Medicare Eligibility and Changes in Coverage, Access to Care, and Health by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

Importance: Medicare provides nearly universal insurance coverage at age 65 years. However, how Medicare eligibility affects disparities in health insurance coverage, access to care, and health status among individuals by sexual orientation and gender identity is poorly understood.

Objective: To assess the association of Medicare eligibility with disparities in health insurance coverage, access to care, and self-reported health status among individuals by sexual orientation and by gender identity.

LGBTQ College student health and wellbeing at the onset of the pandemic: additional evidence and lessons learned from COVID-19.

Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has killed more than six million people and disrupted health care systems globally. In the United States alone, more than one million people have died from COVID-19 infections. At the start of the pandemic, nearly all aspects of our lives paused to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Recent Trends in Medicaid Spending and Use of Drugs With US Food and Drug Administration Accelerated Approval.

Importance: State Medicaid programs have reported concerns about rising drug prices and spending, particularly regarding drugs entering the market through the accelerated approval program under the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The accelerated approval program enables the FDA to approve drugs on the basis of unverified surrogate end points, meaning that clinical benefits for these products are uncertain at the time of approval. However, state Medicaid programs are legally required to cover these drugs.

Medicaid and Accelerated Approval: Spending on Drugs with and without Proven Clinical Benefits.

Many state Medicaid officials are concerned about rising prescription drug spending, particularly drugs approved through the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) accelerated approval pathway. The authors examined how much of Medicaid programs' accelerated approval spending is attributable to products that have demonstrated clinical benefits versus those that have not. Their findings provide support for states' concerns that pharmaceutical companies often fail to complete their required postapproval confirmatory studies within the FDA's requested timeline.

Changes in the Use of Hydroxyprogesterone Caproate Injection After Confirmatory Trial Failure.

This cross-sectional study examines changes in hydroxyprogesterone caproate fills from 2010 through 2020.

Sexual Behavior Change Among Gay and Bisexual Men During the First COVID-19 Pandemic Wave in the United States.

Background: After decades of navigating HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, gay and bisexual men are responding to new and uncertain risks presented by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by adapting their sexual behavior.

Methods: This paper uses data from a national sample of 728 gay and bisexual men collected from April 10 to May 10, 2020, to examine changes to sexual behavior in response to the first wave of the pandemic in the USA. We also assess whether behavior modifications are associated with exposure to statewide public health measures, including Stay-at-Home orders.

Health Care Expenditures and Financial Burden: A Comparison of Adults in Same-Sex Couples and Different-Sex Couples.

We used data from the 2014-2017 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to compare health care expenditures and financial burden between adults in same-sex couples ( = 514) and adults in different-sex couples ( = 41,043). Compared with men in different-sex couples ($3,994), men in same-sex couples ($6,896) were more likely to spend more on health care, especially on prescription medications ($2,745 vs. $1,050), which was primarily driven by antiviral medications ($1,061 vs.

Prescription Drug Priorities under the Biden Administration.

In January 2021, the incoming Biden administration inherited urgent priorities for curbing health care spending and expanding health care coverage to millions of Americans while also addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn. Among these competing priorities is the issue of access to and affordability of prescription drugs. Here, the authors outline Biden's plan for directly lowering prescription drug spending for payers and patients and for expanding access to prescription medications through improved health insurance coverage.

Mental Health Needs Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: The abrupt closure of universities across the U.S. in March 2020 may have sent some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) college students home to unsafe or unaccepting families and environments.

LNK deficiency promotes acute aortic dissection and rupture.

Aortic dissection (AD) is a life-threatening vascular disease with limited treatment strategies. Here, we show that loss of the GWAS-identified SH2B3 gene, encoding lymphocyte adaptor protein LNK, markedly increases susceptibility to acute AD and rupture in response to angiotensin (Ang) II infusion. As early as day 3 following Ang II infusion, prior to the development of AD, Lnk-/- aortas display altered mechanical properties, increased elastin breaks, collagen thinning, enhanced neutrophil accumulation, and increased MMP-9 activity compared with WT mice.