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Private Equity Was Catastrophic for CT Health Care. Now It’s Coming for Public Schools
Read an op-ed by CEA President Kate Dias published in Hearst CT Newspapers.
Proposed Changes to Demographic Data Collection in the Census Could Impact Efforts to Address Health and Health Care Disparities
This issue brief provides an overview of the decennial census and discusses potential implications of the changes outlined in a September 2026 proposed rule to prohibit the collection of race and ethnicity data on the census and exclude many noncitizen immigrants from the apportionment count.
Local health care CEOs express concern about Medicaid changes
Federal changes coming to Medicaid in 2027 are already concerning the leaders of St. Charles Health System, Summit Health and Mosaic Community Health. They warned the public in a City […]
Many Health Care Grad Students Can’t Get the Loans They Need
New federal loan limits restrict borrowing for graduate degrees in many fields, and prospects for private loans are also grim.
$300,000 Catholic Medical Center investment expands dental and health care access for Manchester’s most vulnerable residents
The investment is the second installment of CMC’s $2 million, three-year commitment to the programs, bringing its total support to date to $600,000
Imprisoned tech fraudster Elizabeth Holmes to be moved to halfway house
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced onetime youngest self-made billionaire whose health care startup Theranos turned out to be a fraud, will be moved from her current minimum-security prison to a halfway
Health care workers join national push to protect immigrant caregivers
Members of 1199SEIU and community allies called on Congress to restore legal protections for immigrant workers and warned that deportations and federal cuts are straining hospitals, nursing homes and home care.
Lawmakers debate solutions to violence against health care workers
The branches differ on the extent of penalties to impose on those who assault a health care worker.
Students try health care careers at Finley Hospital amid worker shortage
Dubuque students got a hands-on look at their potential future in health care on Thursday as the U.S. faces a projected 250,000 worker shortfall in the industry by 2038.
Medicare Beneficiaries with Multiple and Complex Health Needs Face Challenges
New KFF polling focuses on the health care access and affordability challenges among adults with multiple or complex health conditions, including older Medicare beneficiaries. The results suggest important opportunities for policymakers to strengthen Medicare access and affordability. Medicare Beneficiaries Often Have High Health Needs Many Medicare enrollees have multiple or serious health conditions. More than […]
Generic, Biosimilar Medicines Saved US Health Care $496B in 2025
The Association for Accessible Medicines report, prepared with the IQVIA Institute, also reports $25.4 billion in biosimilar savings for the year.
40 years of mental health support
40 years of providing compassionate, evidence-based mental health care.
ICYMI: Chairman Smith on The Will Cain Show: Big Insurance Cashed in on Taxpayer Subsidies for Health Care That Wasn’t Actually Provided
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) joined Fox News’ The Will Cain Show to discuss...
Rial-Faigenbaum Helps Advance New Strength–Risk Continuum in Sports Medicine
Tamara Rial-Faigenbaum, Ph.D., specialist professor in the Department of Health and Physical Education, is a co-author in the British Journal of Sports Medicine editorial calling for muscular weakness to be recognized as a clinically relevant risk marker and for muscle strength to become a routine component of health care. The article “The Strength-Risk Continuum: Reframing […]
Bangor health provider announces pay freezes, further cutbacks
Penobscot Community Health Care said its Warren Center for Speech and Hearing and its Unlimited Solutions Clubhouse may close in November.
OpenAI breach of Australian health database sparks PM's concern
The breach occurred June 18, when an OpenAI agent accessed a database in Australia’s national health care system, Albanese said.
