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→ Today, you can listen to Episode 1: “Racism Can Make You Sick”

The 1942 lynching of Cleo Wright in Sikeston, Missouri, and conversations with one of the few remaining witnesses launch a discussion about the health consequences of racism and violence in the United States. Host Cara Anthony speaks with history scholar Eddie R. Cole and racial equity scholar Keisha Bentley-Edwards about the physical, mental, and emotional burdens on Sikeston residents and all Black Americans.

→ Coming Monday: The companion premieres on WORLD’s “Local, USA” at 8 p.m. ET on Sept. 16 on , , and the

→ Click here for more details on the multimedia project from �������ýҕ�l Health News, Retro Report, and GBH's WORLD. 

Nearly 50 million Americans have been covered by health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces since they opened a decade ago, according to tax data analyzed by the Treasury Department and published on Tuesday. Federal officials said that the findings represent roughly one in seven U.S. residents, a broad swath of the population that underscores the vast, and seemingly irreversible, reach of the 2010 law. (Weiland, 9/10)

Many provisions of the Affordable Care Act are popular and the healthcare reform law has brought the proportion of Americans without healthcare insurance down to an all-time low. As president, Donald Trump backed "repeal and replace" efforts. (Kaplan, 9/9)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: ACA Enrollment Platforms Suspended Over Alleged Foreign Access To Consumer Data
Suspicions that U.S. consumers’ personal information could be accessed from India led regulators to abruptly bar two large private sector enrollment websites from accessing the Affordable Care Act marketplace in August. New details about the suspensions come in legal filings made late Friday stemming from an effort by the two to regain access to the Obamacare marketplace before the upcoming ACA open enrollment period, which starts Nov. 1. (Appleby, 9/10)

Health insurance updates from Florida, Texas, Maryland, Connecticut, Oregon, and California —

Elevance subsidiary Wellpoint is launching new Affordable Care Act plans in Florida, Maryland and Texas, as the health insurer continues investing in an increasingly lucrative business line. (Pifer, 9/9)

The cost of individual health plans sold on and off Connecticut’s Affordable Care Act Exchange will rise by an average of 5.9% next year, less than insurers had requested — but an amount still considered “unaffordable and unsustainable” by the state’s attorney general when coupled with previous years’ increases. Small group policies will go up by an average of 7.8%. (Carlesso, 9/9)

The price of individual and small business health insurance plans will jump again next year — and two by double digits that could leave people paying nearly $700 more a year for their monthly premiums. After seeking public comment, officials with the state Division of Financial Regulation said Thursday they approved an average 8% rate hike for individual plans sold on the federal marketplace — just 1% lower than what the companies requested earlier this year. The division also approved an average 12% rise for small company plans, which basically was what the companies had requested, according to figures published Thursday. (Terry, 9/6)

Proposition 35 asks California voters to make permanent a tax on health insurance providers, also known as managed care organizations. The measure also sets rules around how the state uses the money collected from that tax. California has expanded those who are eligible for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. Healthcare providers have complained the state reimburses doctors, nurse practitioners and others too little for providing services to Medi-Cal patients. The measure requires the state to use the money collected from the tax to be used only to reimburse those Medi-Cal providers for primary, specialty and emergency care plus family planning, mental health and prescription drugs. (Zavala, 9/9)

Congress returns this week with little time to pass annual spending bills that fund agencies including the Health and Human Services Department — but a new fight over migrant voting threatens to derail those efforts. Lawmakers are supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills before the start of each new fiscal year Oct. 1. When lawmakers left town at the end of the July, the House had passed just five, despite Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) pledge to pass them all. The Senate had passed none. (McAuliff, 9/9)

It’s that time again. The last act of Congress funding the federal government expires on September 30. So, unless Congress passes new funding legislation by then, much of the government will shut down. (Millhiser, 9/9)

The House Monday passed a bill by 306 to 81 votes to make drug companies stop doing business with some Chinese biotechs within eight years if they want to remain in good standing with the federal government. (Wilkerson, 9/9)

If Congress does not include extra funding for Department of Veterans Affairs medical services in an upcoming stopgap spending bill, the department will struggle to keep up with demand for care, administration officials are warning. On a conference call with reporters Monday, VA officials confirmed they are asking Congress to include an extra $12 billion for the department's medical budget in the upcoming stopgap spending measure — which must be passed into law by the end of the month — to ensure outreach to veterans and growth of the system can continue apace without compromising wait times and staffing levels. (Kheel, 9/9)

