Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Marijuana Can Reform Senior Health Care; Crisis Pregnancy Centers Should Come To An End
Over the next four years, more people in the United States will turn 65 annually than ever before鈥攔epresenting the biggest surge in retirement-age Americans in history. While this colossal uptick will see 4.1 million Americans enter their golden years by the end of 2027, it will also see a massive jump in demand for advanced medical care and enrollments in already-strained programs like Medicare. (Howard Kessler, 5/23)
From a policy perspective, the speech that anti-abortion 鈥渃risis鈥 pregnancy centers engage in actually creates crisis pregnancies by misdating pregnancies, lying to patients about their options (including that medication abortions can be reversed, which is medically false), misrepresenting the safety of abortions and delaying the best-practice medical care that patients deserve. (Tamara Kay, Anna Calasanti and Susan Ostermann, 5/24)
I first considered moving my family from New York to rural South Dakota after my beloved grandfather 鈥 recently diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚 鈥 broke his hip. He required surgery and physical therapy, all while navigating the unfair, nefarious reality of dementia. (Danielle Campoamor, 5/23)
About one-third of Americans who reach age 65 will need nursing home care in their lifetimes 鈥 which can be a daunting thought if you recall the suffering of residents as the Covid-19 pandemic exposed long-standing problems in nursing homes. (Julie K. Taitsman and Nancy Harrison, 5/24)
During my 25 years working in clinical trial operations, I鈥檝e seen the biopharmaceutical world talk a big game about making the process easier for the sites running the trials and the patients participating in them. Everyone from trial sponsors to the Food and Drug Administration has been quick to promise simpler processes, less hassle, and better experiences for everyone involved. But look closer, and you鈥檒l see that these grand promises often fall apart when sponsors implement complicated plans for collecting blood, tissue and other biospecimens and impossible processes for managing those samples. (Hope Meely, 5/24)
