Axios: ACA's Preventative Care Requirement Under Attack
Plaintiffs in an Affordable Care Act lawsuit are now asking a federal judge to toss all parts of the law requiring coverage of preventive health services. The filing raises the stakes in the closely watched case, Kelley v. Becerra: If U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor sides with the plaintiffs, millions of Americans could lose coverage for cancer screenings, behavioral counseling and other recommendations made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. (Gonzalez, 10/25)

In other updates on ACA coverage —

The Hill: House Investigation Finds Insurers, Benefit Managers Improperly Limit Access To Birth Control 
Some of the nation’s largest insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) impose coverage exclusions and other restrictions on birth control products, contrary to an Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirement, according to a House investigation. Under the ACA, health plans must cover Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive products without cost-sharing. But a staff report from the Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee found insurers and PBMs required patients to pay some of the cost or otherwise limited coverage of more than 30 birth control products. (Weixel, 10/25)

Axios: HHS Reports Surge In Black, Latino ACA Health Care Enrollment Since 2020
Black and Latino Americans saw surges in enrollment in the federal government's health care marketplace between 2020 and 2022, according to a new report released by the Department of Health and Human Services. (Chen, 10/25)

On the effects of inflation on health insurance —

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Insurance Inflation Is Poised To Drop Sharply 
Health insurance has put upward pressure on the main measure of inflation, but is now swinging into reverse. This swing will act as a much-needed, albeit small, drag on inflation currently running at four-decade highs, economists say. ... However, this swing—the result of a methodological quirk—might be offset by broader price pressures building in medical services as labor costs climb. (Guilford, 10/25)

The Washington Post: Justice Alito Says Leak Of Abortion Opinion Made Majority ‘Targets For Assassination’
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said Tuesday that the leak of his draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade made his colleagues in the majority on the U.S. Supreme Court “targets for assassination.” The leak last spring before the court eliminated the nationwide right to abortion was a “grave betrayal of trust by somebody, and it was a shock,” he said. The threat to the justices, he added, was not theoretical because it “gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.” (Marimow, 10/25)

The New York Times: Alito Says Leak Of Ruling Overturning Roe Put Justices’ Lives At Risk 
Justice Alito took issue with criticism of the court’s legitimacy in the wake of the Dobbs decision. “Everybody in this country is free to disagree with our decisions,” he said. “Everybody is free to criticize our reasoning, and in strong terms. And that certainly is done in the media, in writings of law professors and on social media.” “But to say the court is exhibiting lack of integrity is something quite different,” he said. “That goes to character.” (Liptak, 10/25)

Reuters: Supreme Court's Alito Says Abortion Draft Leak Made Justices 'Targets' 
Alito did not name liberal Justice Elena Kagan, but she has repeatedly expressed concerns in recent weeks, including in September at an event in Chicago when she said the court's legitimacy could be imperiled if Americans come to view its members as trying to impose personal preferences on society. ... Alito said: "Someone also crosses an important line when they say that the court is acting in a way that is illegitimate. I don't think anybody in a position of authority should make that claim lightly." (Chung, 10/26)

More aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade —

AP: Low-Wage Workers Bear Financial Brunt Of Denied Abortions 
There are wide-ranging reasons why women may seek to terminate their pregnancies but for those struggling to make ends meet, finances are inevitably part of the calculation. Now many of them will be thrust into a circumstance they can’t afford as abortion bans and restrictions take hold in half the country after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling guaranteeing abortion rights. (D'Innocenzio and Olson, 10/26)

Stateline: Minnesota Has Become An Island Of Abortion Access
The move, as the crow flies, was about two miles — just across the Red River into Minnesota. But for North Dakota’s last abortion provider, it was a world apart. “We were very sad to leave Fargo,” said Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Women’s Clinic. “The state forced our hand. … It was time to hop the river.” (Peterson, 10/25)

Newsweek: Oz Opposes Federal Abortion Ban But Backs 'Local' Politicians Having A Say
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, is under fire for arguing that "local political leaders" should have a say on abortion rights. Oz said that he did not want the "federal government" involved in abortion while backing the involvement of local politicians during his debate with Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, his Democratic opponent, on Tuesday night. (Slisco, 10/25)

