General Articles
- More than half of Americans say they have experienced hate or harassment online, according to a new survey from the Anti-Defamation League, with a dramatic rise in incidents over the last 12 months, especially among teens. Why it matters: Experts say what happens online is causing significant real-world harm and also keeping large numbers of people from fully participating in an increasingly digital society. By the numbers: The increases in harassment were seen in almost all demographics but were particularly pronounced among underrepresented religious and ethnic groups as well as LGBTQ+ people. Read more here.
Youth Mental Health
- The nation’s surgeon general heard from Alaska mental health care advocates on Monday about the need for more resources to address what they say is a crisis that is leading to more suicides, eating disorders and depression among young Alaskans. Dr. Vivek Murthy said he was in Alaska at the invitation of Sen. Dan Sullivan to learn how Alaska is dealing with the rising rates of isolation and depression that are affecting young people nationwide. He said that nationally, one in three adolescent girls in 2021 seriously considered suicide. Read more here.
- Come March, California voters will get the chance to weigh in on sweeping changes proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the state’s mental health funding system — including a $4.68 billion bond measure to add treatment beds — but critics say the proposal pits children’s mental health services against the state’s ballooning homelessness crisis. Newsom announced his intent in March to divert nearly one-third of the state’s Mental Health Services Act money — roughly $1 billion — to housing homeless individuals with severe mental illness or drug addiction. Read more here.
- Older members of Gen Z who are lesbian, gay or bisexual are more anxious and less happy than their straight counterparts, per a Gallup-Walton Family Foundation American Youth Survey released Thursday. Why it matters: Studies have shown that the cohort born between the late 1990s and early 2010s is experiencing a sustained decline in mental health, but the poll indicates stigma and harassment is placing an extra burden on lesbian, gay and bisexual members. That could hinder their ability to go to college or launch careers, researchers wrote. Read more here.
Maternal Mental Health
- But for many women, postpartum depression is shockingly isolating — a mix of sadness, hopelessness and overwhelm that stems not just from the hormonal tumult of pregnancy and the postpartum period, but from many other stressors, like a lack of paid leave, insufficient child care, and the staggering responsibility of caring for a new and helpless human. There are more treatment options for postpartum depression now than ever before, including the first medication designed specifically to treat it. Read more here.
- Navigating a health care system unprepared to support maternal mental health in the time surrounding the birth of a child is, unfortunately, far from a unique experience. About one in seven women suffer from postpartum depression, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and some estimates for the rate of perinatal anxiety are as high as one in two. More rare are conditions like postpartum psychosis, estimated to occur in one to three people out of every 1,000 who give birth. Read more here.
Workforce Issues
- Health care workers who served on the front lines of the pandemic and suffered record levels of burnout are beginning to feel more optimistic about the medical profession, according to a Morning Consult poll shared first with Axios. Why it matters: While there are still plenty of stressors, from misinformation to labor shortages, caseloads within inpatient settings have largely normalized. The findings may also indicate that health workers believe they've gained some negotiating power coming out of the public health emergency, Ricky Zipp, a senior analyst at Morning Consult covering health, told Axios. Read more here.
Gun Violence
- Most children in the US who die from an accidental shooting are playing around with guns at home or mistaking them for toys, according to a new study. And the research suggests that over 90% of guns used in such shooting deaths were left unlocked and loaded. The study, published Monday in the scientific journal Injury Epidemiology, looked at cases over a nearly a decade in which children under 15 accidentally killed themselves or another child with a gun. Most of the shootings happened at the victim’s home, where, in 8 out of 10 cases, the gun belonged to an older relative. Read more here.
The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues
- Cocaine demand and supply are booming worldwide and methamphetamine trafficking is expanding beyond established markets, including in Afghanistan where the drug is now being produced, a United Nations report said on Sunday. Coca bush cultivation and total cocaine production were at record highs in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, and the global number of cocaine users, estimated at 22 million that same year, is growing steadily, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in its annual World Drug Report. Read more here.
- West Virginia is finalizing the leadership for a newly created foundation tasked with distributing the lion’s share of the more than $1 billion in opioid lawsuit-settlement money coming to the state with the nation’s highest overdose death rate. That means funding for opioid treatment and addiction services can soon begin going out to communities after years of litigation, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Monday in his state Capitol office in Charleston. Read more here.
- Across the country, it can be difficult to receive medication for opioid addiction, a recent study found, but Oregon has a better supply than most other states. Why it matters: In Multnomah County, there have been 580 confirmed or suspected drug overdose deaths since June 2022, according to the most recent data from the Tri-County Opioid Safety Coalition. Federal data suggests only slightly more than one in 10 people with opioid use disorder receive medication for it. Read more here.
