It’s been a rocky year for public health and climate change. We began 2024 with the news that 2023 had been, by far, the hottest year on record. The average temperature had increased so much from the prior year, that one scientist described it as not just breaking records, but a leap-frogging of them. At… Read More »
Hi, My name is Dr. Ben King and I’m the new Chair of the Medical Care section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). I am beyond excited about what the next couple of years have in store for us as a professional organization. I also recognize that we are entering a time of immense… Read More »
Paxlovid is startlingly expensive. As with many drugs in the United States, its pricing deserves renewed scrutiny. Among a handful of approved anti-retrovirals, the drug is the go-to prescription medicine to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults. It can reduce the likelihood of ending up in the hospital for people at elevated risk. For older people… Read More »
Veterans Day is a day to recognize and honor those who served in the Armed Forces. Retired Sergeant First Class Allen Barton spends each Veterans Day thinking about his time in service and remembering those he served with. Allen was enlisted in the U.S. Army on active duty and in the Army Reserve for 23… Read More »
*This post was originally published on KFF Health News on November 8, 2025. It is published with open permission by that site. A new federal watchdog audit is ratcheting up pressure on government officials to crack down on billions of dollars in overcharges linked to Medicare Advantage home visits. But so far, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid… Read More »
Racial residential segregation in the US is persistent and associated with racial health inequities. This month’s special guest is Dr. Kristen Brown, a senior research associate at Urban Institute. We discuss her recent publication Still Separate, Still Not Equal: An ecological examination of redlining and racial segregation with COVID-19 vaccination administration in Washington DC. We… Read More »
Note: The 2024 election wraps-up in short order. KFF once again published a thoughtful analysis of competing positions on health care–in this case the Affordable Care Act. And we are republishing that here. Enjoy. -The Editors Health care is suddenly front and center in the final sprint to the presidential election, and the outcome will… Read More »
Note: It’s election season. And time to take a look at the health policy positions of the presidential candidates. KFF published this thorough and well-sourced analysis of the candidates’ competing positions on everything from health care and abortion to public health and gun violence. Enjoy. -The Editors The general election campaign is underway, spotlighting former… Read More »
It’s September! That means it’s our blogiversary =) This month marks the 10-year anniversary (blogiversary) of The Medical Care Blog, where we focus on the intersection of public health and medical care. To celebrate this milestone, we are dedicating this month’s podcast to a blog-focused episode featuring special guests Greg Stevens and Ben King, co-editors… Read More »
This post was originally published on KFF Health News. It is published with open permission by that site. Measles is on the rise in the United States. In the first quarter of this year, the number of cases was about 17 times what it was, on average, during the same period in each of the four… Read More »
This post was originally published on KFF Health News. It is published with open permission by that site. When Vice President Kamala Harris walked across the debate stage Tuesday night to shake the hand of former President Donald Trump, it was the first time the two had met in person. But that was the rare… Read More »
Caring about the environment can feel like an uphill battle, where our individual efforts can seem small against the colossal issue of climate change. But working together–being just a little less of an individual in this battle–can feel uplifting and make a more significant difference. Environmental activist and author, Bill McKibben, joined Cal State LA’s… Read More »
“Love your community” was the overriding message from East Side Los Angeles-based community environmental activist mark! Lopez. mark! [spelled as written] was the third guest of the Cal State LA Public Health Department’s annual Book Read project. Love, he said, is the first concrete step that anybody can take to help protect and support their community.… Read More »
How can we understand the local impact of climate change on our communities, now and in the future? All year, we are keeping up our focus on the climate crisis here on the blog and podcast. One of the biggest issues with understanding the impact of climate change is that the data on climate-related deaths… Read More »
Every little bit helps. That is one of the key messages from our conversations on public health, climate change and hope with climate journalists Sammy Roth and Caleigh Wells. Each visited California State University Los Angeles as part of our Department of Public Health’s annual book read. All faculty and students in the department received… Read More »
Climate change is a global killer, contributing to over 5 million deaths annually. Extreme temperatures and weather not only worsen chronic health conditions but can lead to new physical and mental health issues. Primary care providers are already facing challenges with managing climate-driven health problems, and are certain to face more. For my primary care… Read More »
Consolidation, broadly, and private equity, specifically, is threatening the survival of primary care. Because of its life-extending, quality-improving, cost-reducing, and equity-promoting benefits, primary care has been declared a common good, worthy of the public stewardship and investment provided to the justice system, highways, and public schools. Through its core functions – coordination, comprehensiveness, access, and… Read More »
Summer is here, and what summer is complete without some time at the beach? But there’s a catch: our health and the ocean’s health are connected in some surprising ways. Beach closures in summer — from algal blooms and red tides, for example — are just one of the ways that the ocean’s health can… Read More »
Climate change is undeniably a bleak story. Recent data–from the top of a remote volcanic mountain–show that carbon dioxide is accumulating in our atmosphere faster than ever. Its concentration has reached levels far beyond those in any other time of human existence. This bad news is balanced, however, against a highly-regarded good news report that… Read More »
June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month. On this edition of the Healthy Intersections Podcast, we recognize Alzheimer’s Awareness Month by hosting a round-table discussion between Dr. Lisa Lines, principal investigator for the RTI Rarity project; Chloe McGlynn, a research public health analyst at RTI; Dr. Vicki Johnson-Lawrence, social epidemiologist and community-engaged participatory researcher at… Read More »
Food is life. A consistent, nutritious diet can improve overall health and protect against chronic conditions. But not everyone can access or afford a nutritious diet. In 2022, 1 in 8 households in the U.S. and 1 in 6 households with children were food insecure. Black and Latinx households experience more than double the rates… Read More »
Abortion Bans Are Driving Off Doctors and Closing Clinics, Putting Basic Health Care at Risk The rush to ban abortion in some US states after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.… Read More »
After seemingly endless negative pregnancy tests and a few early losses after rounds of alternate fertility treatments, I felt that in-vitro fertilization (IVF) was my only hope of becoming a mother. As I saw others conceiving naturally, or succeeding relatively quickly with less invasive assisted methods, my longing and desperation for motherhood only grew. I… Read More »
For new readers, the editors and the majority of contributors to The Medical Care Blog recently authored and signed onto a special consensus statement about climate change, labeling it the “greatest threat” to global public health. As part of the plan to publish that statement, we also declared that the drivers and health risks of… Read More »
Without a healthy planet, we cannot have a healthy humanity. Every April is Earth Month, an opportunity to reflect on the deep and profound connection between the health of our planet and our own well-being. Our existence is dependent on the web of life that surrounds us. It is our responsibility to nurture and protect… Read More »
I am a health economist, trained to make sense of messy data. I generally work amidst a sea of numbers. But I’ve found that seeking out stories in health services research–those of doctors and patients–can help me anchor what’s truly important in research. These stories may also help researchers communicate the value of their work… Read More »
How patients are seeing their doctor is changing, and that could shape access to and quality of care for decades to come. More than 100 million Americans don’t have regular access to primary care, a number that has nearly doubled since 2014. Yet demand for primary care is up, spurred partly by record enrollment in… Read More »
It’s been 4 years this month since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. Where are we now? It’s time to take stock of the real impact of the pandemic. Aside from the burden of illness and mortality, the mental health toll, and the strains on the healthcare system, COVID even… Read More »
If the US healthcare industry were its own country, it would be in the top 10% of all countries in greenhouse gas emissions. Welcome to the February, 2024 edition of the Healthy Intersections Podcast! This month, we sit down with David Introcaso, PhD, to discuss the healthcare industry’s carbon footprint. Dr. Introcaso is the host… Read More »
In January, the Medical Care Blog’s editors published a consensus statement on climate policy and health. This statement was co-signed by many of our authors, editors, and editorial board members of the Medical Care journal. As we look ahead to our focus theme for 2024, we want to begin with a look backward as well.… Read More »
A special supplemental issue of Medical Care supports the growing recognition that patient economic outcomes matter in health care. Sponsored by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the issue highlights studies that explore the relationship between economic outcomes, patient care, health outcomes and equity. Patient-centered… Read More »
The social determinants of health (SDOH), the conditions in which we are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age, have a significant impact on health outcomes. Research shows that a whopping 80-90% of health outcomes are dependent on SDOH factors, while medical care only accounts for about 10-20%. New clinical-community partnerships designed to address… Read More »
January 2024 Edition Hello, and welcome to the Healthy Intersections Podcast, hosted here at The Medical Care Blog. We’re kicking off a year of climate action here on the podcast and blog. For our first episode of 2024, we interview Dr. Imari Walker-Franklin, a research chemist at RTI International, science communicator, and the co-author of… Read More »
It was the tweet heard around the healthcare world. In 2018, after the American College of Physicians had published their position paper advocating gun control as a public health imperative, the National Rifle Association posted a tweet starting: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” Clinicians immediately began posting images and… Read More »