NBC New York: NY Governor Debate: Crime, Abortion and Trump Take Center Stage for Hochul, Zeldin
Sparring over crime, abortion and the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection took center stage Tuesday as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul faced her Republican challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin, in the campaign's only televised gubernatorial debate. Hochul blasted Zeldin’s past support for abortion restrictions and for former President Donald Trump, while Zeldin vowed to repeal liberal criminal justice reforms and criticized Hochul's push to send millions to abortion providers to expand access for a predicted surge in out-of-state patients. (10/25)

Fox News: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Signals Opposition To COVID Vaccine For Children
Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signaled opposition to mandating coronavirus vaccines for children to attend school during Michigan's final gubernatorial debate before Election Day. Whitmer was asked during Tuesday's debate about new guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urging children to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. (Alic, 10/25)

In other election news from Nebraska and Georgia —

AP: Nebraska Struggling To OK Ban Despite Anti-Abortion History 
Nebraska Republicans are expected to dominate as usual at the polls in November and retain control of the officially nonpartisan Legislature. They face a far tougher challenge flipping enough seats to push through a statewide abortion ban. (Beck, 10/25)

Newsweek: Herschel Walker Pushes Fentanyl Candy Conspiracy Theory Ahead Of Halloween
Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker claimed fentanyl is being dressed up to imitate candy by "the people of China and Mexico," during a rally on Monday. ... "So, I want you to be very vigilant when you're taking your kids on Halloween, because there's a new war in town and that war is China, because China don't like us." (Bickerton, 10/25)

Also —

Axios: 15% Of Republicans Have "Great Deal" Of Confidence In Scientists
Just 15% of Republicans have a "great deal" of confidence in scientists to act in the best interest of the American people, according to the Pew Research Center. (Scribner, 10/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: No Surge On The Horizon, Reports Influential Forecasting Team
While the northern hemisphere can expect infections to slowly rise through the winter, they are unlikely to lead to the dramatic spikes in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths seen in the first two winters of the pandemic, according to the latest forecast from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. (Vaziri and Buchmann, 10/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: Walgreens To Offer Free Delivery Of Paxlovid In Underserved Communities
As part of President Biden’s efforts to increase access to COVID-19 treatments, Walgreens has partnered with Uber and DoorDash to provide free delivery of the antiviral treatment Paxlovid to Americans living in underserved communities. (Vaziri and Buchmann, 10/25)

On covid's effect on the labor market —

Bloomberg: Covid Social Distancing Is Still A Thing, Reducing The US Workforce By 3 Million
Persistent worries about catching Covid kept about 3 million Americans out of the workforce, reducing the nation’s economic output by $250 billion in the first half of 2022, according to new research on a phenomenon dubbed “Long Social Distancing.” (Boyle, 10/25)

The New York Times: For Disabled Workers, A Tight Labor Market Opens New Doors 
The strong late-pandemic labor market is giving a lift to a group often left on the margins of the economy: workers with disabilities. Employers, desperate for workers, are reconsidering job requirements, overhauling hiring processes and working with nonprofit groups to recruit candidates they might once have overlooked. At the same time, companies’ newfound openness to remote work has led to opportunities for people whose disabilities make in-person work — and the taxing daily commute it requires — difficult or impossible. (Casselman, 10/25)

CBS News: Many U.S. Labs Cannot Test For Ebola Strain Behind Uganda's Swelling Outbreak
The Biden administration is racing to expand the number of U.S. labs that are able to test for the virus behind a swelling Ebola outbreak in Uganda, as health officials prepare for what they say remains an unlikely but real possibility that the virus could enter the country. (Tin, 10/25)

More about health threats and outbreaks —

Roll Call: Administration Eyes National Hepatitis C Treatment Plan
The Biden administration is preparing a comprehensive initiative to fight hepatitis C that would streamline testing and treatment and secure an agreement with drugmakers to bring down the cost of treatment of the disease, which has spiked during the pandemic. (Raman, 10/25)

