Health Affairs This Week

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode discusses the subject of gun violence and death.Health Affairs's Jessica Bylander and Vabren Watts discuss this week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas and the recent history of gun policy in the United States.Violence permeates our society. One response to violence is to better understand its origins and how to prevent it.We invite you to read the Violence and Health issue of Health Affairs from 2019 to better understand the impacts that gun violence has on communities. The issue will be open access and free to read until June 1, 2022.For Mental Health Awareness month, we'd like to share the reminder that if you are experiencing a mental health emergency, you can call the national helpline at 1-800-662-HELP for support.Related Links:Violence and Health (Health Affairs)Adolescent Exposure To Deadly Gun Violence Within 500 Meters Of Home Or School: Ethnoracial And Income Disparities (Health Affairs)From Sandy Hook to Buffalo and Uvalde: Ten years of failure on gun control (The Washington Post)Current Causes of Death in Children and Adolescents in the United States (New England Journal of Medicine)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

Listen to Health Affairs' Chris Fleming and Tim Jost discuss Supreme Court cases that could strip enrollees in Medicaid and other programs of the right to sue to enforce their rights.Related Links:Is The Supreme Court Poised To Wipe Out Legal Rights For Medicaid Beneficiaries? (Health Affairs Forefront)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

The podcast discusses the FDA's proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and its implications for public health and health equity. It explores the disproportionate use of menthol cigarettes among certain population groups, including African Americans. The chapter also mentions reactions to the ban, potential lawsuits by the tobacco industry, and support for quitting smoking.

Early this week, Politico published a draft opinion from the Supreme Court that would overturn abortion rights in the United States.On today's episode of Health Affairs This Week, Health Affairs' Senior Editors Jessica Bylander and Chris Fleming unpack the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade and could have sweeping health care implications beyond just abortion care.Related Links:Supreme Court Has Voted To Overturn Abortion Rights, Draft Opinion Shows (Politico)Penalizing Abortion Providers Will Have Ripple Effects Across Pregnancy Care (Health Affairs Forefront)26 States Are Certain or Likely to Ban Abortion Without Roe: Here's Which Ones and Why (Guttmacher Institute)Can Congress Resurrect Roe If It's Overturned? Well, It Could Try (The Washington Post)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

Listen to Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott go over the big health policy headlines from this week, including details on childhood vaccinations, Title 42 and the intersection of public health and border policies, and federal drug control strategies.Related Links:Borders, Immigrants & Health Theme Issue (Health Affairs)Health Care Gaps For Migrants & Asylum Seekers On The Mexico Border During COVID-19 (A Health Podyssey)Vaccination Coverage with Selected Vaccines and Exemption Rates Among Children in Kindergarten - United States, 2020-21 School Year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)Fact Sheet: 2022 National Drug Control Strategy That Outlines Comprehensive Path Forward To Address Addiction and the Overdose Epidemic (White House)Key Facts About Title 42, The Pandemic Policy That Has Reshaped Immigration Enforcement At US-Mexico Border (Pew Research Center)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

Health Affairs This Week is on a break this week. Today, we are publishing an episode from A Health Podyssey, where Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil brings you in-depth conversations with leading researchers and influencers shaping the big ideas in health policy and the health care industry. Health Affairs This Week will return next week.Subscribe to A Health Podyssey: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts The United States is facing a drug affordability crisis. Even as we celebrate scientific discovery, the health benefits of drugs are limited due to barriers of affordability, often even for people with health insurance. The RAND Corporation reports that on average drug prices in the United States are more than two and a half times those in 32 other nations studied. The disparities are even wider when we focus just on brand name drugs.Drug pricing is the subject of seemingly perennial debates. One side focuses on access barriers due to high prices while the other side argues that lower prices threaten future innovation. Stacie Dusetzina from Vanderbilt University Medical Center joins A Health Podyssey to talk about the complex world of drug pricing.She and colleagues published a paper in the April 2022 issue of Health Affairs examining the degree to which people with Medicare prescription drug benefits use the drugs that are prescribed to them.In the paper, the authors found non-initiation rates among some beneficiaries of greater than 50 percent for certain treatments.If you enjoy this interview, order the April 2022 Health Affairs issue to get research on access to care, hospitals and more.

Listen to Health Affairs' Senior Editor Kathleen Haddad and Health Equity Director Vabren Watts discuss advancing health equity in health policy and publishing.“Once you start advancing one aspect of equity, you start advancing other aspects of equity,” says Watts.  The two highlight Health Affairs' work on health equity since launching a formal plan in January 2021 and research highlights from our digital publication Health Affairs Forefront as well as our February 2022 theme issue on Racism And Health. Related Links:COVID-19 Data On Trans And Gender-Expansive People, Stat! (Health Affairs Forefront)Structural Racism And Black Women's Employment In The US Health Care Sector (Health Affairs)Walmart Opening 5 Health 'Superstores' In Delayed Florida Launch (Healthcare Dive)Health Equity (Health Affairs)Racism and Health Theme Issue (Health Affairs)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

President Joe Biden's administration this week published a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the "family glitch" in the Affordable Care Act. In essence, the rule would revise the eligibility for premium tax credits for families. It's a wonky but important policy measure. In today's episode of Health Affairs This Week, Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Georgetown University's Katie Keith break down the proposed rule, what the "family glitch" is, how the Biden administration seeks to amend it, and what impact that may have on families including access to affordable care.Sign up for Katie Keith's Health Reform newsletter.Related Links:New Biden Executive Order Aims To Build On Coverage Gains (Health Affairs Forefront)Biden Administration Proposes To Fix The Family Glitch (Health Affairs Forefront)President Biden Moves To Fix a 'Glitch' in the Affordable Care Act (TIME)Health Policy Brief on The Family Glitch (Health Affairs)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

A new ahead-of-print from Health Affairs features the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) annual projections of national health expenditures. John Poisal and colleagues estimate national health spending growth will moderate from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 4.2 percent in 2021 as COVID-19 impacts wane.Listen to Health Affairs' Ellen Bayer and Chris Fleming dissect the latest national health spending projections on today's Health Affairs This Week.Pre-order the April 2022 issue where the CMS report will be published in the Health Affairs journal.Related Links:National Health Expenditure Projections, 2021–30: Growth To Moderate As COVID-19 Impacts Wane (Health Affairs)National Health Expenditures Post COVID: Hints Of A New Normal? (Health Affairs Forefront)National Health Expenditure Projections And A Few Ways We Might Avoid Our Fate (Health Affairs Forefront)National Health Care Spending In 2020: Growth Driven By Federal Spending In Response To The COVID-19 Pandemic (Health Affairs)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

This month, three US credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - announced changes to medical collection debt reporting, which will remove nearly 70% of medical collection debt tradelines from consumer credit reports.As financial security is a major social determinant of health, Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Chris Fleming join Health Affairs This Week to discuss medical debt changes and their potential impact of the changes on health.Related Links:No Surprises Act: Known Impacts on Surprise Medical Bills & What's Next (Health Affairs This Week)Medical Debt Burden In The United States (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)Charity Care Needs To Be Better Than This (Health Affairs)The Burden of Medical Debt in the United States (Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker)Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast