February roundup: population health in the news

Congress debates what to do about the Affordable Care Act

Although one of the Republican Party’s main goals for years has been to repeal the Affordable Care Act, just how to do it — and what to replace it with — has sparked much debate recently.

GOP leaders provide new details about ObamaCare repeal (The Hill, 2/16/2017)

Will Obamacare really go under the knife? (New York Times Magazine, 2/14/2017)

GOP health bill draft would cut Medicaid, emphasize tax credits (NPR, 2/24/2017)

Update on the CDC’s Winnable Battles initiative

In a recent article in JAMA, Thomas Frieden and coauthors reported on the progress made in the 6 focus areas that the CDC identified as winnable battles in 2010. Read about what worked well and what didn’t work so well!

What do we mean when we talk about health equity?

IAPHS board member David Kindig recently published a Viewpoint in JAMA entitled Population Health Equity: Rate and Burden, Race and Class. In it, he argues that equity must address both the rates of poor health in different groups and the absolute numbers of affected individuals, and that working-class whites may often bear an equal or greater equity burden than racial minorities.

Some more population health reads

What’s killing America’s black infants? (The Nation, 2/15/2017)

How the anti-vaxxers are winning (New York Times, 2/8/2017)

Hawaii state senator says homelessness is a medical condition, prescription is housing (WBUR, 2/6/2017)

Big data BS got you down?

Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, of the University of Washington, have launched a new class entitled “Calling Bullshit In the Age of Big Data.” The class website immediately went viral, and all are welcome to follow along using the class syllabus and case studies.

Need some good news?

Check out the latest episode of Healthcare Triage News from The Incidental Economist for a rundown of some recent successes in population health.

Did we miss something important? Leave it in the comments! Or do you have a tip for an upcoming roundup? Please send it to forum@iaphs.solidns.com.

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