Category Archives: All

Medicaid’s GLP-1 Coverage Gap Is About More Than Weight Loss

By | October 8, 2026
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A new Medical Care Special Commentary names a familiar problem. Medicaid coverage often lags behind clinical need. The article, by Pranav Ayyappan and Dr. Rajesh Balkrishnan, calls Medicaid’s GLP-1 coverage gap “familiar and correctable.” That title is doing real work. GLP-1 receptor agonists are often discussed as weight-loss drugs. That is too narrow. These medicines… Read More: Medicaid’s GLP-1 Coverage Gap Is About More Than Weight Loss »

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The Market Forces Quietly Adding Thousands to Patient Bills

By | September 11, 2026
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horizontal and vertical integration affects prices

After a failed round of in vitro fertilization this year, Anne Hug’s fertility doctor said she had a single polyp in her uterus that should be removed to improve the chance of pregnancy. Hug, a professor of radiology, learned that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the procedure can be done in a… Read More: The Market Forces Quietly Adding Thousands to Patient Bills »

This Old Public Hospital Is Still Practicing Public Health

By | September 4, 2026
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It was the graffiti with the word “kindness” scribbled on a cabinet that caught our eyes. My 13-year old son and I spotted it next to a spray-painted depiction of an eyeball with horns. We were looking through a broken glass door a few steps past a nursing station littered with crumbling ceiling tiles and… Read More: This Old Public Hospital Is Still Practicing Public Health »

Public Health Has a Power Problem

By | August 16, 2026
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Power isn’t a word that we use very often in public health. Even for someone steeped in public health policy, we much more frequently discuss equity, interventions, community engagement, and of course the conditions that shape the public’s health. But power? Not so much. What brought it to mind was a training this morning on… Read More: Public Health Has a Power Problem »

An Epidemiologist Knocks on the Doors of Congress

By | August 7, 2026
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When Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Michigan this week, much of the coverage focused on what his victory meant for Democrats and the midterm elections. But I found myself thinking about something completely different: He’s an epidemiologist. Health professionals are certainly not new to Congress. Many physicians have served,… Read More: An Epidemiologist Knocks on the Doors of Congress »

National VA study tracks homeless veterans over 10 and 20 years

By | July 23, 2026
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Homelessness shortens lives Homelessness is both a housing crisis and a major public health crisis. People experiencing homelessness face more illness, injury, and early death. A recent meta-analysis found excess mortality across many causes. People also face major barriers to timely and respectful care. A new Medical Care study examines these risks among veterans. Both… Read More: National VA study tracks homeless veterans over 10 and 20… »

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Medicaid Work Rules Put Coverage, and Clinicians, Under Pressure

By | July 20, 2026
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Medicaid on a card and stethoscope

What the New Work Rules Require The CMS interim rule takes effect on July 31, 2026. States must start the new eligibility checks by January 1, 2027. The public comment period [pdf] also closes July 31. The rule applies mainly to adults ages 19 through 64 in Medicaid expansion programs. Each month, they must complete… Read More: Medicaid Work Rules Put Coverage, and Clinicians, Under Pressure »

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How to Fight OMB’s Proposal on Federal Funding

By | June 28, 2026
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The Washington Monument and a crowd of protesters

By now most of you have heard of the Office of Management and Budget’s proposal to dramatically revamp the federal grantmaking process. While this proposal appears to turn Federal support of research into a mechanism for driving ideologically-driven pseudoscience, it is in fact much broader and more dangerous than that. It goes well beyond science to encompass nearly… Read More: How to Fight OMB’s Proposal on Federal Funding »

Medicaid Work Rules

By | June 16, 2026
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Final Rules for Medicaid Work Requirements Are Out. Here’s What You Need To Know. The Trump administration has issued final rules on how states should ensure that millions of Medicaid enrollees prove they’re working or completing other activities, such as job training, volunteering, or being enrolled in an educational program. The Centers for Medicare &… Read More: Medicaid Work Rules »

Diabetes and state Medicaid policy

By | June 10, 2026
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As we move through 2026, our blog theme “Health in All Policies” continues to drive our public health discussions. This framework reminds us that well-being isn’t just about medicine or insurance. Instead, it is shaped by where we live, work, and age—our social, economic, and environmental conditions. A study recently published ahead-of-print in Medical Care… Read More: Diabetes and state Medicaid policy »