Baptist Health Baptist Hospital Completes Phase 1 of Lake Pavilion Renovation
(l-r) Dr. Larry Spiegelman, Medical Director of Women’s Health Care; Rachel Evers, AVP of Nursing, Baptist Hospital; Cassandra Pitter, Director of Nursing Services Baptist Health celebrated the completion of the first phase of a $120 million transformation of Baptist Health Baptist Hospital’s Lake Pavilion, a multi-phase renovation project designed to enhance the experience of care […]
Baptist Health Names New Chief Human Resources Officer
Baptist Health has named Denver Mitchell as executive vice president and chief human resources officer (CHRO). Mitchell has more than 22 years of experience in human resources, 16 of those within the health care sector. She joins Baptist Health from Cape Fear Valley Health in Fayetteville, NC, where she served as senior vice president and […]
Ask the Expert: How AI Is Changing Health Care
GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) — Artificial intelligence is front and center in many conversations right now—whether you love it or hate it—some doctors argue it can be used to benefit the healthcare system greatly. As part of the “Ask the Expert” series, in partnership with Bon Secours St. Francis, 7NEWS spoke with a doctor to learn […]
Australia Says Rogue OpenAI Agent Hacked Health Service Website
Australia said an OpenAI agent hacked a data portal for its public health insurance system, in what’s thought to be the first known instance of an AI agent infiltrating a government website. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said the agent had accessed public and non-public information relating to health care spending, but personal information is not believed to have been part of the breach. Albanese, speaking on Wednesday at a media briefing in New York where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly, said that the incident took place in June. OpenAI learned of the hack in August, but only emailed a general inbox of an Australian government agency on September 10, and it wasn’t until this week that OpenAI and the Australian government spoke directly about the issue. “It took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred,” Albanese said, “and the nature of the way that that notification occurred as well was unacceptable.”
Prop. 44 divides community clinics and health care union
The measure would restrict community clinic funding.
Healey proposes new Health Care Stabilization Fund
Gov. Maura Healey filed a $2.24 billion supplemental budget Wednesday that would pump more money into the workforce that supports SNAP benefit recipients and establish a new healthcare fund as the …
How the fate of a rural hospital could help flip the House
In one Virginia race and others, Democrats are highlighting the rising costs of health care and possible closures of facilities, putting Republicans on defense.
A $499 checkup gave me a peek at the future of AI-powered health care
Also: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Youth psychiatric hospital opens in Hendersonville to fill regional gap in teen mental health care
Pardee’s new Adolescent Behavioral Health Center has 23 beds for youth ages 13 to 17 who are experiencing mental health issues.
McConnell got the health care he needed. Booker wants that for everyone
Opinion: For Senate candidate Charles Booker, health care isn't abstract.
Australia Investigates OpenAI Hack on Public Health Care Site
Australia is exploring potential legal action after an artificial intelligence agent accessed nonpublic information on the country’s universal health care system.
Australia Says OpenAI ‘Infiltrated’ Public Health Care Portal
Australia is exploring potential legal action after an artificial intelligence agent accessed nonpublic information on the country’s universal health care system.
Healey proposes new health care stabilization fund
Gov. Maura Healey filed a $2.24 billion supplemental budget Wednesday that would establish a new health care fund as the state prepares for federal funding cuts.
Australian PM says ChatGPT-maker’s AI hacked public health care site
Anthony Albanese said there was no evidence that any personal health information was stolen and criticized the AI company for the incident.
For laid off St Albans Creamery workers, health insurance benefits run out next week. The union representing them is asking the courts to intervene
The union says many members have serious medical issues and it would be “stunningly cruel” for Dairy Farmers of America, the co-op that owns the creamery, to stop contributing to workers’ health care plan.
Sarasota Memorial Invests in Future Healthcare Access for One of Southwest Florida’s Fastest-Growing Communities
Sept. 22, 2026 – With the four-county region expected to grow from approximately 1.2 million residents today to nearly 1.8 million over the next 25 years, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System (SMH) is moving forward with plans to acquire approximately 120 acres in Manatee County’s fast-growing State Road 64 corridor. Located within Sarasota Memorial’s four-county […]
Exclusive: Basalt Health raises $20M for post-acute care tech
Admin workflows in post-acute care are less crowded than other parts of health care, but are drawing interest from strategics and investors.
Employer health costs are set to jump the most since 2003—and even health care workers are struggling to afford care
Nurses, doctors and medical practices are making difficult tradeoffs as premiums rise and health benefits consume more of household budgets.
A new mobile app has a goal to ease the health worker shortage in the Philippines
How CARE's HEAL Hub program helped Filipina health worker Susan Nazareno become a trusted, confident source of health care in her community.
