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Despite hard-fought progress in recent years, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that drug overdose deaths in the U.S. are now at their highest level ever, soaring to more than 81,000 in the 12-month period between June 2019 and June 2020. At the same time, unprecedented challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic have illuminated existing weaknesses in our health care infrastructure when it comes to preventing and treating addiction. (Paul H. Earley, 2/10)

One gift tucked inside the $2.3 trillion Covid relief and government spending bill Congress passed during Christmas week is a ban on virtually all surprise medical bills. No longer will insured patients be hit with enormous unexpected invoices from emergency room doctors, anesthesiologists, radiologists and other health care providers who work outside health insurance networks. Charges like this have cost Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance some $40 billion a year, arousing universal outrage and bipartisan promises to crack down. After long delays and despite strenuous industry lobbying, lawmakers finally agreed to act. Doctors are now forbidden to charge patients directly for out-of-network care administered without patients’ consent, which must be given at least 72 hours in advance. Yet two crucial questions aren’t fully resolved: Who pays for the procedures if not the patients concerned, and who sets the price? (2/9)

For the past 35 years, I’ve worked at a leading public hospital in Florida that serves thousands of patients a day. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, our hospital has been at the epicenter of the crisis in the state. More than 500 employees have contracted COVID-19 there, and at least three have died. Even though the vaccine has been distributed to many front-line healthcare workers, we are not at the end of this health crisis. The caseload is still soaring across the state, as we’ve seen record cases and deaths in the weeks following the holiday season. That’s why I was shocked to hear that Florida’s elected leaders are considering giving blanket immunity to businesses and, potentially, even health providers and nursing homes from COVID-19 litigation. (Martha Baker, 2/9)

We’re just a few weeks into Joe Biden’s presidency, and already the broken promises are piling up. Biden made two big pledges in his campaign. The first was that he would unite the country and bring Republicans and Democrats together on Capitol Hill. Already he has broken that promise — rejecting an offer from 10 Republican senators to work with him on a filibuster-proof bipartisan covid-19 relief package. Biden’s second big promise was that he would “listen to scientists and heed their advice — not silence them.” (Marc A. Thiessen, 2/9)

On any single night just before the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 568,000 people experienced the misery of homelessness in the United States. Without federal action to assist households at risk of eviction, economists project that homelessness may increase by more than 40% after the eviction moratorium ends. Many of those at higher risk are Black or Native American, young, LGBTQ, those with disabilities, and people leaving foster care or prison. Increasingly, the elderly and working poor are also vulnerable to homelessness. Like COVID-19, homelessness disproportionately affects the most vulnerable amongst us and highlights systemic inequities. (Rosanne Haggerty and Mark Rosenberg, 2/10)

While the COVID-19 pandemic rages on with new variants, the urgency for Kentucky nurses to stay on the front lines now extends to a massive vaccine campaign. Just like Florence Nightingale and Mary Jane Seacole, British-Jamaican nurse, did in the Crimean war, nurses today are working 24/7 to get the mission accomplished. Although the practice settings may change from a critical care unit one day and the next to a large parking lot tent, football stadium or drive-through clinic, the shepherding of public health in the Commonwealth remains the same. A key question is, “Who is shepherding the mental health and wellness of nurses?” What about turning up the call for action with a “warp speed mission for the mental health and wellness for Kentucky nurses,” like a “vaccine to help build up immunity” from the pandemic’s triple impact on health, daily life disruption and economic downturn. (Janie Heath, 2/9)