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There’s a talking point that often dominates the debate around health care reform: The majority of Americans like their health care plan. That’s why when Barack Obama was running for president — and when he rallied Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act — he repeatedly assured people that there was nothing to worry about. If you liked your health care plan, he promised unconvincingly, you could keep it. (Abdallah Fayyad, 3/21)

On Feb. 23, 2022, at 4:27 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, my wife, Shanley Rose Crutchfield, of Ellicott City, died at Pegasos, a voluntary assisted dying (VAD) organization, in Basel, Switzerland. She was 35 years old. (Kevin Froehlich, 3/18)

The confirmation of Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration is among the most consequential recent leadership appointments in Washington. In a polarized Senate, Califf’s past relationships with industry and decisions made under his previous FDA watch were enough to create uncertainty and a close confirmation vote. A parliament of patients, however, would likely have given Califf a more sizable majority based on something in his background that was not openly discussed: He is a believer in elevating the roles of patients in research and the development of new medicines. (Anthony Yanni, 3/18)

A case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court may result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Opponents of abortion rights would celebrate this outcome for many reasons. One is their belief that Roe constitutes a grievous legal mistake because the right to abortion has no grounding in the Constitution’s text. But the claim that the Supreme Court invented this right out of whole cloth is wrong since there are multiple textual bases for abortion rights. (Joshua M. Silverstein, 3/21)

The pharmaceutical industry has rapidly adapted to promoting prescription drugs to young people on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms, yet it can’t be troubled to include adolescents and young adults in clinical trials for these products. The industry needs to address this hypocrisy. Children, adolescents, and young adults are physically different from adults. It seems obvious, but the industry has not yet caught up to this fact. In a clinical trial of tofacitinib (Xeljanz), a drug approved for people living with forms of inflammatory bowel disease, the participants range in age from 18 to 65 years. For adalimumab (Humira), a similar drug, the mean age of clinical trial participants was around 40 years. (Sneha Dave, 3/18)

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have passed a bill to “improve the mental and behavioral health among health care providers” that President Biden is expected to sign. As an emergency medicine physician who worked through the darkest days of the Delta and Omicron surges, I can personally attest to the need to prioritize the mental health of medical professionals and fight burnout. But this bill is fundamentally flawed in its approach and is unlikely to achieve its desired effects. (Greg Jasani, 3/21)

Nearly a quarter of all fatal police shootings involve someone with a mental illness, according to a database published by The Washington Post.  As a society, we must demand improvement in the response to emergency calls when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, as well as increased funding for initiatives that offer support and treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues.  The current political and social climate and the induction of new city leadership gives our community an opportunity to expand the conversation, increase awareness of current solutions, and demand continued police reform. (Laura Maile and Allie Greene, 3/18)

According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Healthy Minds Monthly Poll, Americans’ views on social media are mixed. However, a third of Americans say social media does more harm than good to their mental health, and nearly half said that social media has hurt society at large. (Saul Levin, 3/21)