Trump administration stops study on health risks of coal mines

• The Trump administration last week halted a government study regarding possible health risks associated with living near surface coal mining sites, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine announced on Monday.
  
• “In an Aug. 18 letter, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement informed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that it should cease all work on a study of the potential health risks for people living near surface coal mine sites in Central Appalachia,” the NASEM said in a news release.
  
• The NASEM had been given a $1 million grant last August from the Office of Surface Reclamation and Enforcement — a government agency within the Department of the Interior — for a two-year study of the potential health risks on those living near surface coal mines in central Appalachia. The grant came at the request of the state of West Virginia. Read more. 
  

AIDS deaths are almost half of what they were in 2005 — but experts worry Trump could reverse that

• A new report from the United Nations shows promising progress in treating the global HIV/AIDS crisis, but some experts worry President Donald Trump’s policy proposals might turn the trend right back around.
  
• The report, released Thursday, found that approximately 53% of the 36.7 million people living with HIV globally in 2016 had access to life-saving treatments. This is up substantially from 2005, when only 7% of those living with HIV received antiretroviral therapy, according to WHO.
  
• In addition, the report said the number of AIDS-related deaths dropped from 1.9 million in 2005 to 1 million in 2016 — reducing the death toll by nearly half in the span of 11 years.
  
• While these numbers demonstrate significant progress in the effort to combat HIV/AIDS, Mitchell Warren, executive director of HIV-prevention advocacy group AVAC, told Mic he worries that Trump’s proposed budget cuts could put the epidemic back in peril. Read more (7/20/17)

New report says Trump is trying to sabotage Obamacare. That would be disastrous.

• With no obvious path forward for Republicans to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump is now reportedly trying to sabotage the law.
  
• A new report in Politico says Trump wants to stop subsidy payments to health insurance companies — funds that lower premiums for millions  who purchase their insurance through individual marketplaces.
  
• And it’s something he could do as soon as Thursday, Politico reported, a move that would raise premiums and throw the health insurance market into chaos, with insurance companies possibly pulling out of marketplaces altogether — leaving people with no options.
  
• A handful of insurance companies have pointed to Trump to explain why they won’t offer plans in the individual marketplaces in 2018, saying there’s too much uncertainty around the subsidy payments, known officially as cost-sharing reductions (CSR).
•  And insurance companies that are offering plans say the threats to withhold the $7 billion in CSR payments have caused them to further raise rates for 2018 plans.
• Additionally, studies show that the ACA is not failing. Read more (7/19/17)

Straight Obamacare repeal vote could expose GOP senators’ true feelings about the health care law

• After the second version of Senate Republicans’ health care plan imploded Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) now says the Senate will vote on a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement ready to go — a last-ditch effort for the GOP to make good on its seven-year promise to repeal the law known better as Obamacare.
  
• Republicans in both the House and Senate passed this same strict Obamacare repeal bill in December 2015, knowing President Barack Obama would veto it.
  
• Yet now, with President Donald Trump in the White House, a repeal bill — which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would cause 32 million people to lose their health insurance and cause premiums to skyrocket — would be signed into law.
  
• And how they vote will prove whether that initial repeal vote two years ago was a political ploy or a vote they actually believed in. Read more. (7/18/2017 9:30 AM)
  

Scientists made and tested a new artificial heart, and it could change lives

• We’ve heard of scientists growing organs in petri dishes. But now, a group of Swiss researchers are taking an alternative route: combining 3-D printing and soft robotics to develop a prosthetic heart.
  
• The heart is squishy, flexible and able to pump actual liquids from its chambers, which is important since the heart is responsible for pumping our blood. And considering that doctors have performed at least 67,000 heart transplants since 1988, there’s a great chance that people will want to use this invention in the future. 
  
• In the United States, more than 4,000 people are on the waiting list to get a heart transplant. Read more. (7/14/17, 1:59 PM)
  

Why you need to leave work right now: Long hours are linked to irregular heart beats

• America’s productivity-obsessed work culture is often a race to meet deadlines, jump the ranks and — hopefully — earn more money. But even though overtime and promotions can result in a financial payoff, working late also comes at a dangerous cost.
  
• A new, 10-year study suggests that clocking in too many extra hours at work can be seriously taxing on the heart — so much so, in fact, that it can cause arrhythmia. Read more. (7/14/17, 10:47 PM)

What happens if Planned Parenthood is defunded for a year? This.

The GOP health care bill’s one-year ban on Planned Parenthood is a bigger problem than you think

• For the millions of people whose lives could be in jeopardy should the Senate bill pass, the decision by Republican leaders to include a provision to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving any form of federal funding for a full year might seem as impactful as a hangnail. 
  
• But regardless of whether the bill passes and is signed into law, it’s fairly likely that at some point, in some bill, a one-year moratorium on Planned Parenthood funding will become a reality.
  