- The Biden administration recently declared fentanyl laced with xylazine – an animal sedative commonly known as “tranq” – to be an emerging threat facing the United States, and a new analysis of toxicology reports illustrates its sharp rise. In June 2022, xylazine was present in nearly 11% of fentanyl overdose deaths, almost a four-fold increase from January 2019, when the combination was present in about 3% of cases, according to the report. Read more here.
Social Determinants
- Racial disparities in food insecurity persist among low-income households that don't participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but not among those that do, according to a new study. Why it matters: Food insecurity is considered a critical public health threat, and the new evidence suggests that SNAP can be an effective tool in minimizing inequities created by a lack of access to nutritious foods. Experts say the research further bolsters the need to examine structural and systemic racism in American food systems and barriers to access in federal food assistance. Read more here.
Health Insurance
- It’s one of the most crucial questions people have when deciding which health plan to choose: If my doctor orders a test or treatment, will my insurer refuse to pay for it? After all, an insurance company that routinely rejects recommended care could damage both your health and your finances. The question becomes ever more pressing as many working Americans see their premiums rise as their benefits shrink.Bottom of Form Yet, how often insurance companies say no is a closely held secret. There’s nowhere that a consumer or an employer can go to look up all insurers’ denial rates — let alone whether a particular company is likely to decline to pay for procedures or drugs that its plans appear to cover. The lack of transparency is especially galling because state and federal regulators have the power to fix it, but haven’t. Read more here.
State Bans on Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ Issues
- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) this week said he opposes state laws that ban gender-affirming health care for transgender young people, distancing himself from other Republicans on what is already shaping up to be a key issue in the race for the White House in 2024. Christie in a June 18 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper said states should abandon efforts to ban or restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender children and adolescents, replacing them with policies that prioritize parental involvement in transition-related care for minors. Read more here.
- On Saturday, Georgia’s new law banning gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for those under 18 takes effect. Part of a nationwide effort by conservatives to restrict transgender athletes, gender-affirming care and drag shows, Senate Bill 140 is perhaps the most high-profile of the state’s new laws. Supporters say the law’s restrictions prevent children from making decisions they might later regret. Parents and transgender youth heavily lobbied against the bill, warning that lawmakers were further marginalizing a group already prone to taking their own lives at disturbingly high rates. Like similar laws in other states, it’s likely to face a legal challenge. Read more here.
- The Maine House voted Monday in favor of a bill to ensure 16- and 17-year-olds can receive gender-affirming hormone therapy without parental consent if certain conditions are met. The bill, approved 73-60, allows those teens to undergo treatment without parental consent if they are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, are experiencing harm and have received counseling. It now goes to the Senate for further debate. Both chambers already voted to enshrine in law a requirement for the state’s Medicaid program to cover gender-affirming care. Read more here.
- Michigan lawmakers gave final approval to legislation banning so-called conversion therapy for minors as Democrats in the state continue to advance a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda in their first months in power. The legislation would prohibit mental health professionals from engaging youths in the scientifically discredited practice of trying to convert people who are LGBTQ+ to heterosexuality and traditional gender expectations. Read more here.
- People who identify as transgender have significantly higher rates of suicide and suicide attempts compared with the rest of the population, according to a population-level study out of Denmark. The study of more than 6.6 million people found that those who identified as trans had 7.7 times the rate of suicide attempts and 3.5 times the rate of suicide deaths than the broader Danish population. Read more here.
- Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs issued two pro-LGBTQ executive orders on Tuesday, banning state support of so-called conversion therapy and allowing transgender state employees to receive gender-affirming health care under their insurance plan. Hobbs made the announcement from the offices of a central Phoenix nonprofit that focuses on helping LGBTQ+ youth. Under the executive actions, state agencies will be prohibited from using funds to promote or facilitate so-called conversion therapy, the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations. Read more here.
- One year ago this month, President Biden in an executive order promised to safeguard access to gender-affirming health care for transgender Americans, charging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with promoting “expanded access” to care in every state. Today, 20 states and counting have passed laws that heavily restrict or ban gender-affirming medical care, including 17 that have done so this year. Most of these laws regulate the administration of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries to transgender minors, but measures adopted in some states, including Florida and Missouri, threaten to limit access to care for adults, too. Read more here.
Federal and State Policy
- Everyone wants to keep Medicare on solid financial footing. But getting agreement on how to go about it is a challenge, especially with power divided in Washington. Several drugmakers have now filed lawsuits against the Department of Health and Human Services over Medicare’s new authority to negotiate drug prices in the Inflation Reduction Act. It’s important to find agreement on Medicare reforms, and soon. Independent analysts have sounded the alarm on the program’s future ability pay full benefits. Read more here.
- Georgia is offering a new bargain to some adults without health insurance beginning Saturday: Go to work or school and the state will cover you. But advocates decry the plan, which will insure far fewer people than a full expansion of the state-federal Medicaid program, as needlessly restrictive and expensive. The program is likely to be closely watched as Republicans in Congress push to let states require work from some current Medicaid enrollees. Read more here.
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