Viewpoints: Expiring ACA Tax Credits Will Devastate Livelihoods; GLP-1s Don’t Cure Every Ailment
Opinion writers tackle these public health topics.
Since 2021, enhanced premium tax credits have been the difference between having health insurance and going without for more than 350,000 people in Illinois. Over 105,000 of them are like me 鈥 entrepreneurs and self-employed workers trying to build something. But these tax credits expire at the end of the year, and Congress is stuck in gridlock while the clock runs out.聽(Juan Ochoa, 11/13)
The medications aren鈥檛 just for diabetes and obesity, but they also aren鈥檛 for every ailment. (Leana S. Wen, 11/11)
Nearly four years ago, I learned that there was fetal tissue stuck in my cervix. It had been there for nine days. This news came a few weeks after an ultrasound confirmed an eight-week pregnancy but failed to detect a fetal heartbeat, meaning I was experiencing a miscarriage. To help expel the tissue, my doctor prescribed the drug misoprostol, and that night, I inserted the four white hexagonal pills and spent the next 12 hours writhing in pain. (Melanie Benesh, 11/13)
As the government shutdown ends, SNAP鈥檚 status remains complicated. Even if and when things return to 鈥渘ormal,鈥 many people who are entitled to benefits will continue to be locked out. The digital divide is keeping eligible seniors out of SNAP. (Javaid Iqbal Sofi, 11/13)
Two weeks before his election as mayor, Zohran Mamdani held about the cutest press conference you can imagine: Surrounded by babies, and backed by a blue climbing structure, he announced that he would launch citywide 鈥渂aby baskets,鈥 welcoming the 125,000 babies born in New York City each year with a free collection of essential supplies. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who sponsored a pilot program of 500 鈥淏orn in Brooklyn鈥 baby boxes in 2022, introduced Mamdani, saying, 鈥淭his is a sacred act to have a baby 鈥 We want to make sure the last thing you are thinking about is a box of diapers.鈥 (Alexandra Lange, 11/12)