Colorlines shares a new Truth Initiative documentary, Black Lives/Black Lungs, that shows how Big Tobacco targets black communities, from menthol cigarettes to selective marketing: “Nearly nine in ten African-American smokers use menthol cigarettes. That’s no coincidence. The tobacco industry targets everyone, but their targeting of the Black community has been uniquely damaging. They’ve strategically built up ties with Black politicians, leaders and organizations in order to use them whenever there’s a proposed menthol ban on the table. When I first began reading all of the industry documents and evidence that spelled out how menthol was strategically ingrained into Black culture, I was angry. I was angry about how much the tobacco industry had negatively impacted my community—but also angry that I hadn’t known about it before.”
President Trump announced Thursday that the opioid epidemic is a national emergency, and that “We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of money on the opioid crisis,” German Lopez reported in Vox. The President’s statement came after the administration had indicated that it was not necessary to make such a declaration, despite the recommendation to do so by the commission the President convened to address the epidemic. The designation will empower the executive branch to move forward on other commission recommendations, including allowing states to make changes to their Medicaid programs that will enable more people to qualify Medicaid coverage for residential treatment, increasing access to medications that help treat opioid misuse, and improving enforcement of laws that require insurers to provide equal access to mental health treatment.
TalkingPointsMemo reports that organizations that previously allied with the Obama administration to enroll Latinos in the health insurance exchanges have not received any support from the Trump administration to continue their outreach programs. “Since Obamacare’s exchanges launched in 2014, a massive amount of work happened behind the scenes to spread the word to millions of uninsured Latinos so they could take advantage of the new coverage and to convince enough people to sign up to keep the insurance markets afloat. Much of that work happened in partnerships between the White House, HHS, and hundreds of partner groups. Latinos, who disproportionately lacked health insurance, were a key target of the Obama administration, which poured federal resources into education and outreach specifically aimed at Latinos.”
Deaths from heroin are spurring heroin-themed plays in some of the communities most affected by the epidemic. A profile in the New York Times explores how the theatrical productions, which foster awareness, conversation, action, and catharsis, are in some respects similar to those that emerged with the AIDS epidemic.
Despite evidence that integrating mental and physical health care improves outcomes and saves costs, uptake of this model among health care providers has been slow, Joanne Silberner reports for Politico. She profiles Southcentral Foundation, a health center for native Alaskans that adopted the integrated approach nearly three decades ago and has seen patient satisfaction go up and visits for medical care go down. Southcentral has found having mental health care on site helps eliminate stigma, and reduce logistical and cost barriers that can keep people from getting the care they need. So why the slow uptake among providers? Barriers include an insurance model that has focused on payment for medical procedures, rather than services like counseling, and a lack of recognition of the links between physical and mental health.
In STAT, Bryan Rinker from California Healthline looks at the challenges of struggling with addiction in “treatment deserts” where there is little or no access to medication-assisted treatment. For a year, he followed the progress of an expectant mother who had to negotiate a two-hour round trip bus journey for treatment.
A new study published by Health Affairs finds that Appalachian residents face rising infant mortality rates and falling life expectancy, compared with the rest of the US.
Oregon became the fifth state to raise the tobacco purchasing age to 21.