CIDRAP: WHO Identifies Life-Threatening Fungal Pathogens 
The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its first-ever list of fungal "priority pathogens," identifying 19 fungi that have emerged as significant public health threats because of their ability to cause severe invasive infections and their growing resistance to antifungal drugs. ... Among fungi in the critical priority group is Candida auris, the multidrug-resistant yeast that was first-discovered in Japan in 2009 and since then has spread worldwide. (Dall, 10/25)

NBC News: Surge Of Viruses Leaves Children’s Hospitals Scrambling To Find Room For Patients
Every inpatient bed at Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago has been full for more than six weeks. Emergency room volume is up more than 150%. (Bendix, 10/26)

Los Angeles Times: Cases Of RSV, Children’s Respiratory Illness, Are On The Rise
Some California children’s hospitals are straining under a surge of RSV, a respiratory illness that can cause babies to struggle to breathe. At least three major children’s hospitals say they have experienced either a strain or a stretching of resources because of RSV. The illness normally peaks in winter, and doctors say it’s unusual for there to be such high levels in October. (Lin II and Money, 10/25)

The New York Times: Some Breast Cancer Patients Could Skip Surgery, Study Suggests 
The conventional approach to fighting breast cancer is to deploy all the tools modern medicine has to offer. Surgery to excise the tumor is considered a critically important step, along with drugs, radiation, and hormone treatments and immunotherapy when appropriate. A new study questions that approach, suggesting surgery may not always be necessary for all patients. The study, an early-stage clinical trial, found that a carefully selected group of patients who responded remarkably well to chemotherapy could skip surgery altogether. (Rabin, 10/25)

In other cancer news —

CBS News: Benzene Behind Latest Shampoo Recall Is A Big Problem, Scientist Says
People should take the benzene-related recalls seriously, as they involve a far more dangerous contaminant than most, according to David Light, CEO of Valisure, an independent lab in New Haven, Connecticut, that alerted the Food and Drug Administration to its findings of benzene in sunscreen sprays last year. (Gibson, 10/25)

The New York Times: Uterine Cancer Cases Are Rising. Here’s What to Know.
Rates of uterine cancer have been increasing in the United States, particularly for Black and Hispanic women. The number of cases diagnosed each year rose to 65,950 this year, compared to 39,000 15 years ago. Black women are also more likely to have more aggressive cases of the cancer, Dr. White said, and the study showed they were disproportionately more likely to use hair straighteners. (Blum, 10/25)

The Boston Globe: Normunity Launches With $65m To Unleash The Immune System On Tumors
Our best weapon against cancer may already live inside us — it just needs a little prodding. That’s the premise behind Normunity, which launched Tuesday with $65 million from investors to develop a suite of drugs that it dubs “immune normalizers” to help restore the natural ability of the immune system’s T cells to infiltrate and destroy tumors. (Cross, 10/25)

KHN: $38,398 For A Single Shot Of A Very Old Cancer Drug
Dr. Josie Tenore and Paul Hinds were introduced by a mutual friend in 2017 and hadn’t been going out long when she laid down the law: He had to get a physical. “I don’t date people who don’t take care of their health,” said Tenore, who practices cosmetic dermatology and functional medicine in suburban Chicago. One of Hinds’ blood tests that summer came back with an alarming result: His prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, level was very high. A biopsy confirmed he had advanced prostate cancer. (Allen, 10/26)

The Hill: Judge Orders NYC To Reinstate Workers Fired For Not Complying With COVID Vaccine Mandate
A judge ordered New York City to reinstate 16 sanitation workers fired earlier this year for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for city employees. Judge Ralph Porzio, who sits on the New York Supreme Court in Staten Island, ruled on Tuesday that the city’s health commissioner could not change the workers’ terms of employment, also referencing President Biden saying “the pandemic is over” and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) ending New York’s state of emergency. (Schonfeld, 10/25)

The Boston Globe: Baker Offers To Reinstate Dozens Of State Workers Fired Under Strict COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
Massachusetts officials are offering to reinstate dozens of workers who lost their jobs after Governor Charlie Baker required that all executive branch employees be inoculated against COVID-19, a strict policy that, at its inception, was among the furthest-reaching in the nation. (Stout, 10/25)

