The Two-Party Duopoly is Failing America

When a pharmaceutical plant in Shanghai that made contrast material for radiological scans shut down last year, half the United States’ supply of the radioactive substance immediately became unavailable. Health care providers had to make difficult choices about who got potentially lifesaving tests.

“I work in the VA system. This impacted veterans literally overnight, where we needed to make decisions about whether we were going to allow some scans to be done to evaluate someone’s cancer or treat someone’s heart disease,” said Dr. Andrew Shuman, a head and neck surgeon who works at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and is an associate professor at University of Michigan Health. “Veterans deserve better and we should not be reliant on a supply chain that’s that tenuous.”

Almost 25% of American adults are food insecure, a jump of about five percentage points from a year earlier as the double whammy of high inflation and the end of pandemic benefits squeezes more household budgets, according to a new study.

Food insecurity indicates that someone isn't able to secure enough food for a nutritious diet, which can lead to skipping meals or cutting back on food. Those strategies, though, can have implications for a person's health and well-being, experts say.

The rise in food insecurity comes as more households are struggling to pay their typical bills amid grocery costs that have surged 20% in two years and rents that have increased 13%. Inflation surged last year to a four-decade high just as several pandemic-related benefits came to an end, heightening the financial stress for many, according to the new report from the Urban Institute.