Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
National Geographic:
Former Surgeon General: I’m Worried About America’s Stress
As U.S. surgeon general from 2014 until spring 2017, Vivek Murthy, 40, extended his office’s public health advocacy to matters such as reliable transportation, safe neighborhoods, and affordable housing. Now, he continues to push to reduce stigmas around mental illness and to promote emotional well-being and healthy habits. He spoke to National Geographic. A stigma around mental illness has caused Vivek Murthy to advocate for emotional well-being. (Daniel Stone, 8/21)
The Economist:
The Search For Vaccines Against Street Drugs
Between 2000 and 2015 half a million people in America alone died of drug overdoses—mostly of opioids, a class of addictive, generally synthetic painkillers related to morphine. On August 8th Tom Price, the secretary for health and human services in America, raised the possibility of a vaccine to prevent addiction—something he described it as “an incredibly exciting prospect”. Experts have cautioned that such treatments are nowhere near reality. But research is going on. (8/17)
Slate Magazine:
Just One County Lacks An Obamacare Insurer For 2018
There is just one market left in the country without an insurer lined up. The last bare patch left is Ohio’s Paulding County, where only 334 residents were enrolled through the exchange next year.While Paulding’s plight is no doubt a sign of Obamacare’s flaws—the system lacks an insurer of last resort to deal with market failures—the fact remains that almost every single American will have at least one insurer to choose from next year. The law has not collapsed. (Jordan Weissman, 8/21)
Politico Magazine:
How Free Eyeglasses Are Boosting Test Scores In Baltimore
Three years ago, Johns Hopkins University researchers in Baltimore asked a seemingly simple straightforward question: Could the persistent gap in reading performance between poor students and wealthier ones be closed if they gave the poor students eyeglasses? (Sarah Gamard, 8/17)
Vox:
We Asked 7 Experts About Sen. Brian Schatz’s Big New Medicaid Buy-In Plan
In a recent interview, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) laid out his plan to allow every American to buy into Medicaid if their state allows it. It could be a significant expansion of the program, at the least as a public option for Obamacare’s marketplace. At the most, it could set up a road that leads to Medicaid as the vehicle for single-payer health care.But it also raises a bunch of questions, about both the plan’s ideological goals and its policy mechanics. (Jeff Stein and Dylan Scott, 8/23)
This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.