In other news about the vaccine rollout —

CBS News: Biden Receives Updated COVID Booster Shot, Urges Americans To Do The Same
"We're here with a simple message: get vaccinated. Update your COVID vaccine. It's incredibly effective, but the truth is not enough people are getting it. We've got to change that so we can all have a safe and healthy holiday season," the president said. (Quinn and Tin, 10/25)

PBS NewsHour: Experts Say Children Should Get A COVID-19 Bivalent Booster. Here’s What You Need To Know
Newly formulated COVID-19 booster shots can help protect children and lower transmission of the coronavirus as the U.S. prepares for a possible spike in cases heading into the fall and winter. (Cooney and Rasnic, 10/25)

Fortune: Regular Physical Exercise Could Boost The Effectiveness Of Your COVID-19 Vaccine
Hitting the gym after getting your COVID-19 shot may not be on your to-do list, but new research shows that regular physical activity may boost the vaccine’s effectiveness. According to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the level of protection a person receives against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 rises with the amount of physical activity performed. The study also found evidence that regular physical activity can help mitigate “consequences of serious COVID-19 infection, reducing the risk of hospital admission, intensive care, assisted ventilation, or death,” a press release about the study says. (Payton, 10/24)

In a world first, China begins offering an inhalable covid vaccine —

AP: China Launches A COVID-19 Vaccine Inhaled Through The Mouth
The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday in what appears to be a world first. The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated individuals, according to an announcement posted on an official city social media account. (Moritsugu, 10/26)

Reuters: Judges Must Divert More Cases To Mental Health Treatment, Task Force Says 
Court systems in the U.S. need to do a better job of diverting individuals in some cases to mental health treatment and to establish new best practices for cases involving those with behavioral health issues, according to a task force that spent the last two years studying mental health in the judicial system. The National Center for State Courts, creator of the task force, said that at least 70% of people in the country's jails and prisons have been diagnosed with a mental illness or substance-use disorder, and people with mental illness are 10 times more likely to be put in a jail than a hospital. (Osakwe, 10/25)

In other mental health news —

USA Today: Cigna Survey Measures Vitality's Effect On Mental, Physical Health
The survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults found 18% had high vitality. Those individuals were healthier, more likely to exercise, less likely to be obese and more likely to have a primary-care doctor. The 15% of adults with low vitality had poorer diets, less sleep and more chronic medical conditions. They also are more likely to be socially isolated, obese, depressed or anxious. (Alltucker, 10/25)

KHN: States Opting Out Of A Federal Program That Tracks Teen Behavior As Youth Mental Health Worsens 
As the covid-19 pandemic worsened a mental health crisis among America’s young people, a small group of states quietly withdrew from the nation’s largest public effort to track concerning behaviors in high school students. Colorado, Florida, and Idaho will not participate in a key part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior surveys that reaches more than 80,000 students. Over the past 30 years, the state-level surveys, conducted anonymously during each odd-numbered year, have helped elucidate the mental health stressors and safety risks for high school students. (Chang, 10/26)

Axios: Lonely America
Loneliness in America is widespread — and it's a public health problem. More than 1 in 3 Americans are lonely, per a Harvard study. That rises to 61% when looking at younger people, and 51% among mothers with young kids. (Pandey, 10/25)

Modern Healthcare: Centene Says Medicare Advantage Star Scores Worse Than Expected
Centene’s quality scores for its Medicare Advantage plans came in worse than its executives expected, jeopardizing the insurer's revenue in 2024. ... Centene is working to improve its scores by hiring a chief quality officer, centralizing its quality improvement operations and setting up systems to track its metrics in real-time. The insurer also added quality improvement as a compensation metric by which all employees’ performance will be measured this year, London said. The company's new pharmacy benefit provider, Cigna's Express Scripts, will also drive improvement, she said. (Tepper, 10/25)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna's Express Scripts Wins Centene PBM Contract
Centene will contract with Cigna’s Express Scripts to manage its $40 billion in pharmacy spending in 2024, the companies announced Tuesday. “We’re feeling good about moving forward with the core services and ability to expand the relationship if that makes sense,” Centene CEO Sarah London said during the health insurer's third-quarter earnings call with investors. (Tepper, 10/25)

