Daily Edition for Friday, March 1, 2024
Naloxone, mental health, IVF access, mental health, RSV vaccines, pandemic drinking, tuberculosis, medical devices, and more are in the news.
How a Friend’s Death Turned Colorado Teens Into Anti-Overdose Activists
By Rae Ellen Bichell
High school students in Colorado are pushing for a change they say is necessary to combat fentanyl poisoning: ensuring students can’t get in trouble for carrying the overdose reversal drug naloxone wherever they go, including at school.
With Medical Debt Burdening Millions, a Financial Regulator Steps In to Help
By Noam N. Levey
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the Great Recession of 2007-09, has increasingly started policing the health care system.
Cómo la muerte de un amigo hizo que adolescentes de Colorado se volvieran activistas contra las sobredosis
By Rae Ellen Bichell
Los amigos de un joven muerto por envenenamiento por fentanilo impulsan una ley estatal para que estudiantes de secundaria puedan llevar Narcan en sus mochilas sin riesgo de ser castigados.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Alabama’s IVF Ruling Still Making Waves
Lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures are scrambling to react to the ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos created for in vitro fertilization are legally children. Abortion opponents are divided among themselves, with some supporting full “personhood” for fertilized eggs, while others support IVF as a moral way to have children. Rachel Cohrs of Stat, Riley Griffin of Bloomberg News, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins University schools of nursing and public health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews University of Pittsburgh law professor Greer Donley, who explains how a 150-year-old anti-vice law that’s still on the books could be used to ban abortion nationwide. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
Daily Edition for Thursday, February 29, 2024
Medical device safety, hospital watch, drug use, covid boosters and other vaccines, HIV, reproductive health, and more are in the news.
Bathroom Bills Are Back — Broader and Stricter — In Several States
By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez
State lawmakers are resurrecting and expanding efforts to prohibit transgender people from using public restrooms and other spaces that match their gender. Some have sought to ban trans people from “sex-designated spaces,” including domestic violence shelters and crisis centers, which experts say could violate anti-discrimination laws and jeopardize federal funding.
Toxic Gas That Sterilizes Medical Devices Prompts Safety Rule Update
By Andy Miller and Sam Whitehead
The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening regulation of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic gas used to sterilize medical devices. The agency is trying to balance the interests of the health care industry supply chain with those of communities where the gas creates airborne health risks.
Hacking at UnitedHealth Unit Cripples a Swath of the US Health System: What to Know
By Darius Tahir
Change Healthcare, a firm recently bought by insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, reportedly suffered a cyberattack. The company processes 14 billion transactions annually, including payments and requests for insurance authorizations.
Readers Call on Congress to Bolster Medicare and Fix Loopholes in Health Policy
California Healthline gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