Years ago, when a brand-name medication’s patent expired, consumers had to wait a long time for a more affordable generic version to come to market. But in 1984, a little-known law put an end to that waiting period and paved the way for the large quantity of generic drugs available today. (Yeo, 9/10)

From the White House —

Health insurance companies will have to upgrade their mental health benefits to match the coverage they offer for other care under a final rule three federal departments issued Monday. The latest mental health parity regulation from the Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury departments, first proposed in July 2023, builds on decades of policymaking designed to promote access to behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment. (Early, 9/9)

On marijuana use —

Donald Trump has signaled support for a potentially historic federal policy shift to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, putting his position in line with that of his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. The commonality reflects a major shift toward broad public support for legalization in recent years and marks the first time that both major-party presidential candidates support broad cannabis reform, according to the U.S. Cannabis Council. (Whitehurst and Matat, 9/9)

Nearly a year and a half after it was announced, the Cannabis Research Institute is getting operations underway in Chicago, with the goal of studying, among other things, how marijuana could help or harm people. The institute’s leader hopes to break new ground in finding medical uses for cannabis, possibly for the treatment of cancer. Researchers also can help with the creation of a new state reference lab to check for accuracy in the testing of commercial pot. And they could track down a virus that threatens to ruin crops. (McCoppin, 9/9)

With ballot deadlines approaching, courts in Nebraska and Missouri are weighing legal arguments that could take measures seeking to expand abortion rights out of the hands of voters. In Missouri, a day before the state’s Supreme Court plans to hear arguments over whether a proposed abortion-rights amendment will go before voters, Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft decertified the measure, removing it from the ballot himself. ... In Nebraska, the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in three lawsuits that seek to keep one or both of the state’s competing abortion initiatives off the ballot. (Beck and Ballentine, 9/9)

The number of abortions reported in Florida during the first eight months of this year was nearly 13 percent lower than during the same period in 2022 and 2023, as a law preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has led to fewer procedures. (Saunders, 9/9)

As former President Trump struggles with messaging on the issue of abortion, Vice President Harris’ campaign is making a major push focused on the issue. The Harris campaign is running ads focused on reproductive rights in several key states, and recently launched a bus tour that will make about 50 stops focusing on battleground states between now and Election Day, Nov. 5. (McCammon, 9/10)

Trump and Harris have talked about their stances on abortion and what the future might hold for abortion access if elected in the 2024 presidential election. (Quinn, 9/10)

In related news about the Supreme Court —

Justice Elena Kagan said on Monday that Americans were right to worry about the future of rights that form the fabric of their everyday lives — such as access to contraception and interracial and gay marriage — since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. Justice Kagan said that in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, her colleagues had overturned the right to abortion with a historical argument that American women had not been free to have the procedure earlier in the nation’s history. (Kantor, 9/9)

Justice Elena Kagan said the U.S. Supreme Court would be better off spending less time hurrying through cases on its emergency docket. "It's a very hard problem," Kagan said on Monday in an hour-long interview with a professor at New York University's law school. "I don't think we do our best work in this way." (Stempel, 9/9)

On reproductive health and PFAS —

A new lawsuit on Monday claims that Trojan condoms are not safe because they contain toxic "forever chemicals," which have been linked to cancer. In a proposed class action filed in Manhattan federal court, the plaintiff Matthew Goodman said Church & Dwight's (CHD.N), opens new tab products, advertised as "America's #1 Condom," are unfit for their intended purpose because they contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. (Stempel, 9/9)

Handi-Craft Co on Friday pushed back against claims that the company failed to warn parents that their plastic baby bottles leach microplastics when heated, arguing in part that microplastics are ubiquitous and their health effects are unproven. Handi-Craft and another baby bottle maker, Philips North America, are each facing proposed class actions claiming they failed to warn parents that the polypropylene bottles and cups sold under the brands Philips Avent and Handi-Craft’s Dr. Brown's, when heated as part of regular use, could expose infants to tiny flecks of plastic that can interfere with their digestive, reproductive and immune systems. Both companies have moved to dismiss the claims against them. (Jones, 9/9)

A team of researchers has discovered an antibody that can counter all known variants of the COVID-19 virus. The scientists also claim the antibody can also resist distantly related viruses that infect other animals. SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing COVID-19, uses its spike protein to invade and infect another individual, or the host. Antibodies, produced by the host in response, bind to the spike protein to block its action and prevent infection. The researchers, led by those at The University of Texas in Austin, US, isolated the antibody ‘SC27’ from the plasma donated by four patients. These patients had breakthrough infections, which occur when a vaccinated individual gets infected. The findings of the study were published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. (9/10)

