Top public health officials today warned that sexually transmitted diseases continue to rise sharply — hitting a new U.S. record of nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis diagnosed in 2017, per preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The increase is attributed in part to a lack of federal funding for state public health programs, an increase in drug abuse, and socioeconomic problems.
Threat level: The CDC also says there are worrying indications that the current dual therapy antibiotic regime for gonorrhea could become ineffective if resistance, which has been rising in lab testing and reported in other countries, continues.
New research in JAMA Network Open finds the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid to more low-income people did not significantly change painkiller prescriptions, and may have increased access to a drug that helps with opioid addiction.
The bottom line: Medicaid expansion is still not the cause of the opioid crisis.
This week is make or break for a California bill that has the potential to sap hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from dialysis providers in the state.
What's happening now: California's Legislature has until this Friday to pass SB 1156, a union-backed bill that would cap commercial dialysis payments at lower Medicare rates and force charities to disclose donors of third-party payments. If it passes, Gov. Jerry Brown has until the end of September to sign it into law.
A group of Senate Republicans are responding to the latest Affordable Care Act lawsuit with a bill that would replace the pre-existing conditions protections the lawsuit would throw out.
Why it matters: While likely to be good politics heading into midterms, the GOP bill would both lower premiums and leave sick people less protected than they currently are. This is the circle that the party has been unable to square for a year and a half now.
