
General Mental Health Issues
- Mental illness was not even remotely a part of society’s lexicon back then, and we were at a loss about everything but this: We would do everything possible to help Danny — and no one would know. We assumed his funk was a phase, and we wanted to shield him from the burden of people thinking that something was “wrong with him” when he came out of it. Read more here.
- A machine-learning model may be able to predict the risk of postpartum depression among new mothers, according to a retrospective cohort study. Read more here.
- Asian American and Pacific Islander sexual and gender minority young adults are at increased risk of substance use and mental health issues, but research on this group is sparse, a scoping review suggested. Of 172 articles screened, only six met final inclusion criteria for U.S.-based studies on psychosocial factors -- stigma, discrimination, and family and social support -- influencing mental health and substance use outcomes among this population of patients. Read more here.
Suicide Issues
- People who died by suicide frequently presented to hospitals within the previous year, indicating that these visits could be an opportunity for suicide risk assessment, according to cross-sectional data from Illinois. Read more here.
Medicaid
- Doctors, patients, and health experts are bracing for massive coverage losses as House Republicans are poised to impose Medicaid work requirements as part of the “big, beautiful bill” encompassing many of President Trump’s legislative priorities. They are warning that a blizzard of red tape and administrative hurdles will strip people of needed health care. Read more here.
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) works with state programs to administer Medicaid, under which more than 71.2 million people are enrolled. Medicaid offers benefits including nursing home care, personal care services, and assistance paying for premiums and other costs, according to CMS. Read more here.
The Health Insurance Marketplace
- A proposed rule from the Trump administration could see 2.2 million additional people lose coverage if finalized, reports the Congressional Budget Office. This rule, which has elements included in the bill, would shorten the open enrollment period, cause data verification inconsistencies, and eliminate a special enrollment period, which drew criticism from insurer Oscar Health during its latest earnings call. Read more here.
Federal and State Policy
- A much-anticipated report led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that children’s health is in crisis and that it’s likely the result of ultra processed food, exposure to chemicals, lack of exercise, stress, and overprescription of drugs. The report, from the Kennedy-led Make America Healthy Again Commission, shies away from the strident language Kennedy has used in the past in demonizing the food, farming and pharmaceutical industries, and leaves for another day proposals for how to improve kids’ health. Read more here.