A newly discovered more contagious COVID-19 strain spreading rapidly through Europe is sparking concerns among health authorities around the globe as the United States is experiencing its largest wave of cases in over two years. XEC, which was first identified in Germany, may eventually overtake the current dominant subvariant, KP.3.1.1, which is currently most common in the United States, accounting for about 42 percent of cases nationally according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Saturday, Aug. 31. (Lombardi, 9/8)

Also —

A study of adolescent brain development that tested children before and after coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in the United States found that girls’ brains aged far faster than expected, something the researchers attributed to social isolation. The study from the University of Washington, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, measured cortical thinning, a process that starts in either late childhood or early adolescence, as the brain begins to prune redundant synapses and shrink its outer layer. (Barry, 9/9)

About one in five U.S. COVID deaths during the Delta wave were because of overwhelmed hospital capacity, an analysis of data from 620 facilities showed. The findings in Annals of Internal Medicine reinforce the need to minimize surges of patients during future health emergencies or staffing crises. (Goldman, 9/9)

Cancer diagnoses in the United States dropped almost 10% below expected rates in 2020 as people missed annual screenings, and medical clinics closed in the early months of the pandemic. (Soucheray, 9/9)

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who rose to national prominence and popularity during the height of Covid, is about to face the most high-profile scrutiny yet for his handling of the pandemic — and he plans to mount an aggressive defense. Cuomo will be publicly questioned Tuesday by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, a panel reviewing governmental responses to the public health crisis. (Reisman, 9/10)

A man in his 50s has contracted the state’s fourth confirmed human case of eastern equine encephalitis this year after he was exposed to the mosquito-borne disease, also known as EEE, in a high-risk part of Middlesex County, state health officials said Monday. The man’s name and the town where he lives were not immediately released. (McDonald, 9/9)

On bird flu and mpox —

A mysterious human case of the H5N1 bird flu was recently discovered in Missouri — and experts are still working to determine how the patient was infected. The avian flu has been circulating among poultry and wild birds since 2022, but made the interspecies jump to dairy cows earlier in 2024. Just over a dozen humans have been infected in the U.S. so far that health officials know about, most of them livestock workers who have made direct contact with sick animals. (Wallington, 9/9)

Hundreds of chickens are squeezed into rows of tiny stacked wire cages, urine and feces dribbling onto the ducks, the geese and the rabbits confined below. The stench spreads even outside, to the sidewalk, where a mixture of feathers and blood sticks to the shoes of children walking to school. This is a live animal market in Queens. There are about 70 such establishments in New York City’s bustling neighborhoods, some disturbingly close to schools and residential buildings. Most markets butcher and sell chickens, ducks and quail. About one in four also slaughters larger animals, like sheep, goats, cows and pigs. (Mandavilli, 9/9)

India said on Monday a case of mpox it reported in a traveler a day earlier was from the older strain of the virus, not from the new, fast-spreading strain that had led the outbreak to be classified as a global health emergency. (9/9)

Also —

Your breath could hold clues to your health, researchers say — and they have developed a "smart mask" to tap into them. Wei Gao, professor of medical engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, led the team that created the EBCare, a mask that analyzes the chemicals in someone’s breath to detect any existing health issues. The mask is designed to screen for medical conditions like respiratory infections, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), asthma and post-COVID infections, according to a press release from Caltech. (Rudy, 9/10)

The sky may not seem like a promising place to find life. But in the 1920s, scientists flew planes across the United States and caught floating spores. A century later, the living atmosphere remains a fairly mysterious place. On Monday, researchers reported that on flights over Japan, at altitudes as high as 10,000 feet, they had caught hundreds of different types of bacteria and fungi. The team estimated that the microbes had flown over 1,200 miles when they were captured. Most intriguing of all, some of the species might be able to cause diseases in people. (Zimmer, 9/9)

Mammography facilities will soon have to notify patients about the density of their breasts, a step aimed at improving early detection of breast cancer. The new rule, which goes into effect Tuesday, was part of updated mammography regulations outlined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year. While similar laws have already been enacted in many states, including Colorado and Minnesota, this is the first nationwide regulation. (Moniuszko, 9/9)

In other health industry news —

The University of Virginia is investigating allegations made against its health system CEO and school of medicine dean in an anonymous letter from UVA Health faculty. Faculty employed by the University of Virginia Physicians Group, part of UVA Health, sent a no-confidence letter Thursday to the university's board of visitors, calling for the removal of health system CEO Dr. K. Craig Kent and Dr. Melina Kibbe, dean of the school of medicine. The letter was signed by 128 employees whose names that were kept anonymous to prevent retaliation, according to the letter. (DeSilva, 9/9)

