Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
AMA: Congress Must Lift Ban On Gun Violence Research
Uncontrolled gun ownership is a serious threat to public health 鈥 and Congress needs to pay for research on the hot-button issue, the American Medical Association said Tuesday. Two days after 49 people were shot to death at an Orlando nightclub, the influential doctors' body voted to declare gun violence a public health issue and pledged to start lobbying Washington lawmakers. (Fox, 6/14)
Supporters of the proposal said applying a public health approach to gun violence requires ending a de facto ban implemented by Congress in 1996 that prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding research on gun violence. (Johnson, 6/14)
Other doctors groups, including the American College of Physicians and American College of Surgeons, have already declared gun violence a public health crisis. But the topic has been trickier for the AMA, which represents a far more diverse field including all 50 state medical associations. (Ferris, 6/14)
The AMA policy has been a topic of debate among member physicians for more than two years. But the governing board nearly unanimously adopted it during the group's annual meeting in Chicago, which started on Sunday, the day of the Orlando massacre. (Rice, 6/14)
The loss of so much life in the Orlando shootings is exceptional, but the kind of bullet wounds and the extreme nature of the physical trauma that people suffered in this incident is not as uncommon as it was even a decade ago, according to new study. And it is time for this "hidden public health issue" to come out of the shadows, the authors argue. (Christensen, 6/14)
Meanwhile, Democrats are聽considering attaching gun amendments to a long-stalled mental health bill that might just be getting some forward momentum聽鈥
The issue of gun control is expected to come up at a House committee markup this week on mental health legislation, with at least one Democrat considering introducing an amendment on the issue and others likely to come. (Williams, 6/14)
Democratic lawmakers are planning to offer gun-related amendments to a major mental health bill being considered in committee days after the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, according to Democratic aides. (Sullivan, 6/14)
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is poised to mark up a long-stalled mental health bill on Wednesday, which lead sponsor Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) thinks could be brought swiftly to the House floor. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to come, we just have to work towards a date,鈥 he told reporters Tuesday after a press conference to rally support for the bill. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want this to languish over the summer. I don鈥檛 want anybody to have to face another tragedy, whether it鈥檚 just a single tragedy in their family or a mass tragedy, while Congress is waiting.鈥 Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have expressed support for the bill, he said. Ryan pointed to the bill as a way to curb gun violence early on in his speakership. (McIntire, 6/14)