Teen Screen Time and Mental Health: What We Can Do

By | June 4, 2026
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In two earlier posts, we explored what the research tells us about screen time and adolescent health — from physical effects to the mental health mechanisms behind them. This final post turns to action. What can individuals, families, schools, and policymakers do to protect adolescent mental health in a world where screens are unavoidable? How… Read More: Teen Screen Time and Mental Health: What We Can Do »

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Screen Time and Adolescence: A Deeper Dive on Mental Health

By | May 13, 2026
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Teen screen time has become one of the most studied topics in adolescent health — and for good reason. In our first post, we covered three areas that screen time affects: physical health, mental health, and social development. This post takes a closer look at the mental health evidence — the research findings and the… Read More: Screen Time and Adolescence: A Deeper Dive on Mental Health »

Screen Time and Adolescence: Why It Matters More Than Ever

By | April 23, 2026
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Screen time is now a central part of adolescent life, and it is nearly unavoidable. Adolescents complete schoolwork online, watch video clips and television, play video games, engage in social media—all on devices. This begins a three-part series on screen time and adolescence. We review evidence and explore what we might do about it. In… Read More: Screen Time and Adolescence: Why It Matters More Than Ever »

Undervalued to In-Demand: Rethinking Incentives in Primary Care

By | April 16, 2026
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A consistent pattern in medical training is hard to ignore: many students enter wanting to work in primary care with underserved groups, yet later choose to pursue specialty careers. I’d like to think these intentions are sincere, but something during training redirects them. That pattern isn’t about greed or moral failure–it’s a signal that we… Read More: Undervalued to In-Demand: Rethinking Incentives in Primary Care »

Hands-On Public Health: A Local, Campus Respiratory Virus Campaign

By | April 11, 2026
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When the world hands you lemons, you learn to make lemonade. In public health, locally sourced is even better. With federal public health guidance in disarray, it can be easy to forget that most public health is, and always has been, local. It is not the federal government that sanitizes water, inspects restaurants, or diagnoses… Read More: Hands-On Public Health: A Local, Campus Respiratory Virus Campaign »

Repeal of EPA’s Endangerment Finding: A Blow to Cancer Care

By | March 17, 2026
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With the repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding–the conclusion that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane pose a threat to public health and welfare–the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) embraces climate denial as official policy. It is a particular blow to cancer care. This decision will increase fossil fuel use and the cancer-causing environmental conditions… Read More: Repeal of EPA’s Endangerment Finding: A Blow to Cancer Care »

Health Economics and “Delivering Dollars to the American People”

By | March 8, 2026
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Cartoon: Man in doctor's office ponders costs of surgery vs. physical therapy. Credit: Derek DeLia/ChatGPT.

Healthcare policy is back on voters’ minds. The Republican party has placed its bet on consumer-driven healthcare, framed as “delivering dollars to the American people”, as a winning strategy. While the idea is not new, there is a lot the public needs to learn about it. Decades of research in health economics has a lot… Read More: Health Economics and “Delivering Dollars to the American People” »

Medical Care and Artificial Intelligence

By | March 9, 2026
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AI in sphere in hands. Creative Commons non-commercial no derivitives.

AI tools have become ever more available to the general public in the last few years. Before ChatGPT, there were standalone tools like Grammarly and the AI-adjacent Editor in Microsoft Word. Now, though, tools from many of the big technology companies have become available (freely or at low cost) to the public. Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s… Read More: Medical Care and Artificial Intelligence »

In Memoriam: Julie M. Zito, PhD

By | March 5, 2026
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Julie M. Zito, PhD, a longtime member of the APHA Medical Care Section, a former chair of the Medical Care Section, and stalwart advocate for pharmacy policy, passed away on December 6, 2025. She was a good friend who always “liked” my Facebook posts on progressive issues.  Along with Kathy Virgo, she  guaranteed the quality… Read More: In Memoriam: Julie M. Zito, PhD »

Radical Imagination: Envisioning A New Public Health

By | February 12, 2026
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Two peace doves flying holding a band-aid in their beaks. A hand holding a globe with cracks and a band-aid on them. A dark sky with stars in the background.

