The New Jersey legislature approved two big bills Thursday designed to counteract some of President Trump's changes to the Affordable Care Act and stabilize the state's individual insurance market.
Why it matters: Some ACA allies have pinned their hope on states to counteract the administration's policy moves, but there will likely only be limited effects in blue states. But if Gov. Phil Murphy approves these bills, it could give other blue states more encouragement to move forward.
A 2010 effort to deter opioid abuse led to a surge in heroin overdoses, according to a new working paper in NBER. The painkiller OxyContin was reformulated in 2010, and while it became harder to abuse, "each prevented opioid death was replaced with a heroin death," the paper says.
Adapted from Evans et. al., 2018, "How the Reformation of OxyContin Ignited the Heroin Epidemic", The National Bureau of Economic Research; Note: "Opioids" includes all opioid related deaths aside from those that are exclusively attributed to heroin; Chart: Axios Visuals
Why it matters: This underlines yet another reason why the opioid epidemic is so difficult to address. Even common-sense solutions may have unintended consequences.
Activism and political protest is on the rise on the left in the U.S., and support for the Affordable Care Act is one of the biggest issues motivating the protesters, according to the latest survey on activism and protest by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post.
Why it matters: It's a reversal from the last election cycle, when public opinion about the ACA was more negative than positive and Tea Party protests against the ACA were commonplace. It's clear that the political energy in health is switching from right to left.