The Hill (6/21, Sullivan) reported, “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent to the White House for review a proposal to lower certain drug prices in Medicare by linking them to the lower prices paid in other countries, an idea called the international pricing index.” President Trump “unveiled the original proposal in October,” and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar voiced support for the proposal sent to the White House on Friday.

Related Links:

— “Key Trump proposal to lower drug prices takes step forward, “Peter Sullivan, The Hill, June 21, 2019

USA Today (6/21, Dastagir) reported, “The US suicide rate is up 33% since 1999, but for Native American women and men, the increase is even greater: 139% and 71%, respectively, according to an analysis out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.” The article added, “Native Americans and Alaska Natives also experience PTSD more than twice as often as the general population, according to” the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA Regional Administrator Karen Hearod said, “You get this historical trauma, and people aren’t able to resolve it. It gets internalized and passed down to future generations.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide rate for Native American women is up 139%, “Alia E. Dastagir, USA Today, June 21, 2019

Bloomberg (6/20, Koons) reports, “U.S. suicide rates are at the highest level since World War II, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” and the problem is becoming “worse: The U.S. suicide rate increased on average by about 1% a year from 2000 through 2006 and by 2% a year from 2006 through 2016.”

CNN (6/20, Howard) reports the U.S. suicide rate “continues to climb, with a rate in 2017 that was 33% higher than in 1999,” research indicates. During that period, “suicide rates among people 15 to 64 increased significantly…rising from 10.5 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 14 per 100,000 in 2017, the most recent year with available data.” The findings were “published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics” on June 20.

Related Links:

— “Latest Suicide Data Show the Depth of U.S. Mental Health Crisis, “Cynthia Koons, Bloomberg, June 20, 2019

FierceHealthcare (6/20, Kuhrt) reports a study indicates that “a decrease in reports of child neglect in states that participated in Medicaid expansion suggests the program plays a part in reducing child maltreatment.” Medicaid expansion “has been associated with improved financial stability for families and better access to mental health care, which led a research team at the University of Washington to look for a correlation between Medicaid expansion and improvement in rates of child abuse and neglect.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Study: Medicaid expansion linked to decrease in child neglect, “Matt Kuhrt, FierceHealthcare, June 20, 2019

E.J. Mundell (6/20, Mundell) reports, “As society relaxes its rules around marijuana, U.S. teens seem to be responding by using the drug in much bigger numbers than a generation ago,” researchers concluded after examining “1991-2017 U.S. federal health data on more than 200,000 high school students.” Investigators “found that the number who said they’d used pot at least once over the past month rose 10-fold – from 0.6% in 1991 to 6.3% by 2017.” The findings were published online in the American Journal of Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Marijuana Use By Teens In The US Has Risen Tenfold Since The 1990s, Research Indicates, ” E.J. Mundell, HealthDay, June 20, 2019