What We're Reading: $600M Funding for Opioid Abuse Bill Struck Down

Additional funding to combat heroin and prescription drug abuse was shot down in the Senate. Democrats lost their bid to add $600 million to a bill created to stop the growing substance abuse epidemic, but the party said it won’t block the legislation as a result of the funding battle, reported The Washington Post. The extra money would have gone to new opioid abuse programs being created by the bill and while 5 Republicans joined the Democrats to vote for the additional funds, they did not have enough votes overall.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump has released his own plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Republican front-runner has included several ideas that align with conservative proposals, but the plan has few details about how his proposals would work, according to POLITICO. Trump’s plan would keep the ACA provision that insurers cannot deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions, but he would do away with the individual mandate.

In an interview with Hospitals & Health Networks, Christine Cassel, MD, who has stepped down from her leadership position with the National Quality Forum to build the new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, discusses how one designs a medical school from scratch. One of the things she talked about was taking a more personalized approach with smaller classes to combat burnout and depression and focus on student wellness.