Nurses and other hospital workers at Allegheny Valley Hospital have approved a new union contract that was agreed to over the weekend. SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania says the new deal is for three years and includes investments and improvements in numerous areas, including benefits and safety. Under the new contract, union workers at Allegheny Valley Hospital will see an average bump in pay of 16% with some workers seeing pay increases of nearly 40%. (Darnay, 9/10)

Dozens of women who say they suffered excruciating pain at a Yale University fertility clinic because a nurse stole fentanyl for her own use and replaced it with saline have settled their lawsuits against the Ivy League school. Patients and their lawyers announced the settlements Monday in New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale is based. Details of the agreements were not released, but lawyers said they included significant financial settlements. (Collins, 9/9)

The healthcare industry is on the brink of a technological revolution, with AI poised to reshape decision making before, after, and even during surgical procedures. Dr. Curt Langlotz, the director of the Center for AI in Medicine and Imaging at Stanford University said this new technology holds a lot of promise, as long as it's used responsibly. (Hod, 9/9)

Two former Verily executives say that they are starting a new initiative, Highlander Health, to push forward an effort decades in the making: making it so that the records collected in hospitals can be used in real-time to advance science, decreasing the cost of conducting clinical trials and speeding medical progress while helping patients get the right drug for them. (Herper, 9/10)

One Brooklyn Health, a safety net hospital system that serves some of this city’s poorest and sickest patients, would seem to be exactly the place to benefit most from the effort to remove race from calculations that assess kidney disease. The patients — mostly Black and insured by Medicaid or Medicare — are a case study in the disparities that run through American kidney care: A large number have advanced disease and require dialysis, but just a handful get timely specialty care or transplants. (McFarling, 9/10)

�������ýҕ�l Health News' 'Silence in Sikeston' Podcast: Racism Can Make You Sick
The "Silence in Sikeston" podcast explores what it means to live with racism and violence, then charts the toll on health — from hives and high blood pressure to struggles with mental health. The deaths of two Black men killed nearly 80 years apart in the same Missouri community anchor a conversation about the public health consequences of systemic bias. (Anthony, 9/10)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Live From Austin, Examining Health Equity
The term “health equity” means different things to different people. ... In a live taping at the Texas Tribune Festival, special guests Carol Alvarado, the Texas state Senate’s Democratic leader, and Ann Barnes, president and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation, along with �������ýҕ�l Health News’ Sabriya Rice and Cara Anthony, join �������ýҕ�l Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss addressing health inequities. (Rovner, 9/9)

Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie has sued cancer treatment maker BeiGene in Chicago federal court, accusing it of stealing trade secrets to develop a competing cancer-fighting therapy after hiring away a former longtime senior AbbVie scientist. (Scarcella, 9/9)

With strong data released over the weekend, an experimental Chinese drug showed it could one day become an important therapy for lung cancer patients. But that doesn’t necessarily threaten the market dominance of Keytruda, a top Merck executive said — and some analysts agree. (Feuerstein, 9/9)

Seven years after the FDA approved Luxterna, scientists have yet to bring another congenital blindness treatment to the market. A team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania aims to change this. The group recently published a study in The Lancet documenting their success using gene therapy to treat an inherited retinal blindness that affects as many as 100,000 people globally. (Broderick, 9/10)

Tami McGraw used to be so allergic to red meat that even fumes from cooking might send her into anaphylactic shock. She couldn’t fry sausages for her family. She couldn’t go to cookouts with friends. Once, she passed out driving home with her son after accidentally inhaling fumes while volunteering at the school cafeteria. “That’s the closest I came to dying,” she told me. ... The episode in the school cafeteria rattled McGraw so much that she brought up with her allergist a then-unorthodox therapy called Xolair. (Zhang, 9/9)

In tech news —

Apple said Monday that a version of its latest AirPods earbuds will come with built-in hearing aids, which it says would help more than 1 billion people globally. The feature on the AirPods Pro, which Apple describes as equivalent to an over-the-counter hearing aid, is designed for users with mild to moderate hearing loss. After users take hearing tests on iPhones or iPads running iOS 18, their AirPods will make "personalized dynamic adjustments" to allow them to properly hear their immediate listening environments, with sounds boosted to prescribed levels in real time. (Wile and Yang, 9/9)

D.C.’s troubled 911 agency would be required to release audio and other documents related to calls with suspected dispatching errors under legislation announced Monday by D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2). (Gathright, 9/9)

