This week, the U.S. Congress passed the Republican megabill, enshrining the 2017 tax cuts and increasing defense spending. To help recuperate lost revenue, the legislation will cut $1 trillion from Medicaid, potentially kicking around 17 million Americans off public health care including the Affordable Care Act.
Journalist Rachel Nuwer leads the edition by exploring how the cuts to Medicaid will disrupt treatment for U.S. cancer patients. Because of the lack of coverage, doctors expect to see more patients presenting with late-stage cancer, a surge in bankruptcy declarations due to cancer care costs, and an increase in deaths across the country.
Pivoting to the Gaza Strip, Distinguished Professor of the Practice at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Leonard Rubenstein and trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa catalog recent attacks on health care in the territory, Iran, and Israel. They explain what could qualify as war crimes under international law and urge the United States to stop providing weapons that Israel has used to demolish Gaza’s health-care system.
Meanwhile, China is facing a demographic crisis, as the United Nations predicts the country “will likely experience the largest absolute population loss between 2024 and 2054.” After decades of implementing a one-child policy, the country has reversed course on its child-bearing limits and introduced plans to make assisted reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization, more accessible. Journalist Susan Kreimer describes how, despite those strides, its population continues to decline as young families weigh the cost of living and economic opportunities. Restrictions also remain for single women and men who want to pursue childbirth.
To wrap up, physicians Mohamed Bella Jalloh and Mamadu Baldeh illustrate how Sierra Leone’s recent mpox outbreak is a stress test for the country’s capacity to respond to disease threats.
Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor
