Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

The Top Three...

With so much going on, it can be hard to know what to read.  If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Wall Street Journal: Attorney General Merrick Garland Says Government Could Sue States Over Abortion Access Attorney General Merrick Garland threatened to sue states that have outlawed or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month—and said the Justice Department would ask a judge to toss out a Texas lawsuit seeking to block federal rules requiring doctors to perform abortions in emergency situations. (Gurman, 7/20)

CNBC: Amazon To Buy Primary Health-Care Provider One Medical For Roughly $3.9 Billion Amazon is acquiring One Medical for $18 a share, an all-cash deal that values the primary health-care provider at roughly $3.9 billion, the companies said Thursday. The deal deepens Amazon’s presence in health care, which Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said is “high on the list of experiences that need reinvention.” (Palmer, 7/21)

The Washington Post: Same-Sex Marriage, Birth Control On House Voting Agenda Tuesday’s bipartisan vote proves a striking evolution on the issue of same-sex marriage for members of both parties. Just a decade ago, Democratic Vice President Joe Biden got castigated for announcing his support for gay marriage before the sitting president, Barack Obama, had announced his own views on the issue. More than a decade before that, Biden helped pass the Defense of Marriage Act in the Senate, while House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) joined 116 Democrats supporting it in the House. (Sotomayor, Ann Caldwell and Kane, 7/19)

For a Deeper Dive...

The Washington Post: Biden Urges Congress To Pass Health-Care Bill As Manchin Talks Falter With his long-stalled economic agenda in political peril, President Biden on Friday called on congressional Democrats to refocus their once-sweeping spending ambitions — and adopt a package soon that aims to lower Americans’ health-care costs. (Romm, 7/15)

Axios: Hospitals With More COVID Patients Had Higher Mortality Rates Among Surgery Patients Hospitals with more COVID patients during the first pandemic wave in 2020 saw more patients who underwent surgery die afterward, a Journal of the American Medical Association study found. (Dreher, 7/19)

KHN: Conservative Blocs Unleash Litigation To Curb Public Health Powers Through a wave of pandemic-related litigation, a trio of small but mighty conservative legal blocs has rolled back public health authority at the local, state, and federal levels, recasting America’s future battles against infectious diseases. Galvanized by what they’ve characterized as an overreach of covid-related health orders issued amid the pandemic, lawyers from the three overlapping spheres — conservative and libertarian think tanks, Republican state attorneys general, and religious liberty groups — are aggressively taking on public health mandates and the government agencies charged with protecting community health. (Weber and Barry-Jester, 7/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Higher Overdose Death Rates Among Blacks, Native Americans Reflect Treatment Disparities, CDC Says The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that overdose deaths per 100,000 people increased 44% for Black people and 39% for Native Americans in 2020 from a year earlier compared with a 22% increase among white people. The CDC said 2020 was the most recent year for which it had complete data from 25 states analyzed in the study as well as Washington, D.C. (Wernau, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Abortion Bans Create Confusion Around Miscarriage, Ectopic Pregnancies A woman with a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy sought emergency care at the University of Michigan Hospital after a doctor in her home state worried that the presence of a fetal heartbeat meant treating her might run afoul of new restrictions on abortion. At one Kansas City, Mo., hospital, administrators temporarily required “pharmacist approval” before dispensing medications used to stop postpartum hemorrhages, because they can also be also used for abortions. (Stead Sellers and Nirappil, 7/16)

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For the Visual Among Us...

Click here for more great Infographics by NIHCM on Visualizing the Impact of the Opioid Crisis from NIHCM Foundation.