The former head of food services for New York City public schools was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday for a bribery scandal that resulted in children being served chicken tenders contaminated with metal and bone. Eric Goldstein, the former school food chief, was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court along with three men who ran a vendor that had contracted with the city to provide school food — Blaine Iler, Michael Turley and Brian Twomey. Iler was sentenced to one year and a $10,000 fine, Turley to 15 months and Twomey to 15 months and a $10,000 fine. (Matthews, 9/9)

A few years ago, Dr. Steven Rogers, a physician in the emergency department at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, started a new initiative. He wanted to screen every child age 10 and up who passed through the department for suicide risk. That’s around 15,000 kids a year. (Tillman, 9/10)

Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is one of the nation’s most remote regions, stretching across 75,000 square miles of mountains, tundra and coastal wetlands along the Bering Sea. The U.S. Census counts the population at roughly 27,000 – the majority of whom are Alaska Natives of Yup’ik and Athabascan descent – placing the region among the most sparsely populated areas in the United States. There are no roads connecting the Delta’s 50 villages to the national system. It’s also home to the nation’s highest rates of suicide. (Kapelow, 9/10)

If you need help —

On the opioid crisis in Maryland and Maine —

The City of Baltimore has reached an $80 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals over the company's role in the city's opioid crisis, officials announced Monday. Teva will pay an initial $35 million by the end of the year, with the remainder due by July 1, 2025. (Olaniran, 9/9)

A sheriff fought to give prisoners addicted to opioids a shot that suppresses cravings for a month. Upon release, they were more likely to continue treatment. (Hoffman, 9/9)

Researchers at UC San Francisco have found that newborns with an unusual pattern of metabolites in their blood — the byproducts created when the body processes energy — were far more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome, adding to a growing body of research suggesting that babies who die from SIDS may have underlying conditions that can be detected early in life. ... They found that babies with unusual metabolites in their blood were 14 times more likely to die from SIDS as those with the lowest-risk pattern, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. (Gold, 9/9)

New research from the American Heart Association (AHA) suggests that parents might want to keep a closer eye on their kids’ blood pressure. About one in seven (14%) of children and teens in the U.S. have high blood pressure or are headed toward it, according to the preliminary findings. Nearly half of U.S. adults have the condition, according to the AHA, which can raise the risk of heart attack, stroke and other events due to damaged arteries and plaque buildup. (Stabile, 9/9)

Exercise doesn’t just help you lose fat. It could also promote healthier fat, according to a new study. “Living a physically active lifestyle, exercising regularly over time, makes our fat tissue a more accommodating place for extra energy under conditions when we do gain weight,” said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Horowitz, professor of movement studies in the school of kinesiology at the University of Michigan. (Holcombe, 9/10)

Americans are among the world's biggest consumers of ultra-processed foods, which comprise more than half of an average adult’s diet and two-thirds of a child’s. As technology continues to accelerate innovations in additives, chemicals and food products, U.S. regulators are struggling to keep up. In this video, CBS Reports examines why ultra-processed foods have become so pervasive in the American diet, and what filling the gaps in federal regulation can do to ensure Americans are fed and healthy. (9/7)

Apple juice sold at chain retailers across the country has been recalled over concerns about arsenic levels. The recall applies to certain bottles of Great Value, Market Basket, Weis, Urban Meadow, Natures Nectar, Wellsley Farms, Solevita and Clover Valley apple juice, according to manufacturer Refresco Beverages US and recall information posted on the US Food and Drug Administration’s website. (Dillinger, 9/9)

The Australian government plans to set a minimum age limit for teens to use social media, citing mental health concerns, a move that has broad political support but that has some experts warning of harmful unintended consequences. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that his government would introduce the legislation in Parliament this year — ahead of an expected May election — but that the precise age limit was yet to be decided. (Miller, 9/10)

Two years ago, the United States and other western countries mounted an aggressive — and successful — response to mpox. But the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, is coming back deadlier than before. Western countries must curb this threat before it once again wreaks havoc around the world. (Leana S. Wen, 9/10)

What does it cost to have a baby in the United States? This question has always vexed me. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to prospectively price deliveries for family and friends over the years. After insurance, deliveries can range from a few hundred dollars to a couple of thousand. If you’re underinsured or have a more complex birth, it can cost more than $10,000 out of pocket. With nearly 3.6 million babies born in 2023 in the U.S., you’d think we as a country would have this one figured out. We don’t. (Chris Severn, 9/10)

The most radical position on abortion before Roe vs. Wade was repeal not reform — the argument being that any abortion law, no matter how liberal, denied women control of our own bodies. After Roe, abortion opponents took control of the discourse, muddling the clarity of the simple fact that one’s body is one’s own. (Honor Moore, 9/8)