Hello and welcome back to Community Health Roundup: your source for the latest in health news and information. This week we have a short but informative CHR where we look at two articles concerning the ACA and a third about opioid prescribing rates in the US.
Let’s talk turkey (definition: to speak seriously, frankly. No gobble gobble here) about the ACA. There are a lot of rumors, myths, and suspicions about it. Luckily, we have Mark Hall, law professor and director of the Health Law and Policy Program at Wake Forest University who wants to help dispel some of those rumors and provide you with cold hard facts on the benefits of the ACA. Head over to the News Observer to read his op-ed piece on the effects of the ACA.
While there have been positive gains from the ACA, research is showing that some of those gains are starting to reverse. According to a new article from the Commonwealth Fund, coverage rates are starting to decline due to “lack of federal legislative actions to improve specific weaknesses in the ACA and actions by the current administration that have exacerbated those weaknesses.” Read more about the decline of coverage rates here.
Here is a piece of good news: a new report conducted by the SERMO physician network shows that 7 in 10 physicians have cut back or stopped prescribing opioids. Read more about the report over at BuzzFeed.
About the Author
William Jacob Amadeus Pinnock is a Research Coordinator at OCHIN where he assists with the creation, execution, and dissemination of research projects. He graduated with an MS in Communication from Portland State University where he focused on health communication, rural mass media, and qualitative research methods. He has experience working in commercial health insurance, healthcare research, and radio broadcasting. In his spare time, he is an Adjunct Instructor at Portland State University helping students master the art of public speaking.
