Daily Edition for Friday, March 17, 2023
Homelessness initiative, abortion law, covid’s anniversary and origins, hospital overcrowding, insulin costs, and more are in the news.
Temp Nurses Cost Hospitals Big During Pandemic. Lawmakers Are Now Mulling Limits.
By Bram Sable-Smith
Missouri is considering making it a felony to jack up temporary health care staffing prices during a statewide or national emergency. It’s one of at least 14 states looking to reel in travel nurse costs, after many hospitals struggled to pay for needed staffers earlier in the covid pandemic.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Judging the Abortion Pill
Any day now a conservative federal judge in Texas could upend the national abortion debate by requiring the FDA to rescind its approval of mifepristone, a drug approved in the U.S. more than 20 years ago that is now used in more than half of abortions nationwide. Meanwhile, a controversial study on masks gets a clarification, although it may be too late to change the public impression of what it found. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
Daily Edition for Thursday, March 16, 2023
Covid misinfo law, natural gas, health worker shortages, abortion pills, maternal deaths, fentanyl, housing, and more are in the news.
Listen to ‘Tradeoffs’: Medical Debt Delivers ‘A Shocking Amount of Misery’
By Noam N. Levey
Medical debt in America pushes families to the edge. Ariane Buck and his wife, Samantha, were denied care at their doctor’s office because of an unpaid bill of less than $100. A trip to the emergency room added thousands of dollars to their health care debt, which topped $50,000 by the time they filed for bankruptcy.
California’s Covid Misinformation Law Is Entangled in Lawsuits, Conflicting Rulings
By Bernard J. Wolfson
A state law says giving false information to patients about covid-19 constitutes unprofessional conduct for which regulators can discipline doctors. Vaccine skeptics, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., join civil liberties groups and others in arguing that it violates free speech.
The US Remains a Grim Leader in Preterm Births. Why? And Can We Fix It?
By Sarah Varney
American women are more likely to deliver their babies prematurely than women in most developed countries. It’s a distinction that coincides with high rates of maternal and infant death, billions of dollars in costs, and even lifelong disabilities for the children who survive.
Estados Unidos sigue siendo uno de los países con más partos prematuros. ¿Se puede solucionar?
By Sarah Varney
Aproximadamente uno de cada 10 nacimientos vivos en 2021 ocurrió antes de las 37 semanas de gestación, según un informe de March of Dimes publicado en 2022. En comparación, investigaciones recientes citan tasas de nacimientos prematuros del 7,4% en Inglaterra y Gales, del 6% en Francia y del 5,8% en Suecia.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Biden Grieves With Families Of Monterey Park Massacre: President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order to curb gun violence and enhance background checks, spending part of the afternoon consoling a Monterey Park community devastated by a mass shooting in January. “I know what it’s like to lose a loved one so suddenly," the president said. "It’s like losing a piece of your soul.” Read more from the Los Angeles Times. Keep scrolling for more about the president’s visit.
FDA Looks Into Dental Device After KHN-CBS News Investigation of Patient Harm
By Brett Kelman and Anna Werner, CBS News
The FDA’s interest in the AGGA dental device follows a KHN-CBS News investigation, according to a former agency official.
