Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Places Hit Hardest By Economic Woes More Likely To Be Ravaged By Opioid Epidemic
About 15 years ago, death rates among middle-aged white Americans stopped falling and started to climb. It was an unprecedented reversal for a modern industrialized country, and we still don鈥檛 fully understand why it happened. The researchers who sounded the alarm 鈥 Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton 鈥 pointed to rising rates of suicide, drug overdose and alcoholism as possible clues. These so-called diseases of despair can鈥檛 fully explain why the death rate has stopped improving, but they do hint at an underlying cause: a growing sense of overall malaise about their lives. (Guo, 3/3)
It鈥檚 an irresistible pairing: Big-name Washington politicians Newt Gingrich and Patrick Kennedy have joined forces聽to help聽a new advocacy group push for wider聽use of medications to treat opioid addiction and expanded government funding. As paid advisers to聽Advocates for Opioid Recovery,聽Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and a Trump confidant, and聽Kennedy, a former congressman and a scion of the family that defined liberal Democratic politics for decades, have generated a flurry of media attention. They have聽conducted joint interviews with outlets ranging from聽Fox News聽to聽The New Yorker. (Armstrong, 3/3)
Prescribed narcotic painkillers continue to fuel a nationwide opioid epidemic鈥攏early half of fatal overdoses in the United States involve opioids prescribed by a doctor. But people don't seem to be avoiding the medications, despite the well-documented risks. In the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics poll, over half of people surveyed, or 57 percent, said they had been prescribed a narcotic painkiller like Percocet, Vicodin or morphine at some point. That's an increase of 3 percent since we last asked the question in 2014 (54 percent), and of 7 percent since our 2011 poll (50 percent). (Boddy, 3/3)
And in other news聽鈥
When President Barack Obama signed the 鈥21st Century Cures Act鈥 into law last year, New Hampshire officials anticipated getting $10 million over the next biennium. That number has dropped to $6 million. Tym Rurke, who chairs the Governor鈥檚 Commission on Drugs and Alcohol, says although the funding was supposed to be based on per capita overdose deaths 鈥 that wasn鈥檛 the case. (Sutherland, 3/2)
In December, Georgia became the 36th state to legalize over-the-counter sale of naloxone, which can save the life of someone who has overdosed on painkillers, heroin, or other opioid drugs. In the past, only someone with a doctor鈥檚 prescription could buy this medication at a pharmacy. Now anyone can buy it, with no prescription needed. (Griffith, 3/2)
Governor Chris Sununu is getting attention for his recent claims that the city of Lawrence, Mass., is the main source of fentanyl hitting New Hampshire. Critics accuse Sununu of pointing fingers 鈥 saying it鈥檚 not going to solve the state鈥檚 drug crisis. (Sutherland, 3/2)
The New Hampshire Insurance Department released the findings of a study Thursday that takes a look at how insurance companies are handling drug and alcohol abuse treatment claims. The study, which examines the insurers Cigna, Anthem, and Harvard Pilgrim, was intended, in part, to determine if they were complying with federal parity law. Though Cigna and Anthem didn鈥檛 turn up too many red flags, the Insurance Department will be taking a closer look at Harvard Pilgrim. (McCarthy, 3/2)
