2020 Presidential Candidates: Policies for Addressing the Opioid Overdose Crisis.

Each day, over 130 people die from opioid-related overdoses. This includes both prescription and illicit opioids. The National Institute on Drug Abuse attributes the opioid overdose crisis to unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies, who misled healthcare providers to believe opioid pain relievers were not addictive. Other researchers, while agreeing that increased drug supply was an important factor, argue that economic and social issues fueled the crisis, viewing the issue through the lens of a structural and social determinants of health framework.   

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Healthcare and the 2020 Presidential Election blog series

U.S. Healthcare reform remains a central issue in any policy debate, especially during an election year, such that many candidates in the 2020 Presidential Election have indicated healthcare as one of their “signature issues.” To better understand where each candidate stands on issues, Public Health Law Watch is launching a new blog series aimed at identifying and exploring some of the public health issues and policies under consideration by candidates.

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A Delicate Balance: Proposed Regulations May Upset the Tension Between Accessibility and Privacy of Health Information

This piece is part of a blog symposium featuring commentary from participants in the Center for Health Policy and Law’s annual conference, Promises and Perils of Emerging Health Innovations, held on April 11-12, 2019 at Northeastern University School of Law. The symposium was originally published on the Northeastern University Law Review Online Forum.

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The Trump Administration’s New Public Charge Rule: Implications For Health Care & Public Health [from Health Affairs Blog]

Although recent discussions about the Trump Administration’s immigration policies have focused on the treatment of undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers at the border and in detention, the Administration has also sought to curtail legal immigration and make conditions more onerous for non-citizens who are lawfully present. The most recent example of these restrictive efforts is the long-anticipated public charge rule, which was published in the Federal Register by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on August 14. Unless halted by litigation, the rule will take effect on October 15, creating punishing new challenges for immigrant patients and their health care providers.

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