Here are the most interesting items we saw this week in women’s health:
💰 FORTY-TWO PERCENT OF WOMEN CAN AFFORD THEIR CARE. FOR MEN, IT’S FIFTY-SEVEN. The West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index just recorded the widest gender gap since it launched in 2021 — and women dropped six full points in a single year. This isn’t just a data point. It’s a measure of how many women are skipping prescriptions, delaying appointments, and going without care they know they need. The affordability crisis has a gender, and it’s getting worse.
🏥 MEDICAID’S MATERNITY DIRECTORIES ARE FULL OF DOCTORS WHO WON’T SEE PATIENTS. A federal watchdog audited Medicaid provider directories and found pregnant patients calling OB-GYNs who had moved, retired, or stopped accepting Medicaid. These ghost networks aren’t an inconvenience — they’re a barrier to prenatal care at the start of a pregnancy, when it matters most. Medicaid covers more than 40% of US births. States are required to fix this. Most don’t.
🤢 SEVERE PREGNANCY NAUSEA TRACKS WITH A STRING OF DELIVERY COMPLICATIONS. A Stanford study of 2.5 million California births found that women hospitalized for hyperemesis gravidarum — the kind of pregnancy nausea that causes dangerous weight loss and dehydration — had a 25% higher risk to deliver preterm, 37% higher to be anemic, and 18% higher likely to develop preeclampsia. It’s been dismissed as bad morning sickness for too long. This research says it should flag a pregnancy for closer monitoring from the start.
Editor’s note: We will be out next week for summer vacation! Our next edition will come on Tuesday, July 7. Have a wonderful Fourth of July!
TOP CLICKED THIS WEEK
Americans’ Ability to Afford Healthcare Falls to Five-Year Low // EurekaAlert
Changes in AI Mammogram Risk Scores Over Time Help Predict Future Breast Cancer // EurekaAlert
Oregon Rural Hospitals to Get $37 Million for Maternity Care // InvestigateWest
Severe Nausea Linked to Pregnancy, Birth Complications in Stanford Medicine Study // EurekaAlert
How Abortion in America Has Changed Since the Dobbs Decision // NPR
