President-elect Donald Trump’s second term has some Pennsylvania health care providers and legal experts voicing concern about potential changes to abortion and reproductive healthcare access.
Abortion remains legal in Pennsylvania through 23 weeks, with an executive order in place to protect people seeking this reproductive healthcare.
Signe Espinoza, executive director of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania, said the presidential election results don’t change their work.
She noted that they are organizing events and forums and engaging with lawmakers, as the group sees a pressing need to advocate for sexual and reproductive health care.
“We’re going to continue to do the work that we’ve been doing, and that is advocating for sexual and reproductive health care policies in the state of Pennsylvania, ensuring that barriers are removed,” said Espinoza. “There are currently a lot of barriers, pre-Dobbs, pre-Trump administration. There’s a lot of work to do in Pennsylvania.”
Espinoza said when Roe vs. Wade was intact, the state had over 145 providers. Today there are only 17.
This month, Speaker of the U.S. House Rep. Mike Johnson – R-Benton, LA – expressed his desire to cut government funding for Planned Parenthood, acknowledging potential resistance from Congress.
Espinoza pointed out abortion remains a significant and widely supported issue in Pennsylvania, and nationwide that consistently resonates with voters.
“The American people do not want politicians making their health care decisions,” said Espinoza. “We’ve seen broad support in state after state – Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New York, Nevada and yes, Florida, with the majority of voters making it very clear that abortion is popular. People are suffering. We need to fix this.”
A Pew Research study found 51% of adults in Pennsylvania believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 44% think it should be illegal in all or most cases.
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Alabama leaders are zeroing in on the state’s obesity crisis, which now ranks seventh-highest in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At a recent meeting, the Alabama Chronic Weight Management and Type 2 Diabetes Task Force reviewed decades of data showing obesity rates climbing from just 5% in the 1970s to over 35% today.
William Ashmore, CEO of the Alabama State Employees’ Insurance Board, said the state employee population is seeing even higher rates at around 40%.
“We’re an older population than the average group that’s in the CDC information,” Ashmore pointed out. “Also, just simply the type of jobs that we do as state employees sitting behind a desk, which certainly leads to more problems with obesity, overweight, and so forth.”
He noted obesity affects not just individual health but also strains Alabama’s economy, with rising health care costs adding pressure to public budgets.
To address the growing issue of obesity, the task force has been exploring the idea of expanding access to weight loss drugs. The State Employees’ Insurance Board covers more than 100,000 members and despite health care inflation averaging 6% to 7% annually, the state has kept cost increases below 1%.
Ashmore highlighted funding gaps limiting access to obesity treatments like Ozempic or GPL-1.
“GLP-1 drugs are overall, safe and effective,” Ashmore asserted. “The coverage under the SCIB, we cover it for diabetes. We do not cover it for weight loss, and the reason for that is simply the funds are not available to cover the cost of the GLP-1s for weight loss.”
Ashmore added drug prices in other countries are significantly lower due to stricter regulations, highlighting another challenge in addressing obesity in the U.S. Leaders are calling for creative solutions, more collaboration and programs to tackle the crisis and improve health outcomes statewide.
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A team of scientists at Iowa State University has discovered new ways to use stem cells to treat blood disorders.
This advancement in what’s known as “regenerative medicine” could eliminate the need for bone marrow transplants.
This discovery essentially gives scientists the ability to stop the body’s so-called biological clock to treat potentially lethal blood diseases.
Iowa State Assistant Genetics Professor Clyde Campbell said scientists now have the ability to inject patients with their own stem cells to fight leukemia, lymphoma, and anemia.
“So, the more stem cells we have,” said Campbell, “the better our chances to generate enough tissue to actually be beneficial to patients suffering from certain disorders.”
The group’s research was published in the journal Nature Communications in the Fall.
The body develops a lifetime’s worth of stem cells before birth. But Campbell said the Iowa State advancement allows scientists to develop them specifically for therapeutic use, which is new.
He said scientists can now manipulate switches in the body’s biological clock that tell stem cells when to expand and when to stop expanding.
“And so,” said Campbell, “now we have the capability of manipulating these switches to generate more stem cells in the laboratory.”
Campbell said now scientists will focus on how to integrate the patient’s lab-grown stem cells into their treatment options, and potentially eliminate the need for painful – and often unsuccessful – bone marrow transplants.
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West Virginia’s adult Medicaid dental benefit plays a critical role in helping to reduce oral health disparities, experts said.
Expansion changes including the dental benefit went into effect in 2021.
Gina Sharps, executive director of the West Virginia Oral Health Coalition, said given the state’s severe shortage of dental providers, it will take more time to see the benefit’s effect. She added tooth decay and gum disease are linked to a host of chronic diseases.
“When we look at the science, there are clear associations between oral health in various systemic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease,” Sharps pointed out. “Even down to 8% of cases of infective endocarditis are caused by oral infections.”
According to a 2023 report, more than 24% of dental practices in West Virginia were no longer accepting new patients, or average wait times for the first available appointment were months away.
Sharps added before the Medicaid adult dental benefit, folks would resort to using the emergency room if they had a toothache and end up saddled with medical debt.
“You would go from a from an $87 toothache to an $1,800 toothache,” Sharps observed.
Organizations like the West Virginia Dental Hygienist Association want to expand the scope of practice for hygienists to help fill care gaps as the state continues to lose providers. Sharps said policymakers could take action to increase the odds people with tooth trouble can see a dentist.
“Fifty-two out of our 55 counties are Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas,” Sharps explained. “Which means they are areas designated as having shortages of dentists.”
According to the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, in 2021, the nation’s poorest households paid more than seven times more for dental care than higher-income and insured households.
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