More on Medicare and Medicaid —

Axios: Physicians Brace For Medicare Cuts, Will Ask Congress For Help
Radiologists, nuclear medicine specialists and vascular surgeons are bracing to see if they'll take the worst of Medicare physician payment cuts next year. (Dreher, 10/26)

Axios: States Brace For Medicaid Spending Surge
States could start the new year grappling with a surge in Medicaid spending to accompany supply chain pressures, workforce shortages and the effects of inflation. (Goldman, 10/26)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Amazon Inks Pharmacy Deal With Blue Cross Plan
Amazon Pharmacy has landed another Blue Cross and Blue Shield customer, Florida Blue announced Tuesday. Florida Blue will rely solely on Amazon Pharmacy to deliver medications to its more than 2 million commercial and self-insured customers next year. (Tepper, 10/25)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Losing Another Birth Center As Thornton Location Closes
Colorado is losing another birth center, an alternative for mothers who would rather have their babies in a home-like setting with a midwife than in a hospital labor and delivery ward. (Brown, 10/25)

KHN: How Private Equity Is Investing In Health Care: A Video Primer
In the past decade, private equity has moved aggressively into health care, gobbling up physician practices and even entire hospitals. But what exactly is private equity? And what does its involvement mean for patients and for the American health care system? KHN explains. (Norman and Tempest, 10/26)

NBC News: NIH-Funded Psychedelic Trial Will Study Whether Hallucinogen Can Help Smokers Quit
The study, a randomized controlled trial expected to start later this year, will investigate whether psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in “magic mushrooms,” can help people quit smoking tobacco. Hopkins researchers will lead the trial, which will be done in collaboration with researchers at NYU Langone Health and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. (Syal, 10/26)

More on drug use and addiction —

Stat: When It Comes To Addiction, Word Choices Are Part Of The Problem
Who gets better medical care in the United States: “addicts,” or “people with substance use disorders”? The terms, of course, mean functionally the same thing. But in the field of addiction medicine, the question presents something of a crisis. (Facher, 10/26)

New Haven Independent: CT School's New Policy For Stoned Students: Send Them To Hospital
Should showing up stoned to school mean you should be sent by ambulance to the hospital? In New Haven, a Dixwell Avenue charter school said yes. (McFadden, 10/25)

USA Today: Lawsuit: Companies Liable To Nashville Children Born Opioid Addicted
Six Nashville children born addicted to opioids, now between 2 and 8 years old, are suing top opioid manufacturers like Endo and Johnson & Johnson as well as the pharmacies CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens. (Timms, 10/25)

In other health and wellness news —

AP: Sleep Apnea Device Recall Drags On, Stoking Frustration
A massive recall of millions of sleep apnea machines has stoked anger and frustration among patients, and U.S. officials are weighing unprecedented legal action to speed a replacement effort that is set to drag into next year. ... Philips initially estimated it could repair or replace the units within a year. But with the recall expanding to more than 5 million devices worldwide, the Dutch company now says the effort will stretch into 2023. That’s left many patients to choose between using a potentially harmful device or trying risky remedies. (Perrone, 10/25)

NPR: Study: Most Teens Who Start Puberty Suppression Continue Gender-Affirming Care
A large majority of transgender adolescents who received puberty suppression treatment went on to continue gender-affirming treatment, a new study from the Netherlands has found. (Wamsley, 10/26)

USA Today: Climate Change Is Worsening Health And Disparities: What Can Be Done?
Researchers across the globe collaborate to study climate and health in an annual report, the Lancet medical journals’ “countdown” on health and climate change. In this year’s U.S. portion of the report, released Tuesday, scientists break down research on the health impacts of a warming climate and outline policy recommendations, focusing on health equity. (Hassanein, 10/25)

FiercePharma: Mayo Clinic-Backed CDMO Nucleus RadioPharma Emerges On A Mission To Overhaul Radiotherapy Access
With their forces—and cash—combined, venture capital outfit Eclipse and Mayo Clinic have teamed up to provide seed funding for new CDMO Nucleus RadioPharma. The company recently debuted a mission to boost radiopharmaceutical access by cranking out new technologies to modernize development, production and supply of the promising cancer meds. (Kansteiner, 10/25)

