Recent stories address prescribing by doctors paid by drug companies; excessive lead levels in nearly 2,000 US water systems; how to understand candidates’ claims about health insurance reforms; and more.
Although the US still has a long way to go in preventing unintended pregnancies, an article published earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine had some good news: The proportion of US pregnancies that were unintended dropped from 51% in 2008 to 45% in 2011.
Over the past few weeks, new published research has provided more evidence linking Zika virus to poor health outcomes
A study finds the odds of preterm birth were lower among Colorado women living in counties served by Title X clinics, which began offering free access to IUDs and contraceptive implants in 2009.
Public Health Practice
Worth reading: Supreme Court, rented white coats, and Freddie Gray’s Baltimore
Recent stories address medical care disparities in Baltimore, the Supreme Court after Justice Scalia’s death, the “rented white coats” defending toxic chemicals, and more.
A new study in NEJM finds that after Texas excluded Planned Parenthood and other providers affiliated with abortion providers from its family-planning program for low-income women, the program paid for fewer women to get some of the most effective forms of contraception.
Economists have suggested that people with traditional insurance coverage over-consume healthcare because each doctor visit or lab test requires a relatively low co-payment. If we paid more for each service – had “skin in the game” – the thinking goes, we’d be more judicious about the healthcare we consume and shop around for the best value. But evidence is mounting that asking people to pay more for care doesn’t turn them into smarter shoppers.
Zika virus has been linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly (infants born with abnormally small brains and heads) and is spreading throughout the Americas.
Recent stories address the Zika virus, which is linked to babies born with small heads; a reporter with advanced cancer covering the assisted-suicide movement; and more.
The omnibus spending bill includes a measure that allows the use of federal funds for state and local needle-exchange program — and it was championed by Kentucky Republicans.