Faced with a federal government that is increasingly authoritarian, repressive, and hostile to public health, we must harness our radical imagination to re-envision our field. Many adults come to view dreaming as juvenile, trivial, escapist, or unproductive. But imagination is the lifeblood of creativity and a tool for seeing beyond our current problems. Our ability… Read More: Radical Imagination: Envisioning A New Public Health »

Public health is not lost; it is local

By | February 6, 2026
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Over the past year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been battered by political interference that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Scientists and staff endured mass firings followed by partial rehiring, leaving employees describing themselves as “dead men walking”. In August, 180 shots were fired at the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters,… Read More: Public health is not lost; it is local »

A Quiet Rewrite of American Vaccine Policy, and Why It Matters

By | January 16, 2026
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syringe in gloved hand, preparing an injection into a shoulder

As we enter 2026, U.S. vaccine policy is undergoing one of its most dramatic transformations in decades, with profound implications for public health, trust in science, and the well-being of children and communities. These changes come on the heels of our declaration of Health in All Policies as The Medical Care Blog’s theme for 2026,… Read More: A Quiet Rewrite of American Vaccine Policy, and Why It… »

Political drivers of sexual & reproductive health

By | January 21, 2026
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Map of US states showing mean risk of adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes predicted by social drivers of health

In our 2025 wrap-up, we recapped last year’s theme of political determinants of health. In this post, we apply that lens to sexual and reproductive health — part of this year’s focus on Health in All Policies. No doubt about it: politics and policy matter to our health As we’ve written here many times before,… Read More: Political drivers of sexual & reproductive health »

Health in All Policies: The Medical Care Blog’s Focus for 2026

By | January 2, 2026
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Medical Care section logo

A new year brings a clear choice. In 2026, The Medical Care Blog will focus more directly on how policy decisions shape health. Not just health policy in isolation, but policies across and intersecting between housing, labor, education, transportation, climate, and criminal legal systems. This approach is often called Health in All Policies. The idea… Read More: Health in All Policies: The Medical Care Blog’s Focus for… »

2025: Our Year in Review

By | December 19, 2025
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Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to our 2025 wrap-up! In the US, 2025 has been a very challenging year for many in clinical and public health practice and research. With funding cuts, layoffs, and reductions-in-force, many of our readers (and yours truly) had to face the fact that our livelihoods were no longer secure. It… Read More: 2025: Our Year in Review »

Call to Action: Patient-Partnered Research

By | December 11, 2025
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(Editor’s note: This post was co-authored by the following leaders: Greg Merritt, Ava Zebrick, Bill Stephen, Cheslie Johnson, Crispin Goytia, Jeffrey Ordway, Kristie Hill, Melissa Bronson, Nadine Zemon, Neely Williams, Shirley Stowe, and Tiffany Jones.) Over the past year, as Patient Partner leaders for PCORnet®, we have been developing a manuscript chronicling the PCORnet journey… Read More: Call to Action: Patient-Partnered Research »

Upcoming Premium Spikes in 2026: The Crisis Everyone Saw Coming

By | December 4, 2025
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Health Insurance-related CC graphics

For years, analysts warned that the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies, which were temporarily extended during the COVID-19 pandemic, masked the true cost trajectory of the individual market. This fall, that warning has become reality. The 2026 open enrollment window (Nov 1 – Jan 15, with a deadline of December 15 for coverage… Read More: Upcoming Premium Spikes in 2026: The Crisis Everyone Saw Coming »

8 Things to Watch for the 2026 ACA Open Enrollment Period

By | October 30, 2025
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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace Open Enrollment season starts November 1, 2025 in most states. The premiums insurers charge are increasing. And, with enhanced premium tax credits set to expire at the end of the year, out-of-pocket premiums are expected to increase drastically. Additionally, changes to Marketplace enrollment and eligibility rules in this year’s… Read More: 8 Things to Watch for the 2026 ACA Open Enrollment… »

States Jostle Over $50B Rural Health Fund as Trump’s Medicaid Cuts Trigger Scramble

By | October 22, 2025
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Photo from the Rural Health Transformation Planning Summit. A man in suit, wearing glasses, stands behind podium holding a microphone.