CIDRAP: Diagnostic Stewardship May Help Cut Unneeded Antibiotics For Asymptomatic Bacteriuria 
New data presented last week at the IDWeek conference suggests diagnostic stewardship can play a critical role in reducing unnecessary antibiotic use in patients who are treated for a urinary tract infection when they don't actually have one. (Dall, 10/24)

FiercePharma: J&J's BCMA Bispecific Tecvayli Wins FDA Approval In Myeloma
After European regulators jumped on a global-first approval for Johnson & Johnson’s BCMA-targeted bispecific drug Tecvayli, the U.S. FDA has doled out its own blessing for the novel therapy. (Liu, 10/25)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Biotech Startup Raises $11.8 Million To Help Bald People Regrow Hair
Amplifica Holdings Group, a San Diego biotech startup working to help balding people regrow their hair, has corralled $11.8 million in a first round of venture capital financing. (Freeman, 10/24)

Newsweek: A Trump Era Health Care Rule Is Breaking The Law—And Harming Patients 
Among Americans who take prescription drugs, a quarter struggle to afford their medication. For those who are in poor health or have low incomes, the portion is even higher. (Carl Schmid, 10/24)

Dallas Morning News: Ensure Access To Essential Pharmacist Care For Texans
Congress should ensure access to essential pharmacist care for Texans. More than 3 million Texans face inadequate access to reliable health care. That reality was magnified in early 2020 as primary care facilities in Texas saw overwhelming demand. Vulnerable populations often struggled to access care, and our health care infrastructure buckled in response to COVID-19. (Carter High, 10/26)

Stat: Accelerated Approval, Trust, And The FDA 
On Wednesday, the FDA advisory committee that oversees obstetrics, reproductive, and urologic drugs voted 14-1 that the drug Makena was not effective at reducing the risk of preterm birth, and that it should be removed from the market. (Mikkael A. Sekeres, 10/19)

Stat: To Learn Lessons From Pandemics, Don't Listen To Big Pharma 
The IFPMA proposes that governments will take a greater role to fund, support, de-risk, and provide data for drug research and development, but will then hand big pharmaceutical companies monopolies on the resulting drugs. (Winnie Byanyima, 10/19)

Stat: Lowering Drug Prices Beyond The Medicare Penalty 
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 mandates that Medicare-covered drug sales will be protected from price increases that exceed inflation, but the mechanics of this “inflation penalty” have generated some confusion. (Sean Dickson, 10/20)

The Washington Post: How To Fight Covid-19 Variant BQ.1.1 
Get ready: Another covid wave is on the horizon because of a new immunity-evading subvariant, BQ.1, and its offshoots. (10/25)

Newsweek: Americans Don't Need More Pills—They Need Sports 
On October 11, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended all children ages eight and up be screened for anxiety, even if they have no symptoms. (Kenneth Schrupp, 10/26)

The New York Times: Stroke And John Fetterman: What Society Should Know About The Brain’s Ability To Heal
Stroke is a major cause of disability in the United States, where more than 795,000 people will experience one each year. It would behoove our society to better understand strokes, including how someone can be slow to recover certain abilities and yet remain cognitively intact. (Jill Bolte Taylor, 10/25)

NBC News: Fetterman Oz Debate For Pennsylvania Senate Seat Sends Message To Stroke Survivors
I have aphasia. Aphasia, which results from damage to parts of the brain that control speech, became famous for 15 minutes this spring when news broke that actor Bruce Willis had been diagnosed with it. (Judith Hannah Weiss, 10/25)

The Tennessean: How Nashville Works To End Disparities Facing Black Women With Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women in the U.S. and the second leading cause of death from cancer among women after lung cancer. Black women are less likely, 57%-60%, to be diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. (Joseph Webb, 10/25)

Houston Chronicle: The 988 Crisis Hotline Is In Demand. Counselors Deserve Help.
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launched nationwide July 16; the new three-digit number is the next-generation, memory-friendly version of the 10-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which has operated since 2005. (10/25)

The Tennessean: Unnecessary Interference In Bioscience Research Stifles Innovation
Innovation is the backbone of the American economy and the key to our future. American-bred life science and technology has helped solve many of our nation’s most complex health care problems and improve our daily lives.  (Abby Trotter, 10/25)