After the Colorado Family Planning Initiative (CFPI) started providing free IUDs and implants to low-income women at family planning clinics, the teen birth rate and abortion rate dropped sharply.
Recent pieces address the toll of measles; evidence vs. hype in treating heroin addiction; why foodborne-illness outbreaks linked to poultry keep happening; and more.
Evidence has been accumulating about the toll of prolonged sitting, and a new systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows just how harmful sedentary habits can be.
In the week before his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama took modest but important steps toward expanding US workers’ access to paid sick and family leave.
Poverty rates are rising in many suburban areas, but suburban public transit systems are often inadequate for low-income residents trying to get to work.
US children have three main routes to health-insurance coverage, but the “family glitch” leaves some families without an affordable insurance option.
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration published a final rule that updates requirements for what prescription-drug information must disclose about potential effects for pregnant and breastfeeding women and their babies. And last month, the agency released Drug Trials Snapshots, which is part of a pilot project to help consumers learn more about the clinical trials upon which new drugs’ approvals are based.
Recent pieces address President Obama’s remarks on events in Ferguson, an Obamacare program that works but is shutting down, retail workers’ pay, and more.
Affordable Care Act
Healthcare.gov opens again for enrollment, with modest but varying premium increases
As Healthcare.gov welcomes enrollees for 2015 health-insurance plans, we’re seeing far fewer technical problems, modest premium increases overall (but not everywhere), and a continued lack of affordable options for those in the “coverage gap.”
Public Health Practice
From Best American Science & Nature Writing, warnings on antibiotics and vaccines
Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014 features two pieces that remind us how public-health interventions can become less effective if we as a society don’t use them effectively