Friday, October 6, 2017

Trump administration rescinds Obamacare birth control mandate

By Lev Facher

Rich Pedroncelli/AP

WASHINGTON — For the last six years, nearly all employers have had no choice but to include birth control coverage in the health insurance plans they offer their employees.

On Friday, however, the Trump administration rescinded that regulation, allowing employers to exclude contraceptive care from insurance benefits for religious or moral reasons.

By Megan Thielking

Kathy Willens/AP

STAT Morning Rounds for October 06, 2017

By Renata Louwers

KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images

During the 11 months when my husband, Ahmad, was dying of bladder cancer, few people wanted to hear how he was truly doing. They wanted to hear about hope, courage, and positivity, not about how Ahmad was unlikely to survive or his ruminations on how to live well while dying.

I don’t blame them. Before I experienced it, I wouldn’t have wanted to hear it either. The problem was that we couldn’t escape it because his cancer overtook our lives. The only way out was through. And “through” meant living with the knowledge of pending death and its attendant difficulties and practical realities. I often felt I should candy-coat the story for others to spare them the pain of it, though I tried hard not to.

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STAT Plus: This tech won the Nobel Prize — and drug developers are avidly putting it to use

By Andrew Joseph

E-Life Journal via Creative Commons

In awarding the Nobel Prize in chemistry to scientists who had developed a new way of seeing the structure of biomolecules, the Nobel committee this week noted that the technology is more than a tool for basic research. It’s also “decisive…for the development of pharmaceuticals,” the committee said.

Biopharma companies absolutely agree.

By Rebecca Robbins

Charles Krupa/AP

LAS VEGAS — What happens when scientists who study gambling addiction descend on a casino-sponsored medical conference?

I went to the Las Vegas Strip to find out.