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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Imagine being discharged from the hospital, IV bandage still fresh, only to recover on a sidewalk with no shelter, no food, and no doctor to check on you. In the turbulent landscape of American healthcare, medical respite (MR) services have emerged as one of the most promising interventions for people experiencing homelessness. Medical respite programs… Read More »
There has been a constant battle for Medicaid in America – from states slashing Medicaid reimbursements or refusing to expand access, to Congress now threatening to cut and restrict Medicaid funding altogether. The program, which funds 78.4 million of our most vulnerable patients, is a necessity to primary care. Medicaid beneficiaries look like pregnant women… Read More »
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 »