RAPID CITY, S.D. — Cassandra Palmier had been meaning to get her son the second and final dose of the measles vaccine. But car problems made it difficult to get to the doctor. So she pounced on the opportunity to get him vaccinated after learning that a mobile clinic would be visiting her neighborhood. “I…
President Donald Trump signed legislation that mandates some Medicaid recipients prove they’re working, volunteering, or completing other qualifying activities at least 80 hours a month to maintain coverage. This applies to 40 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have expanded Medicaid to a broader pool of low-income adults. Those states will share $200 million to prepare…
Most health economists people know quality adjusted life years (QALYs) are. But why are they so widely used in the United Kingdom, but not in the United States? A paper by MacKillop and Sheard (2018) provides an interesting history of the QALY and is worth a read. For QALYs to be useful there first had…
More states are passing laws to protect information generated by a person’s brain and nervous system as technology improves the ability to unlock the sensitive details of a person’s health, mental states, emotions, and cognitive functioning. Colorado, California, and Montana are among the states that have recently required safeguarding brain data collected by devices outside…
MISSOULA, Mont. — As congressional Republicans finalized Medicaid work requirements in President Donald Trump’s budget bill, one man who relies on that government-subsidized health coverage was trying to coax his old car to start after an eight-hour shift making sandwiches. James asked that only his middle name be used to tell his story so that…
Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report titled “How Changes to Funding for the NIH and Changes in the FDA’s Review Times Would Affect the Development of New Drugs.” The report evaluates two scenarios: A permanent 10 percent reduction in the amount of funding that the government provides to the NIH, andA…
“Almost 5 million able-bodied Medicaid recipients ‘simply choose not to work’ and ‘spend six hours a day socializing and watching television.’” Scott Jennings on “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip” on July 1 Republicans defended the GOP megabill’s Medicaid changes as targeting a group of people they believe shouldn’t qualify: people who can work but instead…
When Lawrence and Penny Higgins of Fairfield, Maine, first learned in 2020 that high levels of toxic chemicals called PFAS taint their home’s well water, they wondered how their health might suffer. They had consumed the water for decades, given it to their pets and farm animals, and used it to irrigate their vegetable garden…
ALBANY, Ga. — Belinda McLoyd has been thinking about peanut butter. McLoyd, 64, receives a small monthly payment through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps. “They don’t give you that much to work with,” she said. To fit her tight budget, she eats ramen noodles — high on sodium and…
By OWEN TRIPP So much of the early energy around generative AI in healthcare has been geared toward speed and efficiency: freeing doctors from admin tasks, automating patient intake, streamlining paperwork-heavy pain points. This is all necessary and helpful, but much of it boils down to established players optimizing the existing system to suit their…