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IIs it just me, or was it dark in Boston at 2:30 PM yesterday? “Winter is coming,” as George RR Martin’s House Stark says. “If it has to be winter, then absolutely let it be winter,” says poet Linda Gregg. Less than three weeks until 2025.
A healthcare critic on his inclusion in Luigi Mangione’s manifesto
The suspected murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, cites two prominent critics of the American health care system in his handwritten manifesto: journalist Elisabeth Rosenthal and filmmaker Michael Moore. Writing about the broader health care system, Mangione noted that “many exposed the corruption and greed decades ago (e.g. Rosenthal, Moore) and the problems simply persist.”
Rosenthal, a senior editor at KFF Health News and author of the 2017 bestseller “An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back,” was unaware of the manifesto’s contents until contacted by STAT recorded. “This is a terrible, tragic murder that should not have happened,” she said in an interview. “That said, I have actually spent the last decade of my life hearing and reporting on patients who are deeply frustrated and angry about a health care system that is not meeting their needs.” Read more about the manifesto from STAT’s Bob Herman and Tara Bannow.
A higher life expectancy is one thing. Health is another
Life expectancy is increasing all over the world. In 2000, the global average was just under 67 years. In 2019 there were 73. But you don’t always spend those extra years in good health. A study published yesterday in JAMA network opened found that the gap between the end of a person’s healthy years and the time they die – known as the health-longevity gap – has increased worldwide over the past two decades. Among the 183 WHO member states, that gap has grown to almost ten years, which equates to ten years at the end of life with disease. And that gap is on average more than two years longer for women than for men.
Researchers analyzed data from the WHO Global Health Observatory to calculate differences in health and longevity. They found that Americans see the largest gap among the 183 countries analyzed: about twelve years. Part of the problem, the authors note, is paradoxical: Thanks to reduced acute mortality, people who might have died from certain diseases in previous decades are now surviving, but with an increased chronic burden.
A bird flu mystery may never be solved
Over the past week, STAT’s Helen Branswell has been tracking what we know about a child in California with a possible case of bird flu. But the case can get cold, she reports. Officials still don’t know if the child definitely had the H5N1 bird flu — it could have been seasonal flu — nor do they know how the virus was contracted. A parent told a doctor that the child was drinking raw milk from a company, Raw Milk LLC, whose products tested positive for H5N1.
If the child is confirmed to have been infected through milk consumption, it will be the first such case recorded in the US. But don’t hold your breath: Lisa Santora, a public health official for Marin County, acknowledged to Helen that there’s a decent chance the infection won’t be confirmed. Read more.
The emerging arms race over insurance denial
Health insurers already use artificial intelligence to determine coverage. But a new crop of startups wants to harness the power of AI to combat insurance denials that block access to medical services. These companies promise to help automate calls for healthcare providers and patients, making it much faster and easier to dispute denials, which often go unchallenged. It is potentially groundbreaking because when people appeal, they are often successful.
“Of all the players in healthcare, it is the patients who are most affected and also have the fewest resources,” says software engineer Holden Karau, whose company is spearheading this effort. Read more from STAT’s Casey Ross.
How Texas could undermine its own medical system
Starting this fall, there’s a new question hospitals across Texas must ask every patient: “Are you a U.S. citizen?” Patients are not technically required to respond, but there is no doubt about the atmosphere such an inquiry creates. “It turns a refuge into a checkpoint,” writes medical student Akshara Ramasamy in a new First Opinion essay.
Ramasamy spent much of her childhood in Texas, where she worried about her family’s legal status as visa holders. But as a young patient she also spent a lot of time in hospitals, where she felt safe from those concerns. As she plans to continue her medical education in her home state, Ramasamy’s dual perspective puts her in a complicated position. “What am I actually promising in a world where hospitals are forced to inquire about citizenship?” she writes. “I feel like I’m only promising to do no harm if the patient can prove their rightful place in this country. The trust at the heart of the patient-provider relationship collapses under the weight of that provision.” Read more.
Vaccinations for children are also decreasing on the other side of the pond
Uptake of five key childhood vaccines fell in Britain between 2019 and 2023, according to a study published yesterday in The BMJ. Researchers analyzed vaccination rates at primary care practices across the country for the first and second doses of the MMR vaccine, as well as the rotavirus vaccine, the pneumococcal conjugate booster and a six-in-one shot that covers diphtheria, tetanus, polio and more.
But the recording speed does not decrease equally across the board. In clinics in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, fewer children received vaccines than in better-resourced areas, and that absolute difference only widened over the study period. The authors point to reduced access and acceptability as potential factors contributing to the disparities.
The study was published just days later. Here in the US, President-elect Donald Trump has suggested that he shares some of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s concerns about common childhood vaccines (which, to be clear, are scientifically unsubstantiated).
What we read
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Hospitals gave patients drugs during labor and then reported them for positive drug tests. Marshall Project
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The gold rush of perimenopause, The cut
- The FDA’s proposed ban on electric shock devices has gone on too long, say autism advocates STAT
- Montana Supreme Court upholds lower court ruling allowing gender-affirming care for minors AP
- Biden officials claim ‘biggest drop’ in overdose deaths. Experts are more cautious, STAT