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American men’s health fares worse than in other high-income countries

Lack of health insurance and poor access to health care are pervasive problems in the United States, setting it apart from other developed nations. 

Now, new research from The Commonwealth Fund shows that among 11 high-income nations, American men are more likely to die from avoidable causes and have serious health conditions, while poor outcomes are magnified in those with income insecurity due in large part to these barriers. 

In general, men tend to visit the doctor less often than women, researchers noted, adding, “While behavioral and cultural norms may have a lot to do with the care-seeking habits of American men, the fact remains that the United States is the only high-income country that does not ensure all its residents have access to affordable health care.” 

Approximately 16 million U.S. men currently do not have health insurance.

Data for the current analysis were gleaned from the Fund’s 2020 International Health Policy Survey and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 

Findings also revealed American men have some of the highest rates of chronic conditions and mental health needs, but have the lowest prostate cancer death-rate compared with other nations.

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On average, 337 per 100,000 American men die avoidable deaths — or deaths before age 75 that can be treated or prevented — compared with 233 per 100,000 in the United Kingdom and just 156 per 100,000 in Switzerland. 

In addition to men in Sweden and Canada, U.S. men are more likely to visit the emergency department for non-urgent conditions, which can contribute to increased health care spending and unnecessary care.

Men in both the United States and Switzerland tend to incur medical bills at the highest rates due to routine skipping of needed care. 

Researchers also assessed the impact of financial insecurity on American men’s health. They found that, “In the U.S., men with lower income or frequent financial stress are less likely to get preventive care, more likely to have problems affording their care, and more likely to have physical and mental health conditions.”

Adults with lower income tend to have higher rates of smoking and alcohol use which can contribute to adverse health outcomes like diabetes and obesity. Overall, lower income individuals were four times more likely to be in fair or poor health than their wealthier counterparts. Lower income and stress levels were also tied to increased mental health care needs.

Furthermore, only 37 percent of U.S. men had a favorable view of the country’s health care system compared with 88 percent of those in Switzerland. However, having a higher income was associated with a more favorable view of the system among U.S. men, despite wealthier individuals paying more out-of-pocket for care than lower income individuals. This may be due to higher health care utilization rates within this cohort. 

Thirty-seven percent of U.S. men also reported skipping care due to cost concerns and 45 percent reported having at least one medical bill challenge. 

“On nearly every health care measure we studied, men in the U.S. with income insecurity fared the worst,” researchers concluded. 

“For their part, American men must become more proactive about their health, and that should include establishing regular connections with a health care provider.”

Source: TEST FEED1

House Republicans press TikTok on data sharing

Two high ranking House Republicans are asking TikTok for more information about the access that China-based employees of its parent company ByteDance have to American data.

“We write to request documents and information regarding recent reports that TikTok allows China-based employees of its parent company, ByteDance, to access non-public U.S. user data, contrary to the company’s previous denials,” the top Republicans on the Oversight committee, James Comer (R-Ky.) and Energy and Commerce committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), wrote in a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

“If true, not only did TikTok misrepresent or provide false testimony about its data management and security practices, but it has placed the safety and privacy of millions of U.S. citizens in jeopardy,” they added in the letter sent Thursday.

The short form video platform had maintained since exploding in popularity in the U.S. that data from Americans was not accessible in China, where security laws make it easy for the government to obtain information held by companies.

But recent reporting from BuzzFeed News based on dozens of internal meetings suggests that firewall is porous.

Employees of ByteDance based in China have frequently accessed private data on U.S. users, the reporting found.

TikTok has defended itself in the face of that reporting, saying that it has been working on securing data flows and highlighting its progress on a deal to move American info onto Oracle servers.

Backups of American user data will be stored on TikTok’s own servers in Virginia and Singapore before being deleted in the switch to Oracle. 

Those assurances have done little to assuage lawmaker concern though.

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission earlier this month calling for the agency to investigate whether TikTok mislead users about the safety of their data.

A group of Senate Republicans led by Sens. Roger Wicker (Miss.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) also asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to enforce an order of former President Trump to compel ByteDance to divest all American assets and data.

Source: TEST FEED1

Most Ohioans received abortion care after six weeks, study shows

An overwhelming majority of Ohio residents who sought an abortion did so after six weeks of pregnancy, in a new study that sheds light on the severe ramifications of the state’s latest abortion law. 

Researchers from Ohio State University collected abortion data in 2020 and 2021 and found that one in four Ohio patients did not know they were pregnant before six-weeks of pregnancy — and 86 percent had an abortion after the six-week mark. 

That stands in stark contrast to Ohio’s current abortion law, which bans abortion after cardiac activity has been detected, which typically occurs at about six-weeks gestation. The law makes no exceptions for rape or incest and allows providers to be prosecuted if they violate the law. 

The Ohio State study found that among approximately 1,100 patients, 25 percent first discovered they were pregnant after six-weeks gestation; and they had significantly lower income and lower education attainment than those who detected their pregnancy before six weeks. 

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Abigail Norris Turner, associate professor at Ohio State and lead author of the study, noted that many people choose to receive an abortion because of financial issues or to pursue higher education and those same factors were associated with patients not knowing they were pregnant until after six weeks– “so people in this position are trapped,” she said, in a statement. 

Overall, researchers found the median gestation age of pregnancy discovery was 34 days, which is only about a week before the current Ohio law kicks in and makes abortion illegal.  

“Regardless of when pregnancy is discovered, six-week bans disrupt care for nearly all patients,” said Norris Turner. 

Norris Turner also pointed out that even for the Ohio patients that realize they are pregnant before six weeks, the state’s mandatory two clinic visits, 24-hour waiting period, clinic staffing shortages and high demand, they’re likely to still not get a wanted abortion before the six-week limit. 

A similar situation recently played out in Ohio, when a 10-year-old rape victim was denied an abortion because she was six weeks and three days pregnant — just missing the state’s six-week ban.  

“There is no public health or medical reason to have a six-week ban on abortion, and it isn’t what patients need or want. Such a ban will have lasting harmful impacts on the people who need to travel for an abortion or who are forced to carry a pregnancy to term,” said Allison Norris, associate professor at Ohio State and co-author of the study. 

Researchers advised that patients should keep pregnancy tests on hand, take them early and schedule any pregnancy-related appointments as soon as possible. 

Ohio’s restrictive, six-week abortion law was inspired after the Supreme Court ruled in June that abortion was not a constitutional right. Dozens of states moved to restrict the procedure and some even outright banned abortion.  

Source: TEST FEED1

White House offers no reaction to Manchin blow

The White House offered no reaction Friday to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) rejecting the climate spending and tax hikes on the wealthy in the budget reconciliation package, which struck a blow to President Biden’s agenda.

“As you’ve heard us say many times before, we’re just not going to negotiate in public as it comes to climate change and the president’s climate change plan and how he’s going to get there,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters when asked for a reaction to Manchin’s latest move.

“The president has always been very clear that he’s going to use every tool in his toolbox, every authorities that he has to make sure that we deal with the climate crisis that we are currently in but as far as the negotiations, I’m just not going to say much more about that in public,” she added.

Reporters aboard Air Force One, where Jean-Pierre was briefing on a historic flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia, pushed back, asking her if the president was disappointed or if he got a heads-up from Manchin.

“We’re still part of these negotiations, I’m not going to say much more about it. I’m just not going to do this in public,” she said. “I’m just not going to share much more about this,” she added.

Manchin told Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer Thursday (D-N.Y.) that he will only support a narrow budget reconciliation package before Labor Day if it does not include new spending to fight climate change or taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations.

The latest blow comes as the White House pushes lawmakers also move quickly on legislation to boost domestic production of semiconductors and compete with China, as well, which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) threatened to block if Democrats pursue the reconciliation package.

“We think it’s a false choice to have to pick one or the other,” Jean-Pierre said when asked if the White House would sacrifice the China competition bill to pass reconciliation.

When a reporter pointed out that the White House could end up with no bill, Jean Pierre responded, “You’re so dark… jeeze. We’ve got to keep pushing.”

Manchin told Schumer that if Democrats move the reconciliation bill in August, he will only support a provision to lower prescription drug prices and a two-year extension of expiring health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

Schumer is pushing to move the reconciliation package to the floor before September, to align with when states plan to announce premium increases under the Affordable Care Act next month.

Source: TEST FEED1

Top Harris aide to leave administration next month

One of Vice President Harris’s longest-serving aides will depart the Biden administration next month, a source confirmed to The Hill on Friday.

Rohini Kosoglu, who serves as domestic policy adviser to the vice president, is set to leave the job in August. Kosoglu was one of the few staffers who Harris brought with her from the Senate to her unsuccessful presidential campaign to the office of the Vice President.

“She knew her better than anyone on staff,” said one source in Harris world.

The vice president praised Kosoglu in a statement to The Hill on Friday, calling her “a brilliant and trusted leader who has been at my side for years from the U.S. Senate to the campaign trail to the White House.”

