Current Policy Proposals
This piece of legislation, passed in 2010, has created a mandatory common insurance market and guaranteed coverage for those with preexisting conditions.
What is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Affordable Care Act; Obamacare?
"FACT SHEET: The Affordable Care Act: Healthy Communities Six Years Later." National Archives and Records Administration. March 2, 2016. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/03/02/fact-sheet-affordable-care-act-healthy-communities-six-years-later.
This drug, first developed in the 1950s by a German pharmaceutical company, was marketed as a mild sleeping pill safe even for pregnant women. However, it caused severe birth defects and resulted in thousands of babies being born with malformed limbs. This pharmaceutical disaster prompted stricter FDA regulations.
What is thalidomide?
"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine." Thalidomide. Accessed April 20, 2019. http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/themes/controversies/thalidomide.
This specialized agency of the United Nations, which goes by an acronym that is also an English pronoun, was created in 1948 and has since played a leading role in the eradication of diseases like smallpox.
What is the World Health Organization (WHO)?
"Brief History of WHO." Mailman School of Health at Columbia University. Accessed April 20, 2019. http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/caseconsortium/casestudies/112/casestudy/www/layout/case_id_112_id_776.html
This highly contagious illness, whose early symptoms may include a high fever, cough, runny nose, and water eyes, has been making a comeback across the United States in recent weeks, largely because a growing number of parents have been choosing not to vaccinate their kids.
What is measles?
Ortiz, Jorge L. "Anti-vaxxers Open Door for Measles, Mumps, Other Old-time Diseases Back from near Extinction." USA Today. April 01, 2019. Accessed April 21, 2019. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/03/28/anti-vaxxers-open-door-measles-mumps-old-time-diseases/3295390002/.
Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez are pushing this model for the nation’s healthcare system, which a majority of Americans support according to many polls.
What is Medicare for All; single-payer healthcare?
Jr., Berkeley Lovelace. "UnitedHealth CEO Says 'Medicare for All' Would 'destabilize' US Health System." CNBC. April 17, 2019. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/16/unitedhealth-warns-medicare-for-all-would-destabilize-us-health-system.html.
This basic per-serving nutritional information is required on foods under the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990.
What are nutrition facts?
Office of Regulatory Affairs. "Inspection Guides - Nutritional Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) Requirements (8/94 - 2/95)." US Food and Drug Administration Home Page. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.fda.gov/iceci/inspections/inspectionguides/ucm074948.htm#GUIDE FOR REVIEW OF NUTRITION.
This Seattle-based private, non-profit foundation –– the largest in the world in terms of assets –– aims to eradicate polio and malaria and control the spread of tuberculosis and HIV.
What is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?
Mathiesen, Karl. "What Is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?" The Guardian. March 16, 2015. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/16/what-is-the-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation.
This powerful gene-editing technique – the subject of a scandal last year when used by a Chinese scientist to create genetically modified babies – is being used for the first time, in a study being conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, to treat cancer patients.
What is CRISPR?
Stein, Rob. "First U.S. Patients Treated With CRISPR As Human Gene-Editing Trials Get Underway." NPR. April 16, 2019. Accessed April 21, 2019. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/16/712402435/first-u-s-patients-treated-with-crispr-as-gene-editing-human-trials-get-underway.
This program, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 and expanded by President Obama (who faced resistance from some conservative governors), covers health insurance costs for low-income families, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and other at-risk individuals.
What is Medicaid?
Zelizer, Julian E., and Julian E. Zelizer. "How Medicare Was Made." The New Yorker. June 20, 2017. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/medicare-made.
Also known as the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act, this bill, passed in 1984, expedites the availability of less costly generic drugs by permitting FDA to approve applications to market generic versions of brand-name drugs without repeating the research done to prove them safe and effective. At the same time, the brand-name companies can apply for up to five years additional patent protection for the new medicines they developed to make up for time lost while their products were going through FDA's approval process.
What is the Hatch-Waxman Act?
"What Is Hatch-Waxman?" PhRMA. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.phrma.org/fact-sheet/what-is-hatch-waxman.
This disease, the leading cause of death in the world according to the UN, killed almost 10 million people in 2016.
What is heart disease?
"The Top 10 Causes of Death." World Health Organization. May 24, 2018. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death.
There has recently been an outbreak of this bacterial infection, which has plagued Chipotle a number of times, across a number of Southern states. Eight people have been hospitalized, with more than 70 cases reported in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and Georgia.
What is E. coli?
Bassette, Ri'Shawn. "Department of Health Talks E. Coli Outbreak." Http://www.walb.com. April 19, 2019. Accessed April 21, 2019. http://www.walb.com/2019/04/19/department-health-talks-e-coli-outbreak/.