Mar 29 Is paying a 'mortgage' the answer to expensive prescriptions? By Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News An MIT economist and Harvard oncologist think that health care installment loans could help get highly effective but prohibitively expensive drugs into consumers’ hands. Continue reading
Mar 29 Obama turns attention to growing opioid abuse problem By Kevin Freking, Associated Press The trajectory of opioid deaths in the United States is trending in the wrong direction, President Barack Obama said Tuesday. Continue reading
Mar 27 Watch 1:41 Tennessee discontinues controversial fetal assault law By PBS News Hour Tennessee representatives voted to discontinue a controversial law that explicitly allowed prosecutors to charge a mother with fetal assault for using drugs while pregnant. NewsHour's Megan Thompson reports. Continue watching
Mar 27 Watch 8:52 The Cherokee Nation wants to reverse the 'silent epidemic' of hepatitis C By Stephen Fee, Mori Rothman The Cherokee Nation, one of the largest Native American tribes, has become the first community in the U.S. to set a goal of eliminating hepatitis C from its population. Tribe officials plan to screen 300,000 members, whose prevalence of infection… Continue watching
Mar 25 Watch 8:41 Why cancer is so hard to fight in rural Kentucky By PBS News Hour Cancer is epidemic in eastern Kentucky, a result of medical illiteracy, limited access to care, unhealthy lifestyles and poverty. In fact, life expectancy in the region is five years shorter than the rest of the nation. But state health officials… Continue watching
Mar 25 World Cup fans didn't trigger Zika outbreak in Brazil, study says By Dina Fine Maron, Scientific American New genomic analysis clears 2014 sports enthusiasts of unwittingly transporting Zika virus into Brazil. Continue reading
Mar 23 Watch 6:15 Supreme Court hears birth control battle brought by religious nonprofits By PBS News Hour The Supreme Court heard its fourth challenge to the Affordable Care Act, this one from religious nonprofits demanding exemption from the requirement to provide insurance coverage for birth control, claiming the mandate violates federal laws protecting religious freedoms. Gwen Ifill… Continue watching
Mar 23 Supreme Court shows an even divide on challenge to contraceptive access By Julie Rovner, KFF Health News On the sixth anniversary of the enactment of the federal Affordable Care Act, the law was back before a seemingly divided Supreme Court Wednesday. Continue reading
Mar 22 Flint's lead-laced water may not cause permanent brain damage in children By Ellen Ruppel Shell, Scientific American The contamination of drinking water was a public health disaster, but children in Flint who were exposed can still be helped. Continue reading
Mar 22 Disputed health law rule would broaden transgender rights By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press Big companies are pushing back against proposed federal rules they say would require their medical plans to cover gender transition and other services for transgender people. Continue reading