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Members of Congress are leaving Washington for seven weeks without passing a bill to pay for the fight against Zika. Their failure to do so will delay the public health response to the mosquito-borne virus that causes birth defects, unnecessarily putting thousands of people at risk. As of July 7, 649 pregnant women appeared to be infected with Zika in American states and territories and nine babies had been born with birth defects linked to the virus. (7/14)

With a new bill, Congress is testing how much can be done to fight opioid addiction without spending any money. But while the legislation is less than what the epidemic demands, it's still good enough to merit President Barack Obama's signature. (7/14)

But if the ACA markets are so flawed, as policymakers and insurers claim, why have some insurers succeeded in those markets while others have floundered? ... a May report by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform found wide variation in financial performance among insurers, and that many are turning a profit on their exchange business. So just turning to policymakers for solutions isn't enough, particularly when the federal government is deadlocked. In 13 states, more than half of insurers earned a profit in the individual market in 2014, the first year the exchanges operated. In six states, more than 75% of insurers had positive margins. That contrasted with 18 states in which less than 5% of insurers turned a profit. (Harris Meyer, 7/14)

Health care spending nationwide will hit a new high this year, rising 4.8 percent, the government said this week. For over 1 million Texans who buy insurance on Healthcare.Gov, they can only dream about having it so good. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, which has about half the state’s exchange customers, wants to increase premiums almost 60 percent for 2017. Scott and White Health Plan wants to ratchet up premiums over 30 percent, and Cigna, 24 percent. Aetna and Oscar are planning double-digit increases, too. (Mitchell Schnurman, 7/14)

Britain has a new prime minister – Theresa May – and much of the coverage this week has focused on her being only the second woman in the country’s history to run the government. An equally intriguing factoid is that, as far as anyone knows, May, 59, is the first contemporary world leader with Type 1 diabetes. This provides an opportunity to look at how Britain’s universal-coverage health insurance system compares with the largely for-profit, market-oriented American approach. The two key yardsticks in treating diabetes effectively are access to care and cost of drugs. In both cases, the Brits have it better. (David Lazarus, 7/15)

Texas lawmakers have taken steps to drastically cut Medicaid reimbursement rates for therapists caring for underserved children and seniors. These cuts (totaling about $350 million of state and federal funds over the biennium) were scheduled to go into effect today, but last month, the Texas Supreme Court granted an emergency motion to block them...The most charitable thing that can be said about the lawmakers who support these cuts is that they must be short on real-life experience. (7/14)

The failures of Washington’s mental-health system have been targeted with increasing precision and vitriol over the past two years by local, state and federal courts. But the state’s response to the drip-drip-drip of judicial orders and fines — and to outcries from patients and their families — has been to treat each as its own drop of bad news, and throw money at the leak. What’s needed instead is for Gov. Jay Inslee and the Legislature to take a step back, view the welling pool at their ankles, and collaborate on a big picture reform of the state’s rickety mental-health system. (7/13)

Police brutality against people of color persists as public health concern because as a nation we have a crippled conscience. As a new doctor, I can’t help but feel that my medical education has failed to prepare me to address this crisis in the communities I hope to serve. I’ve learned how to navigate around injustices, rather than fight them. We focus on helping our patients survive the trauma of our unjust society, rather than asking ourselves how we can ensure all our patients have the opportunity to thrive in an America free of legalized terror and intolerance. (Jennifer Adaeze Okwerekwu, 7/15)

The American Board of Internal Medicine has imposed new Maintenance of Certification requirements that physicians all over the United States oppose. Most physicians in fact have chosen to let their certifications go. A new board, National Board of Physicians and Surgeons, even has emerged, showing not only dissatisfaction among the physician community but also a complete loss of faith in ABIM and its sister organizations. (Ghulam M. Shaikh, 7/14)