PI's Weekly Media Digest: Republican health reform bill threatens coverage for millions; LA voters approve new funds to address homelessness; new data on CA tobacco
House Republicans unveiled their ACA replacement this week. The American Health Care Act (AHCA) would claw back investments in public health and prevention (including eliminating the Prevention and Public Health Fund); phase out the Medicaid expansion; repeal the need-based subsidies that have enabled millions to purchase insurance plans on the individual market; degrade the quality of healthcare plans; and fundamentally restructure Medicaid -- resulting in deep cuts to coverage and services to a program that currently covers more than 70 million low-income and disabled Americans. The bill would also “defund” Planned Parenthood for one year, shutting down access to basic healthcare services for millions, and threatens to bar private insurance coverage for abortions. Read blog about what the bill would do. The bill, which is opposed by several Republican governors along with public health orgs, the healthcare industry, including doctors, hospitals and insurers -- and others, has passed the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees. The CBO is expected to release its score on the plan, which will detail how much it will cost and how many will lose coverage, on Monday. Politico reports the Brookings Institute estimates at least 15 million will lose coverage.
Meanwhile, Vox reports on a Harvard study that found uninsured people who got Medicaid had reduced rates of depression, reduced financial strain, increased access to care including preventive care, increased adherence to diabetes drug treatment, and reported better overall health. Medicaid coverage did not lower A1C or improve blood pressure and cholesterol.
In an interview with Vox, Ben Herzig, a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating Muslim patients, talks about how the current climate in the US is heightening his clients’ mental health challenges. At a time when hate crimes against Muslims are at their highest levels in the US since 2001, he said many of his clients feel increased anxiety, stress, and depression. The situation can be even worse, he said, for Muslim clients who also are part of other groups that report experiencing increased discrimination, including immigrants, women, and LGBT people.
This week, voters in Los Angeles approved a ballot measure to raise the sales tax to fund homelessness services. Voters also rejected Measure S, which would have slowed development of affordable housing.
Reporting by the LA Times shows that planners and developers continue to build housing near freeways, despite abundant evidence that proximity to freeways is a serious health risk.
The California Tobacco Control program released their new Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community report, including data on the availability of tobacco products (including e-cigarettes), alcohol, sugary drinks, fresh fruits and vegetables, and condoms. The report includes county-by-county breakdowns. Key findings from Yolo County, for example, include the significant increase in e-cigarette availability from 2013-2016 (now 73% of surveyed stores now stock e-cigs), 80% of stores sell flavored tobacco products that are designed to appeal to kids (and 75% of these stores were located near schools), 32% of stores placed tobacco products or advertisements at children’s eye level (29% did so for alcohol ads) or near candy and toys, only 19% of stores advertised healthy products on storefront displays while 67% advertised unhealthy products. Key findings from San Francisco include 33% of storefronts in low-income neighborhoods advertised healthy products while 83% advertised unhealthy products (35% of stores advertised sugary beverages on their storefronts), 38% of stores surveyed stocked e-cigarettes. Explore the interactive data sets online.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo this week pledged $1.4 billion to fight poverty and poor health in underserved Brooklyn neighborhoods: "Every New Yorker deserves to live in a safe neighborhood with access to jobs, health care, affordable housing, green spaces and healthy food, but you can't address one of these without addressing them all."
The APHA, American Lung Association, American Heart Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and others are urging Congress and Trump against several “regulatory reform” bills (SCRUB Act, Regulatory Integrity Act, Regulatory Accountability Act) moving through the House, saying they would slow agencies’ abilities to revise rules to protect health related to, for eg, tobacco control, workplace safety, air contaminants, foodborne pathogens, the Pump Handle reports. The bills could also gag agencies from speaking out about public health threats.
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt claimed this week that carbon dioxide is not a key driver of climate change, disputing the overwhelming scientific evidence.
Two Dems met with Trump and Price this week to pitch a bill to expand the federal government’s ability to negotiate drug prices, KHN reports.
Mother Jones has a map of preventable hospital readmissions by state; the author notes that poverty and readmissions don’t track that closely.
Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, a new report from the National Registry of Exonerations, examined 1,900 exonerations dating from 1898 to 2016 and found that African Americans are drastically overrepresented among exonerations (13% of the US population, but 47% of those exonerated).
The Republican healthcare bill would allow states to opt out of a requirement to include coverage for substance abuse and mental health treatment in their Medicaid programs. The Washington Post reports that nearly 1.3 million people currently receive these treatments as part of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion program. The bill would remove mental health and substance abuse treatment from the list of “essential health treatments.”
Facebook, which in the past has been criticized for failing to promptly remove videos featuring incidents of violence and suicide, has announced that it is expanding its suicide prevention tools. CNN reported that Facebook, in partnership with organizations including the National Eating Disorder Association, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Crisis Text Line, is testing whether it can use artificial intelligence to better detect posts indicating that someone may be contemplating suicide and then link them with supports through Facebook Messenger.
Together Alone, the Epidemic of Gay Loneliness, explores why rates of depression, loneliness and substance abuse among LGBTQ people, particularly gay men, have not declined despite significant gains in social and legal acceptance. One reason, the article suggests, is the stress of being in a minority group; another is norms around masculinity that undermine acceptance among gay men.
The rate of deaths from drug overdoses has doubled over 15 years, due largely to opioid misuse, Quartz reports. According to a CDC report, 33,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2015, when the death rate rose to 16.3 per 100,000 people. According to The Washington Post, “drugs are killing so many people in West Virginia that the state can’t keep up with the funerals.” A state program providing assistance for burials has been stretched thin for the last five years.
Reuters reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is considering a new policy in which women and children crossing the border into the US without documentation would be separated. Currently, families are allowed to remain together in the US while contesting deportation. Under the new policy, parents would be detained and children would be placed in protective custody.