The Wall Street Journal (6/22, Hughes, Radnofsky, Subscription Publication) reports House Republicans are expected to unveil proposals for reforming the US health insurance system today, offering tax credits to pay for private insurance to replace the Affordable Care Act. The Journal says the broad plan leaves out many details, and is intended to give voters an idea of GOP healthcare policy ideas before this fall’s elections, with more specifics to come next year.

The AP (6/22, Werner) reports that the plan also “includes other largely familiar GOP ideas such as medical liability reform and expanding access to health savings accounts.” It “proposes putting $25 billion behind high-risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions and for others, and transforming the federal-state Medicaid program for the poor by turning it into state block grants or individual per-capita allotments to hold down spending.”

Related Links:

— “House Republicans Unveil Health-Insurance Proposal,” LOUISE RADNOFSKY and SIOBHAN HUGHES, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2016.

HealthDay (6/21, Doheny) reports that research published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests “years of working long hours…may take a steep toll on” one’s “health – and that’s especially true for women.” When investigators “compared men who worked more than 60 hours a week to those who worked 30 to 40, they found those who worked the longer hours had more than twice the risk of getting osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.” However, men “who worked 41 to 50 hours had a lower risk of heart disease, lung disease and depression.”

Medical Daily (6/21, Bushak) reports, however, that “women who averaged 60 hours or more in a work week had a threefold risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble, and arthritis.” The investigators “found that the risk for these chronic health issues began increasing when women worked more than 40 hours a week, but they got even worse if the average work week was over 50 hours.”

Related Links:

— “Long Work Hours May Hurt Your Health,” Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay, June 21, 2016.

MedPage Today (6/19, Freeman) reported that despite the provisions of the Affordable Care Act resulting in “much more insurance coverage than in the past, patients with behavioral health needs are not getting the treatment they need,” research suggests. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing “National Survey on Drug Use and Health data from 2005 to 2014 to estimate how many people were likely to face ‘serious psychological distress,’” then measuring “how many people actually received mental healthcare.” The study was published in the June issue of Health Affairs.

Related Links:

— “Access to Mental Health Services Still Lags,” Gregory A. Freeman, MedPage Today, June 19, 2016.

Medical Daily (6/19, Baulkman) reported that a RAND Corporation study published online June 14 in Addiction associates “marijuana use to lower academic functioning, less preparedness for school, poorer mental health, and more delinquent behavior.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after following some “6,500 adolescents over a seven-year period, between 2008 and 2015.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Marijuana And Alcohol Use May Hurt School Performance, Mental Health,” Jaleesa Baulkman, Medical Daily, June 19, 2016.

On its website, NBC News (6/18, Brown, Zhang, Schuppe) reported on the “dearth” of psychiatrists who can treat children. The lack of child psychiatrists in the US, already noted in an HHS report (pdf) issued 17 years ago, “is arguably getting worse,” as the country “grapples with an increase in depression and suicides among young people.” A sizeable number of child psychiatrists are now “approaching retirement,” and because “not enough medical students want to enter the field,” there is no one to replace them. Some states are offering medical student loan forgiveness to attract child psychiatrists, while other states “are encouraging the use of ‘telepsychiatry’ – visits by video conference – and by adopting ‘collaborative care’ programs that connect psychiatrists with primary care physicians.”

Related Links:

— “Decades Into Crisis, Kids Still Suffer From Shortage of Psychiatrists,” LIZ BROWN, SALLY ZHANG and JON SCHUPPE, NBC News, June 18, 2016.