“She has brought vision, strategic judgment, and a depth of experience as our Administration has addressed some of the most urgent challenges facing our nation. She is an exceptional public servant and I am enormously grateful for her service. Rohini will remain a valued advisor and friend,” Harris said.

The Washington Post first reported that Kosoglu would be leaving. She told the outlet she wanted to spend more time with her family. Kosoglu has three young children, and she disputed the idea that her exit was another sign of dysfunction in Harris’s office.

Kosoglu was widely respected by those who worked with her on the campaign trail and in Harris’s office.
“She’s been going full speed since [Harris] got to the Senate,” one source told The Hill. “Can’t do that forever.” 

Harris has seen significant turnover among top aides over the last several months. Her press secretary, communications director and chief of staff have all departed since the winter, sparking numerous reports about staffing turmoil and Harris’s management style.

Harris has in recent weeks been the face of the White House’s response to the Supreme Court ruling striking down Roe v. Wade and imperiling abortion access. Harris has traveled across the country and spoken with state, local and federal officials about the need to protect reproductive health care.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden’s current struggles were foreshadowed in his 2020 win

On the eve of the 2020 South Carolina primary, Joe Biden was nearing the end of his third and presumably final presidential run. Earlier that month, he had finished fourth the Iowa caucus and fifth in the New Hampshire primary. In three days, 14 more states would vote, including California and Texas. If something dramatic didn’t happen in the Palmetto State, then Biden’s political career assuredly would end.

South Carolina was long viewed as his last stand. His firewall. To establish any kind of momentum heading into Super Tuesday, Biden needed to blow expectations out of the water — to win big.

And he did win big — by nearly 29 percent over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The national narrative that followed justifiably highlighted the Biden campaign’s impressive get-out-the-vote strategy, combined with a pivotal endorsement from iconic Congressman James Clyburn (D-S.C.). Black voters comprised more than 60 percent of the state’s Democratic electorate, and their support for Biden when it mattered most was a precursor, of sorts, to Black Democratic voters’ outsized influence on their party winning control of the U.S. Senate the following January.

Yet there were three other largely underappreciated narratives at play — each of which portended Biden’s almost inevitable diminished support during his presidency. If we want to understand why Biden is polling in the 30s and why most Democratic voters reportedly want a new face atop the ticket in 2024, we must understand what should have been understood more than two years ago.

The South Carolina primary took place on Feb. 29, one day after the first reported COVID death in the United States. Only two days before that, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Incident Manager for the COVID-19 Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced that the “disruption to everyday life may be severe.”

Democratic voters were increasingly awakening to the possibility of the biggest public health crisis of the last three decades, if not the last six. The CDC news, increasingly alarming local and national headlines, and reports of infections and initial casualties demanded more than a charismatic, progressive senator who could rally the party’s base. The coming COVID calamity demanded an experienced leader who’d spent more time in the White House than perhaps every current senator combined.

As I wrote in The Hill three years ago, an abundance of experience is a double-edged sword for presidential candidates: They are already known commodities, and usually, the only surprises are the ones that disappoint voters, rather than motivate them.

But COVID changed the calculus. Biden’s half century of public service was suddenly a unique asset rather than a tired deficiency.

And that brings us to the second long-buried narrative: While a half century of experience might play well amidst a national emergency, eventually the allure wains.

Yes, Biden’s advancing age matters to some Democratic voters, as does his haphazard handling of slam-dunk progressive issues like female bodily autonomy. But more than that, Biden is who he is at this stage of his career. Whereas former President Bill Clinton triangulated with Democrats and Republicans after the GOP’s 1994 landslide election, transforming himself from a Democratic pariah to a necessary guard rail against conservative overreach, Biden doesn’t have those tools in his toolbox. If he did, he would have used them in the first 18 months of a struggling presidency.

The third narrative is based on personal experience. 

I quit my job in the summer of 2020 to help elect Democrats in North Carolina up and down the ballot. The state’s coordinated campaign put me in charge of a geographic “turf” that Donald Trump had won by five points over Hillary Clinton in 2016. It was one of roughly 200 turfs across the state.

I made over 10,000 cold calls to Democratic and independent voters and recruited more than 100 volunteers, culminating in more volunteer calls in my turf than in any other turf in the state. This was a motivated group, largely comprised of non-white and female North Carolina voters. Before they began, I’d ask each one why they were volunteering. If I hadn’t been there to hear their answers, I wouldn’t have believed them.

Every single volunteer said they were doing it to defeat Trump. Not one volunteer mentioned Biden’s name.

