Good morning and welcome to Tuesday’s New York Health Care newsletter, where we keep you posted on what’s coming up this week in health care news, and offer a look back at the important news from last week.
Curious whether the health of New York is improving? Look no further than the state’s “Prevention Agenda,” a blueprint for health officials to promote health equity and improvement across New York. Last week, state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett provided updates on the five focus areas of the five-year plan at a Public Health and Health Planning Council meeting.
The gist of it, as you might expect, is that New York is making strides in some areas, while falling short in others. For chronic disease prevention and management, Bassett said the state saw progress in adults over 50 through colorectal screenings, asthma management, smoking cessation and rates of diabetes. Meanwhile, she said, obesity remains a “stunning challenge to the health of our nation and our state,” with rates in children starting to inch up again after 2015.
The state had seen largely positive outcomes in establishing healthy and safe environments, Bassett said. But she noted that crash-related pedestrian deaths and the annual number of days with unhealthy air quality had increased. “I’m going to tell you the bad news,” she said. “That’s how we work in public health. We own up to our challenges.”
In promoting healthy women, children and infants, Bassett said, the state had seen mostly declines in its tracked metrics. The maternal mortality rate rose from 18.1 per 100,000 in 2016 to 19.3 in 2019, while the disparity between rates for Black and white populations further widened. Still, despite a “rising tide of opioid use,” Bassett said, the number of newborns with neonatal withdrawal symptoms improved from 2018 to 2019.
On mental health and substance use disorders, the state saw some improvements despite challenges to mental health in recent years. Reports of child abuse and maltreatment, as well as binge drinking rates among adults, fell, while ER visits for opioid overdoses improved. Still, the proportion of adolescents with major depressive episodes rose from 10.8 percent to 12.9 percent. “These data come before Covid,” Bassett added.
The last category, communicable diseases, comes as New York endures the continued spread of Covid, monkeypox and polio. On diseases outside of the “big three,” Bassett noted that transmission rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis have risen. In positive news, immunization rates among adolescents for HPV rose from 28 percent to nearly 40 percent in 2020. The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases also declined between 2010 and 2019, she added.
“I spent some time on all of these issues just to remind all of us of the scope of work of the Health Department,” Bassett said. “We are very much committed to the whole health of the population, which extends beyond the control of microbes to include the environment, non-communicable and chronic diseases. I very much look forward to our continued progress on Covid — that’s why I want everyone who’s eligible to get boosted — so that we can turn to and direct department attention to these longstanding challenges to the health of our population.”
WHAT WE’RE ALSO WATCHING THIS WEEK:
— The New York City Council Committee on Women and Gender Equity will hold a hearing Wednesday on a suite of bills aimed at improving child care and support for working mothers.
— The New York State Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council will conduct its first meeting on Thursday.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Shannon is off this week for vacation. POLITICO’s Julian Shen-Berro is stepping in to help with this newsletter. Please send all tips, news and scoops to him at [email protected].
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BIDEN’S MASS PARDON — POLITICO’s Mona Zhang: President Joe Biden’s mass pardon Thursday of thousands of cannabis offenders and push to review marijuana’s status under federal law is potentially the biggest shift in federal policy in more than half a century.
The move is particularly striking for the former senator who was instrumental in ratcheting up drug-related incarceration in the 1990s, and whose administration has punished employees for marijuana use.
But some cannabis advocates question whether the sweeping pre-election decision will actually accomplish much.
“This is a really major change of pace for him [on cannabis policy],” said David Holland, an attorney at Prince Lobel Tye in New York who has worked on clemency applications for federal marijuana prisoners and a petition to move cannabis to a less restrictive category. But “this is so small in the world of restorative justice in cannabis.”
LONG-COVID LIMITATIONS — POLITICO’s Krista Mahr: More than four in five Americans living with long Covid say their daily activity is limited by their ongoing Covid-19 symptoms, according to data released Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In September, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, working with the Census Bureau, began to survey Americans on how Covid symptoms that last three months or longer are impacting individuals’ ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
More than 81 percent of respondents experiencing symptoms said they were facing some limitations, and a quarter reported having “significant activity limitations.”
WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU: This roundup is for you! Send news tips, health tips, ideas, criticisms and corrections to [email protected].
NOW WE KNOW — Allergy seasons have nearly doubled in length and increased in intensity due to climate change.
TODAY’S TIP — From CNN: “A mental health playbook to support your child”
MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW Shannon @ShannonYoung413 on Twitter. And for all New Jersey health news, check out Daniel Han, @danieljhan_.
STUDY THIS — A study found people living in areas with higher viewership of Fox News had higher rates of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy.
Via Crain’s New York: “New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University Irving Medical Center have agreed to distribute $165 million to 147 people who reported sexual abuse or misconduct at the hands of their former gynecologist, Robert Hadden.”
New York officials have partnered with community advocates to form a panel aimed at reducing child poverty in the state, Spectrum News reports.
Ambulances in an upstate village will limit their use of lights and sirens following research that they “had little effect on the medical outcome of the patient while drastically increasing the possibility of a vehicle crash,” Times Union reports.
A New York Times review found major health insurers exploited the Medicare Advantage program to inflate their profits by billions of dollars.
“Hospitals nationwide are preparing for a third winter with Covid — the first one that’s also expected to include high levels of influenza and other respiratory illnesses that have simmered quietly in the background for the past two years,” NBC News reports.
Physicians are hitting the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, stating Republican-proposed abortion restrictions would harm one of the state’s largest economic sectors, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.
MISSED A ROUNDUP? Get caught up on the New York Health Care Newsletter.