Happy Labor Day weekend! My parents met in college, where they were both industrial and labor relations majors — how romantic. Every Labor Day we had to sing "Solidarity Forever" as a family, even after my father sold out to the other side. Now I blast Tom Morello's version of the union anthem every Labor Day. My other go-to Labor Day song: Lisa Simpson's "They Have the Plant, but We Have the Power." This reminds me: I'm always looking for nuanced, surprising arguments about labor in health care.
Last week, I received a ton of great suggestions for potential First Opinion-hosted debates and debaters. Some good ones are preheating now. Please keep your suggestions coming, especially as they relate to the presidential campaign. As always, the email is first.opinion@statnews.com (or just reply to this newsletter).
This week on First Opinion: As RFK Jr. continues to play a role in the 2024 campaign, Alan Levinovitz examines his peculiar definition of "natural." A neurologist asks: Who should get an appointment first —a person with a neurogenerative illness, or someone at risk for one? Offering financial support to people who participate in clinical trials is tricky legal territory. Wilfredo R. Matias, an infectious diseases doctor who treated mpox patients in the U.S. in 2022, argues that the U.S. needs to do more to stop the current outbreak. Trans and gender diverse birthing people need prenatal care, too — but systems, including electronic health records that can't accept a prenatal patient who doesn't identify as female, can't seem to accept that. Medicare's new transitional coverage of emerging technologies program isn't enough of a makeover. And health care price regulation is undemocratic, according to Johns Hopkins' Ge Bai.
Recommendation of the week: I just watched the 2015 movie "The Program," starring Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong and Chris O'Dowd as David Walsh, a reporter who realized far earlier than most that Armstrong had to be using performance-enhancing drugs. It's currently streaming on Amazon Prime and is a great portrayal of the scandal.
P.S. My middle name is in honor of a major labor figure from the 20th century. I'll mail a copy of "You Are Not Expected to Understand This: How 27 Lines of Code Changed the World," the 2022 Princeton University Press book I edited on the history of computer programming, to the first person who can guess it. If you give me $5, I promise not to sign it.
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