For those who oppose Trumpism, Biden deservedly should be viewed as a hero. He helped the nation stop the Constitutional bleeding long enough to try to heal itself.

But 2020 had more to do with Trump than with Biden. A lot more. In my turf — which swung 10 points in Biden’s direction — the driving force behind every phone call, every text message, and every placed sign was to defeat Trump.

Biden’s primary victory in South Carolina was a political turnaround for the ages. And in hindsight, it’s been commonly misinterpreted as a symbol of Biden’s national appeal. While this long-time public servant deserves everything he’s achieved, his presidency arguably is more a product of the Republican he defeated, rather than a product of his own sustainable support among the electorate.

That’s not a recipe for success in 2024.

B.J. Rudell is a longtime political strategist, former associate director for Duke University’s Center for Politics, and recent North Carolina Democratic Party operative. In a career encompassing stints on Capitol Hill, on presidential campaigns, in a newsroom, in classrooms, and for a consulting firm, he has authored three books and has shared political insights across all media platforms, including for CNN and Fox News.

Source: TEST FEED1

Grassley: It would be 'unconstitutional' to curb travel for abortions

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) this week said that it would be “unconstitutional” to restrict travel for abortions, suggesting that not all Republicans agree with curbing at least some of the efforts patients are willing to go to receive the medical procedure.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month, abortion-rights advocates and some lawmakers are anxious that interstate travel for abortion could be the next line of target for those considering further restricting access to the medical procedure.

But on Wednesday, the Iowa Republican said that “We cannot stop people from traveling anyplace they want to,” the Des Moines Register reported.  “It’s a constitutional issue and a freedom.” 

Earlier this week, Senate Democrats introduced legislation aiming to combat anticipated state efforts to make it harder or altogether ban patients from traveling across state lines to receive an abortion, including banning efforts to “restrict or in way sanction, hold liable, discriminate against, or otherwise disadvantage any individual from traveling to another State to receive or provide reproductive health care that is legal in that State.”

Health care providers who assist in abortion services for interstate abortion patients would also be protected by the bill.

But a request from Senate Democrats to pass the legislation unanimously was halted on Thursday by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).

“Does that child in the womb have the right to travel in their future?” Lankford asked. “Do they get to live?”

Interstate travel for abortions is anticipated to become more common given the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate the constitutional right to an abortion, which has since led a patchwork of states to curb or ban abortion procedures. 

The story of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who was denied an abortion, requiring her to travel to Indiana to receive the medical procedure, galvanized the nation as one example. The Columbus Dispatch reported on Wednesday that 27-year-old Gershon Fuentes had been charged with raping and impregnating the child.

Source: TEST FEED1

NASA, NOAA reports: June was among the hottest on record

Last month was one of the hottest Junes on record, according to reports by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The NOAA found that this June was the sixth hottest in the 143-year record, with the year of 2022 as a whole ranking sixth warmest as well.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Surface Temperature Analysis had slightly different findings, concluding that June 2022 tied with June 2020 for the hottest June on record, with data dating back to the late 19th century.

According to the NOAA, the month marked the 46th consecutive June with temperatures above the 20th-century average as well as the 450th consecutive month with temperatures above that mark.

Antarctica had its lowest June ice coverage on record last month, per the NOAA, while June sea ice coverage around the globe neared its lowest recorded numbers, second only to those seen in June 2019.

The ten hottest Junes recorded have all occurred since 2010, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

June 2022 was the second warmest June on record for land temperature in the Northern Hemisphere, coming in behind the first-ranking temperatures of June 2021, according to the agency.

It also found that the month was the second warmest June for land temperature in the continents of both Europe and Asia.

Source: TEST FEED1

NY AG agrees to delay Trump deposition after Ivana's death

New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) office agreed on Friday to delay deposition of former President Trump and several of his children following the death of Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump. 

“In light of the passing of Ivana Trump yesterday, we received a request from counsel for Donald Trump and his children to adjourn all three depositions, which we have agreed to. This is a temporary delay and the depositions will be rescheduled as soon as possible. There is no other information about dates or otherwise to provide at this time,” Delaney Kempner, a spokeswoman for James, said in a statement.

On Thursday, Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social that his first wife and the mother to three of his children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka and Eric — had died.

“I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” he said. “She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life.”

Trump in addition to his children Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were set to sit for depositions starting Friday in a probe that James’ office is conducting regarding whether the Trump Organization’s property values had been inflated by the former president or if he sought to receive tax and loan advantages by deflating them.

Trump has argued that the probe is politically motivated.

Source: TEST FEED1