every single day. But my catheters, and with them my health and safety, are now at risk under a new proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to include urological and ostomy supplies in the competitive bidding program. (Ali Ingersoll, 10/21)
Undark: Putting A Pause On The Practice Of Surrogacy
In 2000, a Canadian woman named Sally Rhoads-Heinrich carried and delivered a set of twins for a Maryland couple. It was her first experience as a surrogate, she told me, and she found it so rewarding that, a year later, she established the agency Surrogacy in Canada Online, which helps connect intended parents with potential surrogates. Between 2002 and 2008, she recalls that she underwent eight more IVF cycles to help other infertile couples become parents. Instead, she ended up miscarrying four times. None of these subsequent attempts produced a baby. (Ferrukh Faruqui, 10/20)
