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This past week, President Trump argued on national television that to end the opioid epidemic, Congress needed to fund the building of a wall at the United States’ southern border. What he didn’t discuss was the fact that most opioid abuse and addiction begins with legal medications such as OxyContin and Vicodin. And regulating those prescriptions is complicated. (Herschel Nachlis, 1/13)

Lindsey Jarratt’s son, Brayden, was a year old when the Child Protective Services of Dinwiddie, Va., took him to live with strangers. There are things about the months surrounding that moment that Ms. Jarratt can’t remember — heroin has a way of erasing time. But this much is still etched in her mind: how he screamed and sobbed, the way his baby fists clutched at the nape of her shirt, the feel of his tiny body pressed so desperately against hers that the two had to be pried apart. (Jeneen Interlandi, 1/13)

The population of physicians in the U.S. should look like the population as a whole. But it doesn’t. African-Americans and Hispanics now make up about 31 percent of the U.S. population, but comprise just 15 percent of this year’s first-year medical students. That number would be higher if we could figure out how to keep potential medical students from falling through the leaks in the pipeline from grammar school to medical school and beyond. The leaks are everywhere. Lack of family support: drip. Low-functioning schools: drip. Little guidance or support from teachers: drip. No role models or mentors: drip. (Paula MaGee, 1/14)

A world-renowned pro-vaccine medical expert is the newest voice adding to the body of evidence suggesting that vaccines can cause autism in certain susceptible children.Pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman originally served as the expert medical witness for the government, which defends vaccines in federal vaccine court. He had testified that vaccines do not cause autism in specific patients. Dr. Zimmerman now has signed a bombshell sworn affidavit. He says that, during a group of 5,000 vaccine-autism cases being heard in court on June 15, 2007, he took aside the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers he worked for defending vaccines and told them he’d discovered “exceptions in which vaccinations could cause autism.” (Sharyl Atkisson, 1/13)

My grandfather is traditionally masculine in most senses of the word: He was a soldier, then a bait-shop owner, then a garbage collector; he rose before dawn most days of his life and I never heard him complain about it. He raised six good kids, he tells funny one-liners, he’s an expert fisherman. He once refused over-the-counter pain meds even while at death’s door. I’ve been thinking about him lately, for reasons I’ll get to in a bit. (Monica Hesse, 1/13)

There are few better ways to start the New Year than by welcoming a historic number of women, including a historic number of women of color, to the 116th United States Congress. More than ever, this House looks like the America it’s meant to serve — diverse and overwhelmingly supportive of access to reproductive health care. (Leana Wed, 1/13)

As early as the fifth century B.C., the Greek historian Thucydides contrasted the self-control and stoicism of Spartans with the more indulgent and freethinking citizens of Athens. Today, unique behaviors and characteristics seem ingrained in certain cultures. Italians wildly gesticulate when they talk. Dutch children are notably easygoing and less fussy. Russians rarely smile in public. (Samuel Putnam and Masha A. Gartstein, 1/12)

In October, the Trump administration proposed a new rule that would expand the ways employers can use health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) to provide their employees with high-quality, low-cost health coverage. The United States Department of the Treasury estimates that once the new rules go into effect, 800,000 employers will take advantage of HRAs, which could affect coverage for more than 10 million employees. (Lee Gross, 1/13)

Illinois prison inmates, regardless of why they’re doing time, should not have to worry that substandard medical care will turn out to be a slow-motion death penalty. Fortunately, a federal judge on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a consent decree that will bring in a court-appointed expert to oversee an overhaul of health care in state prisons. (1/12)

There is one piece of good news in the stunner of a story of a woman who gave birth last month despite spending the last decade incapacitated at a Phoenix long-term care facility. A healthy baby boy is now in the arms of his family, members of the San Carlos Apache tribe."The family obviously is outraged, traumatized and in shock by the abuse and neglect of their daughter at Hacienda Healthcare … ," the family's attorney, John Micheals, said in a statement. "The family would like me to convey that the baby boy has been born into a loving family and will be well cared for." (Laurie Roberts, 1/13)

Medicaid expansion: Kansas should extend Medicaid health insurance coverage as allowed under the Affordable Care Act. Expanding Medicaid would help working Kansans and their children, improve mental health treatment and boost struggling rural hospitals. It’s possible Medicaid expansion can be accomplished without a significant impact on the state’s budget. And some Republicans seem willing to listen to expansion ideas, as long as the money is directed to rural areas. That’s encouraging. (1/13)

Tenet Healthcare, one of the country’s largest for-profit hospital systems, has a new plan to accelerate its turnaround: Send a bunch of jobs out of the country. At an investor conference last week and during an interview in Dallas, officials said the company is looking “aggressively” at offshoring jobs. And the action won’t be limited to Conifer, its revenue billing operation in Frisco, which would seem a prime target. (Mitchell Schnurman, 1/13)