Michael Shepherd

Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive orde...

NEW: “As of Sept. 30, the department no longer presumes service connection for male breast cancer,” a Veterans Affairs rep confirmed to @propublica.org, meaning newly diagnosed veterans will have to show that their cancer is linked to their military service.

By @ericumansky.bsky.social

As debate goes on about the future of ACA premium tax credits, I wonder how many people realize that the federal government spent $384 billion last year providing a tax subsidy for employer-provided health benefits, with higher income people getting bigger subsidies.

@oberlanderunc.bsky.social writes not just on persistence of US health care problems like cost, fragmentation, & inequity, but how these enduring features mask broader shifts in health coverage expansion & privatization in public programs, & what these shifts mean read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@sarahgollust.bsky.social Yujin Kim, Paul Espinoza Kissell & @efranklinfowler.bsky.social employ large-scale computational text tools to analyze the breadth of what JHPPL has published over the years (most common: health care access & insurance). read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

We at JHPPL are now 50! (So much for getting to stay 49 again...) Our former editor @oberlanderunc.bsky.social & new editor @sarahgollust.bsky.social trace our interdisciplinary origins & the many health politics/policy/law challenges we've faced the last 50 yrs. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

My take on what Michigan should consider while navigating applying for funds from the “Rural Health Transformation Program.”

Their complaints that Dems oppose the “rural hospital fund” are so hilarious.

Kind of like: “I’m going to burn down your house and give you a chocolate chip cookie instead.”

“That sounds terrible.”

“What you don’t like chocolate chip cookies!?”

'It can be a loss of life': First responders detail the deadly cost of rural hospital closures Across the country, hospitals are vanishing, and a new wave of Medicaid cuts could accelerate the collapse.

First responders detail the deadly cost of rural hospital closures. Rural hospitals are vanishing, and Medicaid cuts could accelerate the collapse.
abcnews.go.com/US/loss-life...

Jonathan Leider, Mac McCullough, Jason Orr & Beth Resnick analyze recent reductions in public health funding and these cuts' disproportionate impact on rural and low-resource communities. While some communities will be able to offset losses, many will not. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

Sam Halabi, Lawrence Gostin, Kayla Wontumi, John Kraemer & Anjola Tega examines politicization of science & health institutions, observing weakening of regulation and dissemination of false & misleading information about scientific knowledge, eroding credibility. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

Mohammad Abba-Aji & Sandro Galea apply the social determinants of health framework to examine the many non-health agency cuts being implemented & affecting health, highlighting systemic threats to the broader policy infrastructure that promotes population health. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@neillewisjr.bsky.social looks at the ways that public health is under seige in its ability to address health equity. While some may seek to abandon equity-based research in these times, Lewis argues for the continued pursuit of equitable and healthy futures. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@matthewkavanagh.bsky.social & Shiona Sharma assess the impact of the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization, situating this move in broader context of geopolitics & WHO's vulnerability when dependent on certain international norms and power structures read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@jlynch13.bsky.social & Michael Tu discuss the importance of health data linkage systems, and how current US policies have eroded this important way to address health inequities. Drawing on comparative health data practices, they offer insights for a way forward. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@merlinc2.bsky.social offers historical context for current public health backlash. Drawing on vax campaigns, air pollution control & occupational safety, public health traditions have been hard to eliminate once entrenched though 2nd Trump Admin may be different read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@pamherd.bsky.social analyzes why MAHA won't make Americans healthy, give its focus on individual solutions to systemic health challenges & its disconnect from scientific institutions. The upending of health agency independence will have an enduring impact. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@pzettler.bsky.social @reshmagar.bsky.social & @hollylynchez.bsky.social‬ examine the past, present, and future of the FDA, offering needed context for the momentous shifts observed in recent months, including loss of expertise and rushed reviews. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

@mattmotta.bsky.social assesses Trump Administration efforts to undermine health agencies’ regulatory authority & how this stems from disdain for those working in civil service roles, rooted in dislike of academic, medical & scientific experts.
read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

US public health is in crisis. In this special JHPPL issue edited by @oberlanderunc.bsky.social & @sarahgollust.bsky.social, you’ll find articles that help contextualize the erosion of public health infrastructure & adoption of policies harmful to public health. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/advanc...

Judge vacates Medicare Advantage audit rule in win for industry On Thursday, Texas Judge Reed O’Connor threw out a Biden-era rule that would have recouped billions of dollars in overpayments to MA plans.

TX district judge Reed O'Connor tossed a Biden Admin rule that would have audited Medicare Advantage overpayments. For broader context on MA overpayments & surrounding poitics, read Campbell & Morgan's 2025 JHPPL article: read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

www.healthcaredive.com/news/judge-v...

Too often, health insurance directories are inaccurate, despite ability to easily schedule appointments constituting a critical determinant of health. For in-depth scholarly attention to this, read @simonfhaeder.bsky.social & Abigail Burman's 2022 piece in JHPPL. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

A power point slide that says "2025 Editorial Board Meeting" with today's date, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law

Such a surreal feeling - just facilitated my first editorial board meeting of @jhppl.bsky.social. How did I get so lucky to be working with the most brilliant (and kind) health policy scholars and former editors?!

When autocratization is reversed: episodes of U-Turns since 1900 The world is in a “wave of autocratization.” Yet, recent events in Brazil, the Maldives, and Zambia demonstrate that autocratization can be halted and reversed. This article introduces “U-Turn” as ...

“52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy”

V-Dem data

SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional

ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool

TAPPER: Hepatitis A, whooping cough, & chickenpox cases are rising in Florida. Before you made this decision to lift vaccine mandates, did your dept do any analysis of how many new cases there will be?

LADAPO: Absolutely not

T: You didn't even do a projection?

L: It's an issue of right & wrong

Maryland screwworm case has US officials bracing for return of an old foe Rise in cases south of the border prompts concern over US livestock as Trump budget cuts hit research and foreign aid

The first US screwworm patient in the US comes after an increase of cases in South and Central America and the Caribbean in recent years. It highlights the importance of international cooperation on research and prevention, which has taken hits under Trump. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

So much flows from this core mistake to not prosecute Trump for insurrection in spring 2021. By the time they changed course it was too late. Media and public attention had moved on from Jan 6. And Trump had begun to reassemble Republican support.

An important insight from this article about how to fight authoritarian court-packing: the “ability of prodemocracy actors to establish a clear link between known authoritarian practices and an incumbent” is crucial. US elites didn’t take on a nakedly partisan Supreme Court and it gave us Trump.

Delighted to discover that "Candidate Positions, Responsiveness, and Returns to Extremism" is now available online from JOP 🧵
@thejop.bsky.social

Gated: journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Ungated: mellissameisels.com/files/MM_PCP...