[Ed. Note: This will be the last intern round-up of the academic year, to resume in the Fall. Thanks, Hyeongsu and Kathy!] By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that generic versions of the painkiller Opana ER can remain on the market. Judge Edward R. Korman of the United…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang Harvard University announced on Wednesday that it would shut down its primate research center over the next two years. The facility has been cited for animal welfare violations, but the university said that it was closing the research center due to a tough economic climate. After a federal judge…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang Looking seriously at the issue of the federal regulation that could require insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception, Harvard Law School professor Mary Ann Glendon questions the implication of this policy on religious liberty and freedoms. A NY Times article highlights the troubling trend of increased instances of “pseudoacademia,”…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang The Obama administration launched a new initiative on Tuesday to map the individual cells and circuits that make up the human brain. The project aims to provide a better understanding of how a brain works and how to devise better treatments for brain injuries and diseases. A federal judge…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang New York State is being sued by Jeffrey Monsour, a state-employed caregiver to people with developmental disabilities. Monsour claims that the state had unfairly retaliated against him as a result of his whistle-blowing when he attested to corruption and abuse in the state health system. Already subject to much…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang The Obama administration is encouraging skeptical state officials to expand Medicaid by subsidizing the purchase of private insurance for low-income people. A New York Times article features Kaiser Permanente, an organization which combines a nonprofit insurance plan with its own hospitals and clinics, as the kind of holistic health…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang As individual states continue their internal political debates over state-by-state Medicaid expansion, Florida’s Senate Committee rejected the measure. However, the panel continued to debate a possible compromise that would allow the state to receive more federal funding while also encouraging citizens to seek alternative options to Medicaid. An opinion…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang Arkansas adopted the most restrictive abortion law in the country Wednesday, outlawing most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The law, called the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, will likely go into effect in August if it survives expected legal challenges. Last week, the state passed a new abortion…
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang As the federal government clambers to meet deadlines and broker deals ahead of the sequestration, Medicare remains, again, one of the more contentious issues. While Medicare spending has slowed, Democrats are resisting any further spending cuts to such entitlement programs beyond the $300 billion reduction agreed upon last year….
By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang In an unexpected reversal of policy, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his support for a three year expansion of Medicaid in Florida. Once a critic of the federal health care proposals, Governor Scott joins a growing number of Republican officials who have swapped sides on the Medicaid expansion debate….