WASHINGTON — Nationwide, states are racing to win their share of a new $50 billion rural health fund. But helping rural hospitals, as originally envisioned, is quickly becoming a quaint idea. Rather, states should submit applications that “rebuild and reshape” how health care is delivered in rural communities, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official Abe Sutton… Read More: States Jostle Over $50B Rural Health Fund as Trump’s Medicaid… »

Autism and Acetaminophen use during Pregnancy: reviewing the evidence

By | October 20, 2025
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colorful puzzle pieces connecting brains and genes, as evidence links risk factors for autism

What just happened, and why people are talking about it In late September 2025, FDA announced it would start a process to add language to acetaminophen labels noting a possible association with autism and ADHD when used during pregnancy, and it sent a notice to physicians [pdf] summarizing the concern. The move followed statements from… Read More: Autism and Acetaminophen use during Pregnancy: reviewing the evidence »

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail? New Conspiracy Theory Takes Wing at Kennedy’s HHS

By | October 16, 2025
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This article was first published on KFF Health News.  It also ran on CNN. It is republished here for free. While plowing a wheat field in rural Washington state in the 1990s, William Wallace spotted a gray plane overhead that he believed was releasing chemicals to make him sick. The rancher began to suspect that all white… Read More: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail? New… »

Interoperability Can Help Long-Term Care Bridge the Information Divide

By | September 26, 2025
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Abstract illustration with numbers, dots, and lines

Interoperability in healthcare is achieved when all providers are connected and able to securely share patient information. While hospitals and physician practices continue to make progress—supported by federal incentives to implement electronic health record (EHR) systems—long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) providers often remain at the margins. LTPAC Providers Include: Skilled nursing facilities (SNF) Nursing homes… Read More: Interoperability Can Help Long-Term Care Bridge the Information Divide »

Rebuilding Trust: A Missing Piece in Chronic Disease Management

By | September 18, 2025
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Chronic diseases—hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease—are leading causes of death globally. In the United States, their burden is especially severe in African American communities. One often overlooked barrier in managing these conditions is medical trust. Without trust in healthcare, access, prevention, treatment, and long-term care are far less effective. Why Trust Matters in Healthcare Trust… Read More: Rebuilding Trust: A Missing Piece in Chronic Disease Management »

Difficult Circumstances Require Tough Decisions

By | August 29, 2025
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Given the impending evisceration of Medicaid, potential cuts to Medicare, and reductions in medical foreign aid, many ill individuals will face decreased access to supplies, equipment, and staff, necessitating difficult decisions about who receives care and how much treatment they will receive. Those making these decisions will have the uncomfortable choice of refusing treatments. This… Read More: Difficult Circumstances Require Tough Decisions »

A Rule Change for Medicare Payments: Could This Finally Be What Primary Care Needs?

By | August 6, 2025
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed rule for the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. And big changes may be coming–including some potential for payments to primary care to increase, and for payments to other specialties to decrease. Though the changes are controversial, they might be just what primary care needs.… Read More: A Rule Change for Medicare Payments: Could This Finally Be… »

The Mystery of How Many People Are on Medicaid

By | July 24, 2025
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If you have been following the debate about Medicaid cuts, you know it’s a giant program, America’s largest in terms of the number of people it covers. But you may be confused about how many people Medicaid actually covers. Is it 71 million Americans, the number most commonly used in The New York Times and… Read More: The Mystery of How Many People Are on Medicaid »

Medicaid Cuts are Dire–Here is Some of Our Best Writing on Its Value

By | July 23, 2025
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The Medicaid cuts are dire in the Big Beautiful Bill. Some of the forthcoming changes and cuts are still a couple of years away, but now is the time to prepare. We should remember how important Medicaid is and why, and continue to talk widely about its value and its challenges. We should also understand… Read More: Medicaid Cuts are Dire–Here is Some of Our Best Writing… »

From Authority to Analysis: How Evidence-Based Medicine Reshaped Modern Healthcare