Medicare for All is Not Happening… 10 years from now will we have Medicare Advantage for All? Grandmother and granddaughter in the same health plan? Others have written that the US should achieve universal health insurance coverage, better health outcomes, and lower costs via comprehensive programs such as “Medicare for All”, as proposed by Senator… Read More »
From The Medical Care Blog: A special consensus statement on climate change and public health In 2021, more than 250 of the world’s leading medical and public health journals released a joint statement about climate change and public health. Published simultaneously, editorial boards of the journals declared climate change to be the “greatest threat” to… Read More »
This is the final post of 2023 here at The Medical Care Blog. To toast the year behind us we’ve compiled the year’s top 10 blog posts and highlighted some of the many milestones for our contributors and editorial team. Once again, we want to recognize YOU–our amazing readers and contributors. Since our founding in… Read More »
In this post, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected frequencies of diagnoses and claims costs in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces in 2020 and 2021. The ACA marketplaces are critical sources of coverage for millions of Americans and were increasingly so during the COVID-19 pandemic due to job losses and coverage disruptions. The… Read More »
This month’s podcast focuses on structural racism. Welcome to the Healthy Intersections podcast for November, 2023. This month’s podcast focuses on structural racism in the United States. Joining us to talk about the new Structural Racism Effect Index (SREI) is Dr. Zach Dyer, lead author on the analysis. Check out the dashboard at SREIndex.com and… Read More »
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has gone from a deadly infection to a manageable health condition in the last thirty years. Today, we have medications available that can treat those with HIV and prevent HIV in uninfected people. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PrEP, is a medication given to individuals without HIV to keep them from… Read More »
California just took a significant step toward single payer health care. On Oct 7, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 770 (Unified Health Care Financing) into law. Introduced by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the law directs the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency to research, develop and pursue a waiver framework… Read More »
This month’s topic focuses on suicide and social determinants of health (SDoH) Welcome to the Healthy Intersections podcast for October, 2023. Today’s podcast focuses on the links between suicide and social determinants of health in the United States. Suicide is one of the causes of deaths of despair, along with deaths from drugs and alcohol.… Read More »
The postpartum period, recognized as the fourth trimester or the 12 weeks after birth, is often overlooked. In 2021, 52% of all maternal deaths occurred during the postpartum period. And mental health was the top underlying cause, accounting for 23% of all deaths (mostly suicides and overdoses related to substance use disorder). More than 60%… Read More »
Representation matters to health. Improving pathways into health care and public health is an important way to increase workforce diversity. This is a crucial step in reducing health disparities and advancing health equity in the U.S. Black, Latinx, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities face higher rates of chronic and life-threatening health conditions. Yet… Read More »
Happy fall! This month’s Healthy Intersections Podcast focuses on food and climate — a timely topic during the fall harvest months. Food insecurity and food quality are known as important social determinants of health. For example, the percent of residents receiving food assistance (eg, SNAP) is associated with neighborhood life expectancy. On the other hand,… Read More »
What if there was a public health problem so big that even public health leaders were too enmeshed in its grip to be able to warn against its perils? I worry that we are in that very conundrum with regard to our relationship with technology. It has accelerated from being part of our world to… Read More »
This entry was one of the winners of our Summer 2023 student blog contest! Trends in Life Expectancy The recent decline in life expectancy in the United States is largely attributed to the well-known COVID-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic. However, these recent crises are not the sole drivers of the stagnation and subsequent drop in… Read More »
This entry was one of the winners of our Summer 2023 student blog contest! Anti-LGBTQ laws are flooding the United States. As of June, a historic 491 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in 2023 – a 203% increase from the entire 2022 year. More bills were introduced in the first three months of 2023 than… Read More »
Known as the fourth trimester of care, postpartum care has become unaffordable for many women. The costs of care are increasing, due to rising deductibles, increasing chronic diseases, and a lack of access to Medicaid. While postpartum care technically refers to the 12-week period after delivery, there is a movement to recognize that adequate postpartum… Read More »
Hi everyone! We’re excited to share the August edition of our Healthy Intersections Podcast with you. This month, we hosted Dr. Amanda Onwuka, a social epidemiologist and health services researcher at RTI International, as well as Jeremy Ney, author of American Inequality. We talk about the epidemic of drug overdose deaths in the US, mental… Read More »