Places With Religious Background, Abstinence-Based Methods Will Get Family-Planning Funding Priority
The HHS Office of Population Affairs released a long-awaited funding announcement Friday for $260 million in funding for Title X grants. The new rules could make it harder for Planned Parenthood to qualify for the money.
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump’s Family-Planning Program To Prioritize Faith-Based Clinics
The Trump administration said it would prioritize grant applications to the Title X family-planning program that come from organizations with a religious background and counsel abstinence or “natural” methods, a move abortion providers said will make it harder for them to get federal funding. Health officials outlined the new rules Friday in announcing a fresh round of funding for Title X, which pays for services like contraception and infertility treatment. (Hackman, 2/23)
In other national health care news —
The Hill:
Trump: ObamaCare Being Wiped Out 'Piece By Piece'
President Trump argued Friday that ObamaCare is being “wiped out” in a “piece-by-piece” way despite the failure of the GOP Congress to repeal the law. Trump, speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, pointed to a number of actions that Republicans have taken against the law, including repealing the individual mandate to buy health insurance as part of the tax-cut bill. (Sullivan, 2/23)
Bloomberg:
Trump’s Obamacare Changes To Push Up Premiums, Report Projects
The Trump administration’s efforts to loosen health insurance rules will increase premiums for Obamacare plans by double-digit percentages in most states next year, according to a new analysis by the Urban Institute. Monthly payments for a traditional health insurance plan sold through Obamacare will go up by 18 percent, on average, in 43 states where there aren’t limits on less-comprehensive but less-expensive coverage the administration is calling for, according to the Washington-based policy group. (Tozzi, 2/26)
The Hill:
Democrats March Toward Single-Payer Health Care
Single-payer health care is gaining ground among Democrats. In a sign of the party’s move to the left on the issue, the Center for American Progress (CAP), a bastion of the Democratic establishment, this week released a plan that comes very close to a single-payer system.T hat’s a dramatic change from just two years ago, when Hillary Clinton — tied closely to CAP — dismissed Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) push of “Medicare for all” as politically unrealistic. (Sullivan, 2/25)
The New York Times:
F.D.A. To Expand Medication-Assisted Therapy For Opioid Addicts
In an effort to encourage new treatments for opioid addiction, the Food and Drug Administration plans to begin permitting pharmaceutical companies to sell medications that help temper cravings, even if they don’t fully stop addiction. The change is part of a wider effort to expand access to so-called medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. The agency will issue draft guidelines in the next few weeks. A senior agency official provided details of the proposal to The New York Times. (Kaplan, 2/25)
Stat:
A New App Tries To Use DNA To Match Genetically Compatible Couples
Anew online dating app is pitching DNA analysis as a cure for catfishing, endless left swiping, and the myriad other ailments of 21st-century courtship. Pheramor, which launches this week in Houston with several thousand singles already signed up, operates like a cross between 23andMe and OkCupid. Users swab their cheeks, mail in their samples for sequencing, and then browse profiles of potential dates with whom they’re assigned a compatibility score between 0 and 100 percent. (Robbins, 2/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
When A Child’s Grumpiness Is A Problem
Every child is crabby sometimes. But for some children, the problem is a lot greater than occasional crabbiness. For these children, the irritability is so constant and severe that it causes serious problems at home and school. What’s more, a high level of irritability in childhood often is a predictor of other mental-health problems later: These children have a greater risk of developing depression and anxiety disorders and are more likely to later have suicidal thoughts, research has found. (Petersen, 2/25)
NPR:
Kids Still Plagued By Obesity In U.S., Report Finds
Hopes were dashed this week that the United States was finally making progress in the fight against childhood obesity. Contrary to previous reports, the epidemic of fat has not abated. In fact, there's been a big jump in obesity among the nation's youngest children, according to the latest analysis of federal data, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. (Stein, 2/26)