Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Rural States Turn To Religion For Health Care; It's Impossible To Be A PCP Today
Nearly 20 million people gained health-insurance coverage between 2010 and 2016 under the Affordable Care Act. But about half of insured adults worry about affording their monthly premiums, while roughly the same number worry about affording their deductibles. (Matt Eich and Bryce Covert, 5/18)
If you鈥檝e recently tried to find a new primary care doctor (spoiler: it isn鈥檛 easy), the fact that primary care is in crisis is no surprise. Data released Thursday by the Center for Health Information and Analysis and Massachusetts Health Quality Partners show how bad the situation has gotten. (5/20)
Medicare recently announced it has enough money to pay for hospital care for five more years than thought 鈥 a recent report says it will be able to pay full benefits until 2036. However, the federal health care program as a whole is growing so fast because of the aging population that it鈥檚 only a matter of time before the United States is in a serious financial mess trying to pay for it. (Elsa Pearson Sites, 5/20)
I was 31 years old when my mother was dying of breast cancer. One day, while sitting with her in the hospital, her oncologist asked me a question no one had ever asked me before: 鈥淗ave you had a mammogram yet?鈥 (Hilary Hatch, 5/20)
In April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the world鈥檚 most powerful health care agency 鈥 responsible for overseeing the largest industry in the world鈥檚 largest economy 鈥 offered a pretend proposal for regulating health care鈥檚 massive carbon footprint of 550 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e), or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. (David Introcaso, 5/20)