Health Care Partnership outlines workforce progress
More local nursing graduates are staying in the region, according to officials offering an update on the progress of the New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership at a public forum last night. According to Jack Watson, dean of UNCW’s College of Health & Human Services, the number of UNCW nursing graduates choosing to remain in the area after graduation has climbed from 27% to the mid-40% range. The New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership aims to address the region’s healthcare worker shortage, with a key focus on nursing through strategic partnerships between UNCW, Cape Fear Community College (CFCC), New Hanover County Schools and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Foundation. "Each of the partners had pathway programs,” said Watson, “but they were almost at times done in a silo." One of the New Hanover Community Endowment's largest commitments to date, the collaborative received a $22.3 million grant in 2023, to be disbursed over three years, beginning in 2024. At the public forum, leadership addressed the nursing bottleneck created by the pandemic, and Laurie Whalin, president of the Novant Health Coastal Region, acknowledged that Novant Health had relied heavily on travel nurses during that period, with travel nurses making up about 47% of staff and nursing turnover at 35% at the height of the pandemic. "I can say we are in a tremendously different place today,” Whalin said at the forum. The number of travel nurses employed by the Novant Health Coastal Region has dropped to around 100 today, which Whalin says accounts for less than 4% of the workforce. Roughly two years into the grant term, major stakeholders in the collaboration pointed to various accomplishments tied to the initiative. According to Stephen Hill, vice president of talent development with the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, 250 more nurses live in New Hanover County in 2026 than in 2023. Whalin added that between 2021 and 2025, the Novant Health Coastal Region has hired close to 1,200 registered nurses. Additionally, according to Whalin, over the past two years, hiring and retention of nursing graduates from UNCW increased by 103%, while hiring and retention of nursing graduates from CFCC increased by 70%. Mandy Mills, director of career & technical education at New Hanover County Schools, pointed to the launch of its first Health Sciences Academy program, established across the county's four traditional high schools (Hoggard High School, Laney High School, Ashley High School and New Hanover High School), which started with 38 students last year. Mills also pointed to growth in the district’s Nursing Fundamentals course, which grew from 10 seats in 2023 to 50 in 2025-2026 and is now offered at all four traditional high schools. Watson emphasized the growing nursing class sizes and offered an update on the school’s accelerated nursing degree, which launched last year. Eleven students graduated in the first class, and all passed their boards on the first try, Watson said. This year’s class has 24 students. When the endowment announced its $22.3 million grant for the collaborative in 2023, UNCW and CFCC were each slated to receive the bulk of the funds, at about $10 million each. UNCW’s plans for the grant money included expanding its simulation lab, Watson said. He added that construction is expected to begin on the simulation lab this year and will likely extend through next year. According to Mary Ellen Naylor, dean of Health & Human Services at CFCC, the college has experienced growth in its associate degree nursing retention, rising from 59% in 2023 to 76% for the May 2026 class. CFCC used part of its endowment funding to support wraparound services, including a housing stipend, tuition assistance, exam assistance, emergency assistance, drop-in daycare and clinical and educational supplies. "We have very strong … students, but once they get into the program, there are competing priorities,” Naylor said. “They are working multiple jobs. They have children. They're single parents." According to Naylor, in 2026, 94% of students who used support services are still enrolled or have graduated. Addressing a question from an audience member about an approaching “enrollment cliff,” driven largely by dropping birth rates, Watson and Naylor said demand remains strong at both schools. “Right now … we do have more applicants than we have spots in our nursing program, and it is still a competitive process to get into,” Watson said. “I do not foresee that changing.” "(We've) doubled enrollment in our nursing programs over the last few years, but just as Dean Watson said, we still have very robust applicant pools, so it is still very competitive to get in,” Naylor said. "We have the applicant pool to support that, but again, it's not as easy as just saying, 'Okay … we're going to take another 90 students.' It's making sure all the resources and infrastructure that we need to educate the students outside the classroom is there as well." In response to a question about applying the collaborative model to other healthcare positions besides nursing, Sophie Dagenais, CEO and president of the endowment, said she sees the potential for the model to expand to other healthcare jobs and even other industries, but that the endowment hopes to learn from this model first. “This is a grant that is in year two of three years, and first we wanted to learn what is this going to demonstrate, what will we learn and then how may we scale it possibly,” she said. According to endowment spokesperson Amber Rogerson, funds for the program are set to expire after June 2027. “It's too early to discuss what happens after that,” wrote Rogerson in an email, “though we know the partners are considering the future, and some of the work supported by the grants is now built into their regular operations.”
