Viewpoints: Should Medicare Pay For Aduhelm?; Learning From Past Abortion Bans

Bloomberg: Medicare Needs To Test The New Alzheimer’s Drug Aduhelm Before Paying 
Since last summer, Medicare has been evaluating whether to pay for a newly approved, exorbitantly priced drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Its decision was always going to be fraught: The data on the drug’s potential benefits are ambiguous at best, and its risks are considerable. About 40% of patients who have taken it have suffered swelling or bleeding in the brain. Others have experienced disabling nausea, dizziness, headaches and confusion. Biogen, the manufacturer, is investigating a patient death. (Peter B. Bach and Rita F. Redberg, 1/3)

Los Angeles Times: What The U.S. Can Learn From Stalin's Abortion Ban 
As the right to get an abortion in the United States is whittled away, state by state and statute by statute, we can learn important lessons about the impact of its repression from the history of one country where it was first legalized — and then re-criminalized. In 1920, Soviet Russia, which would become the Soviet Union in 1922, became the first country in the world to legalize abortion. In an unprecedented decree, the state noted that punishing women or doctors for abortion had “no positive results. It drives the operation underground and makes women the victims of greedy and often ignorant abortionists who profit from this secrecy.” (Wendy Z. Goldman, 1/4)

The Tennessean: Racial Disparities Arise In Prescription Drug Access
The past 18 months opened many Americans' eyes to the ways racial inequality affects health. Throughout the pandemic, Black and Hispanic people have died from COVID-19 at higher rates than their white neighbors. And public protest shone a light on the disproportionate impact of police violence on Black people. There's a growing awareness of the many reasons people of color experience poor health outcomes, including the stresses of racism itself. But one area of racial health disparity isn't often discussed: the lack of equitable access to prescription drugs. (Kevin B. Kimble, 12/28)

Scientific American: How Racism In Early Life Can Affect Long-Term Health 
The scientific evidence is crystal clear: Early experiences literally shape the architecture of the developing brain. This widespread understanding is driving increased public support for universal pre-K to enhance school readiness for all children and level the playing field for kids who face adversity. But here’s something that’s less well-known by the public: Since the brain is connected to the rest of the body, early experiences affect all of our biological systems, for better or worse, beginning in utero and all the crucial years that follow. This broader message is sending an important wake-up call: We all need to start paying closer attention to the science that explains how excessive adversity can undermine lifelong health as well as early learning. (Jack P Shonkoff, 1/3)

The Baltimore Sun: Small-Business Health Care: A Win For Owners, Employees And The Bottom Line
We have learned many lessons over the past two years — and one that stands out is the importance of ensuring that every Marylander has access to affordable health insurance. Even before the pandemic exposed weaknesses in our economy, workers sought out jobs that provided both good pay and good benefits. Today, as employers are finding it difficult to hire workers — and workers are wary of going back to jobs because of the ongoing pandemic — ensuring that businesses can offer health insurance is more important than ever. (Katie Fry Hester, Robbyn Lewis and Brooke Lierman, 1/3)

Modern Healthcare: Solving Workforce Challenges Is Key To Advancing Health 
For almost two years, the relentless battle to fight COVID-19 has strained our healthcare workforce and healthcare system like never before. Just before the holidays, we had tallied more than 51 million total cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 800,000 deaths. Throughout the pandemic, hospitals and health systems and their teams have stood strong on the front lines. (Rick Pollack, 1/4)

The New York Times: When Faced With Death, People Often Change Their Minds 
My patient had done everything possible to avoid being intubated. After a traumatic hospitalization when she was young, she had consistently told her loved ones that she would never again agree to a breathing tube. She had even filled out an advance directive years ago to formalize that decision. But when she arrived in the emergency department one night this past spring with severe pneumonia, struggling to breathe, the doctors called her husband with a question. Should they intubate? If they didn’t, she would likely die. (Daniela J. Lamas, 1/3)