By | May 15, 2025
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For much of modern medicine, clinical decisions leaned on tradition, authority, and experience. Physicians often followed longstanding practices because “that’s how it’s always been done.” But in recent decades, a quiet revolution changed everything: the rise of evidence-based medicine (EBM). EBM has reshaped clinical care. Now, it’s time for that same rigor to permeate public… Read More: From Authority to Analysis: How Evidence-Based Medicine Reshaped Modern Healthcare »

It Was a Lab Leak! So Says the White House

By | May 9, 2025
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It is official, the cause of COVID-19 was clearly and definitively a lab leak! How do we know? Well, the White House created an official website declaring as much. Topped with an obsequious image of President Trump emerging from pitch darkness (presumably to reveal the truth?), the site looks like something created by the satirical… Read More: It Was a Lab Leak! So Says the White House »

A Danger to the Public’s Health–APHA Calls for the Removal of RFK Jr.

By | May 5, 2025
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Last month, the American Public Health Association (APHA) released a statement by Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin, MD describing the ways in which Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a “danger to the public’s health” and calling for his resignation. I had missed this. I found it when searching for whether APHA had taken an updated… Read More: A Danger to the Public’s Health–APHA Calls for the Removal… »

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Defense of Medicaid in an Era of Government Efficiency

By | March 29, 2025
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The recent budget resolution passed by the House of Representatives proposes significant spending cuts, including approximately $880 billion from programs under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which encompasses Medicaid. This proposal has raised concerns about potential reductions in Medicaid funding, a program that currently provides health coverage to over 72… Read More: Defense of Medicaid in an Era of Government Efficiency »

As States Mull Medicaid Work Requirements, Two With Experience Scale Back

By | February 20, 2025
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President Donald Trump’s return to the White House sent a clear signal about Medicaid to Republicans across the country: Requiring enrollees to prove they are working, volunteering, or going to school is back on the table. The day after Trump’s inauguration, South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster asked federal officials to approve a work requirement… Read More: As States Mull Medicaid Work Requirements, Two With Experience Scale… »

Chappell Roan finally got us all talking about the uninsured again

By | February 13, 2025
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Last Sunday, standing at the mic with a grammy in hand for best new artist, Chappell Roan finally got the U.S. talking about the uninsured again. Reading from her notebook, she used the moment to call for adequate wages and health care for aspiring artists. She explained, “If my label would have prioritized artists’ health,… Read More: Chappell Roan finally got us all talking about the uninsured… »

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Surveying Health Outcomes That Patients Are Most Qualified to Evaluate: Comments on Past, Present and Future Methods

By | February 3, 2025
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While training to be a psychometrician I was blessed/cursed more than 50 years ago with a favorable response to a research proposal to improve tools that researchers increasingly used for surveying health outcomes but were rarely evaluated psychometrically. Knowing little about health, I found very useful the WHO’s 1948 definition of it as “a state… Read More: Surveying Health Outcomes That Patients Are Most Qualified to Evaluate:… »

Project 2025 and Public Health

By | January 24, 2025
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Project 2025 logo

A lot has been said about the Project 2025 initiative including some discussion of its implications for public health in the United States. Representing a significant collaboration of more than 100 conservative organizations in the United States, Project 2025 certainly carries weight even if its specific role in the new administration remains uncertain. But what… Read More: Project 2025 and Public Health »

The Serious Business of Play – Why Adults Should Play More

By | January 16, 2025
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I ask my patients to do a lot of things: reduce stress, move more, and eat healthier. I also encourage them to use phones, cigarettes and other addictive substances less. One thing I don’t often ask them to do is play more, and I think I am missing something important. And maybe I am missing… Read More: The Serious Business of Play – Why Adults Should Play… »

Political Determinants of Health: A Consensus Statement for 2025

By | January 9, 2025
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Two hands, one in latex glove, making a heart shape

Happy New Year to our readers, and thank you for joining us as we welcome in 2025. Two weeks ago, we took time to review and celebrate our first-ever blog theme: Climate Change and Public Health. We learned a lot during our first year with a theme, and we will take those lessons into 2025.… Read More: Political Determinants of Health: A Consensus Statement for 2025 »