• If so, that could be more devastating than most are aware. Read more (6/27/17)

Today is National HIV Testing Day. Activist and sex worker Benjamin Di’Costa spoke to us about the importance of HIV testing.

Trump urges people to get tested for HIV as GOP gears up to cut funding to Medicaid, family planning

• On Tuesday, President Donald Trump encouraged Americans to get tested for HIV, saying in a statement that “greater awareness through testing is crucial in defeating HIV and AIDS.”
  
• “On National HIV Testing Day, I encourage Americans to learn their HIV status,” Trump said in a statement. “Together, we can protect ourselves and promote the health and safety of all.”
  
• However, Trump’s comment comes as Senate Republicans gear up to gut funding for Medicaid and Planned Parenthood with their health care reform bill. Those two entities have historically helped people afford HIV testing and treatment. Read more (6/27/17)

If you care about reproductive rights, pay attention to what is happening in Iowa

• Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is poised to shutter four of its Iowa centers, dropping the state’s number of clinics from 12 to eight effective June 30 and disrupting care for some 15,000 patients.
  
• The closures come thanks to legislation Gov. Terry Branstad signed into law in May, with which Iowa declined roughly $3 million annual in federal Medicaid money for its family planning program. 
• The state decided to forgo these dollars on the grounds it did not want to funnel taxpayer money into abortion services, which might make sense if that money went toward abortion — but it almost never does.
•  Instead, it pays for the types of treatment a person might seek at a gynecologist or a urologist, for people who might not be able to afford those visits otherwise.
  
• The move is another version of the “defund Planned Parenthood” strategy that’s become so common in Donald Trump’s America.
• But however often we may see that headline, however routine it becomes, it’s eminently worth our attention. What’s happening in Iowa has already happened in Texas, to disastrous effect. 
• And if congressional Republicans get their way in repealing the Affordable Care Act, we can expect those same disastrous effects to bleed out across the country. Read more (6/21/17)
  

6 members of White House HIV/AIDS advisory board resign

• Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resigned from the board in mid-June due to apparent lack of action regarding the HIV epidemic. 
  
• In an op-ed for Newsweek, former PACHA member Scott Schoettes said he and five of his colleagues left because they felt they were unable to actively combat the ongoing health crisis under the Trump administration. 
  
• “As advocates for people living with HIV, we have dedicated our lives to combating this disease and no longer feel we can do so effectively within the confines of an advisory body to a president who simply does not care,” Schoettes wrote in the piece. 
  
• Schoettes said the Trump administration has no plan to fight the epidemic, “seeks zero input from experts” to develop HIV policy and encourages legislation that will hurt people with the disease.
  
• Additionally, Schoettes wrote that Trump eliminated the White House Office of National AIDS Policy website the day he took office, and has not yet reinstated the site. 
  
• He also has not appointed anyone to lead the the Office of National AIDS Policy, and did not meet with any HIV advocates throughout his campaign. Read more (6/19/17)

The American Medical Association says anti-trans “bathroom bills” are harmful to people’s health

• The nation’s largest association of medical doctors has officially come out against discriminatory “bathroom bills,” saying that they’re harmful to both the mental and physical health of people affected by the legislation, NBC News reported on Thursday.
  
• At their annual meeting this week, the American Medical Association adopted a resolution officially opposing “bathroom bills” that prevent transgender people from using public bathrooms that match their gender identities. Read more (6/16/17)

• Some studies suggest that not sleeping enough is just as damaging to our health as smoking, and that getting less than six hours could lead to medical issues and — even worse — shave years off your life span.
  
• “People often say you can sleep when you’re dead, and I say that’s true, but you’ll be dead a lot sooner if you don’t sleep right now,” said Lisa Metzer, a doctor and associate professor of pediatrics at National Jewish Health. “The science is quite clear that insufficient sleep leads to a significant impact on all aspects of functioning.” After all, research suggests that 24 hours without sleep is similar to being legally drunk.
  
• The bad news: Fifty to seventy million Americans already suffer from sleep disorders. But the good news: We’re not necessarily damned if we don’t get a full eight hours.
  
• Here’s what studies suggest about sleep — and what it means to get a decent night’s rest. Read more. (6/10/17, 12:31 PM)
  

Mississippi to begin charging $25 for HIV testing despite high HIV rates

• Despite being one of the epicenters of the United States’ HIV epidemic, Mississippi is about to make it harder for people to get tested for HIV.
  
• Motivated by budget cuts, Mississippi’s state health department will charge a $25 fee for STI and HIV tests at its clinics as of July 1, according to the Clarion-Ledger. Previously, tests were free.
  
• In a statement to Mic, the Mississippi Health Department clarified that two groups of people — people under 18 and people “identified as contacts of an STD or HIV case by disease investigators” — will be exempted from having to pay. Read more (6/7/17)