an ambulance parked at the entrance of an emergency department

Psychiatric Care in Crisis

By Zainab Ahmed

Psychiatric care in the Emergency Department is all-or-nothing and never enough. Often, legal holds are the only intervention available, and they rarely are therapeutic. Upon discharge, our patients are, once again, on their own.

The ED acts as a safety-net for a failing health system, one that places little value on mental health services, either preventative or follow-up. The demand for acute psychiatric care is high; however, EDs have little physical capacity for psychiatric patients.

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Health insurance application form with money, calculator, and stethoscope.

Going Public – The Future of ART Access Post-Dobbs

By Katherine Kraschel

The loss in Dobbs and the bleak outlook for abortion rights within the federal courts may afford advocates a unique opportunity to fully adopt a reproductive justice framework and apply it to access to fertility care, as other contributors to this symposium have argued.

This article outlines specific strategies for blue states eager to stake a claim in the reproductive justice movement to consider.

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Close-up - barista prepares espresso in coffee shop.

The Infertility Shift

By Valarie K. Blake and Elizabeth Y. McCuskey

In vitro fertilization (IVF), like most medical care in the U.S., costs far more than most people can afford out-of-pocket: over $12,500 per cycle, with multiple cycles typically required. But, unlike most other expensive medical care, IVF rarely has insurance coverage to defray the cost.

In 2020, only 27% of employers with 500+ employees and 42% of employers with 20,000+ employees covered IVF in their employer plans. Companies like Starbucks and Amazon know this and use it to draw in employees at low (or essentially neutral) wages.

Recent reports reveal women working second shifts for these corporations solely to qualify for employer health benefits that cover infertility treatments. Starbucks, for example, covers IVF for employees who work 240 hours over three months, or roughly 20 hours per week. Frequently, in these low-wage positions, workers earn just enough to pay for their health insurance premiums and sometimes the associated cost-sharing requirements.

How did we get to a place where women must work an “infertility shift” beyond their full-time jobs to access medical care?

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Washington, DC, USA - December 1, 2021: Abortion rights rally at the Supreme Court, Jackson Women's Health v. Dobbs.

Assisted Reproduction in a Post-Dobbs US

By Chloe Reichel and Seema Mohapatra

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) face an uncertain future as anti-abortion policymakers and advocates work to restrict access to reproductive care post-Dobbs.

Until last summer, modern ART had been performed in the United States with the Constitutional protection for abortion care in the background. After Dobbs, fertility doctors and patients have begun to realize that strict abortion laws and policies affect not only those who do not wish to continue a pregnancy, but also people who very much desire to have a child.

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cells with the doors closed at a historic Idaho prison.

Trying and Sentencing Youth As Adults: Key Takeaways from Recent Petrie-Flom Center Event

By Minsoo Kwon

All 50 states have transfer laws that either allow or require children to be prosecuted in adult criminal court, rather than juvenile court. There is no constitutional right to be tried in juvenile court. What has modern neuroscience shown about the differences between the developing and the adult brain, and how justifiable is trying, prosecuting, and sentencing children in the adult criminal justice system?

Panelists discussed these topics during a recent webinar hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. This article highlights key points made during the conversation.

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BOSTON, MA, USA - JULY 8, 2020: Close-up of Harriet Tubman Statue in Boston's South End neighborhood.

Legislating Black History

By Sterling Johnson

Not since the 1960s have we seen the terms of Black history been this contested among legislators and school districts. Three years after the George Floyd riots and our own national reckoning, we continue to watch explicit attacks on the teaching of critical race theory, but also more integration of Black history into the national story — with Florida’s legislative history serving as a primary landscape for this cultural battle.

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Gas stove burner with burning gas. Sale and purchase of gas fuel.

The Public Health Case Against Gas Appliances

By Heather Payne and Jennifer D. Oliva

Gas appliances pose a grave danger to tenant health and safety.

In a forthcoming article, we argue that the mere presence of natural gas appliances in the home renders a dwelling uninhabitable due to their potential health harms. We further contend that tenants should invoke the implied warranty of habitability to eliminate the continued exposure to natural gas appliance-generated indoor air pollutants.

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