Social issues

Injection pens of Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy are shown in this photo illustration in Oslo, Norway, Nov. 21, 2023.Victoria Klesty | ReutersCigna on Thursday unveiled a new effort to expand insurance coverage for weight loss drugs by limiting how much health plans and employers spend on the highly popular treatments each year. The move comes as many insurers mull whether they should cover those drugs or drop them from their plans altogether due to their high costs. Americans have flocked to the treatments, along…

President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Dec. 14, 2023.Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday said the federal Medicare program should negotiate prices for at least 50 prescription drugs each year, up from the current target of 20 medicines. That's one of several new health-care policy proposals that Biden will outline during his State of the Union address Thursday, according to a fact sheet released by the White House on…

Elon Musk met with Donald Trump in Florida this past Sunday, according to a new report from the New York Times. And while it’s not clear what the two men discussed, news of the meeting comes as Musk has ratcheted up his rhetoric against illegal immigration and Trump looks for new sources of cash.The Elon Musk Twitter Saga, Part 1 of Who Knows?The Times report doesn’t name a source for the meeting but cites “three people briefed on the meeting.” An account that tracks Musk’s jet on the social media platform BlueSky shows…

A container holding boxes of Mifepristone, the first medication in a medical abortion, are prepared for patients at Alamo Women's Clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, April 20, 2023.Evelyn Hockstein | ReutersCVS and Walgreens will start selling the abortion pill mifepristone this month at certain pharmacy locations in states where it is legal to do so, spokespeople for the companies told CNBC on Friday. CVS and Walgreens received certification from the Food and Drug Administration to dispense the commonly used pill at their…

Recent changes to Medicaid programs, aimed at closing a health coverage gap in the U.S., have left behind some Americans — particularly people of color.Among the non-elderly population in the U.S. — those under age 65 — insured rates rose during the Covid pandemic, with 3.4 million Americans enrolling in health coverage between 2019 and 2022, according to a report by KFF. That shift was due in part to the Medicaid and health care marketplace provisions put in place as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the report…

Elon Musk tweeted late Wednesday night that he’s never gone to therapy, a fact that he wants to be immortalized on his gravestone. And whatever you think of the billionaire’s attitude to mental health treatment, Musk’s tweet would seem pretty unremarkable in isolation. However, Musk keeps tweeting about this for some reason, including three times in the past two months alone.Did Elon Musk Regret Buying Twitter? | Walter Isaacson Interview“Put ‘Never Went to Therapy’ on my gravestone,” Musk tweeted on February 28.“He’s…

Google launched a new AI image generator earlier this month that, for all intents and purposes, was incapable of generating consistent images of white people. As you might expect, rightwing influencers wasted no time in noticing this issue and promptly accused the tech giant of reverse racism. After temporarily disabling the image generator’s capabilities last week, Google now says that it will take another stab at launching the app soon. No Google AI Search, I Don’t Need to Learn About the “Benefits of Slavery” “We have…

The Supreme Court is hearing two cases on Monday that could set new precedents around free speech on social media platforms. The cases challenge two similar laws from Florida and Texas, respectively, which aim to reduce “Silicon Valley censorship” on social media, much like Elon Musk has done at X in the last year.Twitter Verification is a Hot Mess“Silencing conservative views is un-American, it’s un-Texan and it’s about to be illegal,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott on X in 2021, announcing one of the laws the Supreme…

Blood sample of patient positive tested for sickle cell.Kitsawet Saethao | Istock | Getty ImagesThe approval of two gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease has given hope to patients who suffer from the debilitating disease, which overwhelmingly affects Black people and people of color.Health officials now face a challenge in finding a way to provide equitable access to the costly treatments.The crippling episodes of pain from the genetic blood disorder make life unpredictable for patients like Michael Goodwin.…

Google is pausing the ability of its AI chatbot Gemini to generate images of people after a slew of historically inaccurate and racially diverse creations, such as images of Black Nazi soldiers and a Black medieval British king, went viral and led some to say the company was racist against white people.Google’s Antitrust Case Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to AI“We’re already working to address recent issues with Gemini’s image generation feature,” Google said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, on…