Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Federal Judge Limits Probe Into Providers Offering Trans Care In Fla.
A legal battle over Florida’s ban on Medicaid spending for gender-affirming medical care spilled into Washington on Thursday as a federal judge partially granted an urgent request by 18 American medical and mental health groups to quash subpoenas sent to them by the state after they opposed the prohibition. The professional associations accused Florida of targeting members such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Endocrine Society after they expressed the widely accepted medical view that care such as puberty blockers, hormones and gender transition surgery can be appropriate treatment for transgender youth and adults. (Hsu, 1/26)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
State and federal officials announced Thursday that 322,273 Michigan residents signed up for 2023 insurance on the marketplace during the recently concluded open enrollment period. That was up 6% from a year earlier, and according to federal data, marks the highest "Obamacare" enrollment in Michigan since 2016 when 345,813 residents signed up. The insurance is known as Obamacare because it came into being when Barack Obama was president. (Reindl, 1/26)
A group of death row inmates filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Texas prison system over its policy of mandatory and indefinite solitary confinement for all prisoners who are awaiting execution, saying it causes severe physical and psychological harm. The suit alleges that the policy severely restricts their access to human interaction, medical care and legal representation as they are confined to their 8-by-12-foot (2.4-by-3.7-meter) cells for all but two hours a day. (Lozano, 1/26)
Heat-related deaths in Texas last year reached a new high for this century amid a sharp rise in migrant deaths and soaring temperatures enhanced by climate change, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data going back to 1999. (Nguyen and Douglas, 1/26)
In hindsight, it’s clear that something was very wrong in this suburban town at the Jersey Shore, where many people worked at or lived near a chemical company that was flushing toxic waste into waterways and burying it in the ground. Men would come home from the plant, which made dyes and resins, and their perspiration would be the color of the dye with which they worked. (Parry, 1/27)
