What We’re Reading: TRICARE Not Covering OTC Birth Control; Health Care Workplace Harassment Doubles; Young Adults and Anxiety, Depression

Senators Advocate for TRICARE to Cover OTC Birth Control

Several senators sent a letter to the Department of Defense (DoD) on Monday to advocate for TRICARE, the military’s health insurance, to stock and cover the first FDA-approved OTC birth control pill, according to Military Times. TRICARE, unlike other private health insurance plans, is not subject to the Affordable Care Act, meaning service members and their dependents are not entitled to co-pay–free contraceptives. Consequently, the senators advocated for coverage through their letter to the DoD, requesting they respond by the end of the month with either details of its plan to stock and cover OTC birth control without a co-pay or a reason as to why it cannot support the request. The letter was authorized by senators Michael Bennet (D, Colorado), Maizie Hirono (D, Hawaii), Tammy Duckworth (D, Illinois), and Jeanne Shaheen (D, New Hampshire) and was endorsed by 31 colleagues.

Health Care Workplace Harassment Doubles From 2018 to 2022, Study Finds

New survey data published in the CDC’s Vital Signs report on Tuesday showed that double the amount of health care workers experienced workplace harassment in 2022 than in 2018, according to CBS News. The survey showed that 13.4% of health care workers experienced workplace harassment, increasing from 6.4% in 2018. It also found that health care workers who reported being harassed had increasingly reported depression, anxiety, and burnout compared with their colleagues who were not harassed. Conversely, positive working conditions, like trust in management and supervisor help, contributed to lower odds of poor mental health or burnout. As a result, the CDC developed Impact Wellbeing, a national campaign to provide resources for employers to help support the mental health of health care workers.

Young Adults Suffer From Depression, Anxiety Twice as Often as Teens, Survey Finds

Making Caring Common, a nationally representative survey by Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, found that young adults in the United States experienced depression and anxiety twice as often as teenagers, according to the Washington Post. Conducted in December 2022, 1853 individuals, including 396 teens, 709 young adults, and 748 caregivers, answered about 50 questions on topics including mental health, social media use, and their values and behaviors. The survey found that 36% of young adults reported anxiety, and 29% reported feeling depressed. In comparison, 18% of teenagers reported anxiety, and 15% reported feeling depressed. They connected the young adults’ high levels of mental illness to the current challenging conditions for entering adulthood, including high housing prices, world disasters, and starting college or a career amid the pandemic.