Health Care Partnership outlines workforce progress
More local nursing graduates are staying in the region, according to officials offering an update on the progress of the New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership at a public forum last night. According to Jack Watson, dean of UNCW’s College of Health & Human Services, the number of UNCW nursing graduates choosing to remain in the area after graduation has climbed from 27% to the mid-40% range. The New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership aims to address the region’s healthcare worker shortage, with a key focus on nursing through strategic partnerships between UNCW, Cape Fear Community College (CFCC), New Hanover County Schools and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Foundation. "Each of the partners had pathway programs,” said Watson, “but they were almost at times done in a silo." One of the New Hanover Community Endowment's largest commitments to date, the collaborative received a $22.3 million grant in 2023, to be disbursed over three years, beginning in 2024. At the public forum, leadership addressed the nursing bottleneck created by the pandemic, and Laurie Whalin, president of the Novant Health Coastal Region, acknowledged that Novant Health had relied heavily on travel nurses during that period, with travel nurses making up about 47% of staff and nursing turnover at 35% at the height of the pandemic. "I can say we are in a tremendously different place today,” Whalin said at the forum. The number of travel nurses employed by the Novant Health Coastal Region has dropped to around 100 today, which Whalin says accounts for less than 4% of the workforce. Roughly two years into the grant term, major stakeholders in the collaboration pointed to various accomplishments tied to the initiative. According to Stephen Hill, vice president of talent development with the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, 250 more nurses live in New Hanover County in 2026 than in 2023. Whalin added that between 2021 and 2025, the Novant Health Coastal Region has hired close to 1,200 registered nurses. Additionally, according to Whalin, over the past two years, hiring and retention of nursing graduates from UNCW increased by 103%, while hiring and retention of nursing graduates from CFCC increased by 70%. Mandy Mills, director of career & technical education at New Hanover County Schools, pointed to the launch of its first Health Sciences Academy program, established across the county's four traditional high schools (Hoggard High School, Laney High School, Ashley High School and New Hanover High School), which started with 38 students last year. Mills also pointed to growth in the district’s Nursing Fundamentals course, which grew from 10 seats in 2023 to 50 in 2025-2026 and is now offered at all four traditional high schools. Watson emphasized the growing nursing class sizes and offered an update on the school’s accelerated nursing degree, which launched last year. Eleven students graduated in the first class, and all passed their boards on the first try, Watson said. This year’s class has 24 students. When the endowment announced its $22.3 million grant for the collaborative in 2023, UNCW and CFCC were each slated to receive the bulk of the funds, at about $10 million each. UNCW’s plans for the grant money included expanding its simulation lab, Watson said. He added that construction is expected to begin on the simulation lab this year and will likely extend through next year. According to Mary Ellen Naylor, dean of Health & Human Services at CFCC, the college has experienced growth in its associate degree nursing retention, rising from 59% in 2023 to 76% for the May 2026 class. CFCC used part of its endowment funding to support wraparound services, including a housing stipend, tuition assistance, exam assistance, emergency assistance, drop-in daycare and clinical and educational supplies. "We have very strong … students, but once they get into the program, there are competing priorities,” Naylor said. “They are working multiple jobs. They have children. They're single parents." According to Naylor, in 2026, 94% of students who used support services are still enrolled or have graduated. Addressing a question from an audience member about an approaching “enrollment cliff,” driven largely by dropping birth rates, Watson and Naylor said demand remains strong at both schools. “Right now … we do have more applicants than we have spots in our nursing program, and it is still a competitive process to get into,” Watson said. “I do not foresee that changing.” "(We've) doubled enrollment in our nursing programs over the last few years, but just as Dean Watson said, we still have very robust applicant pools, so it is still very competitive to get in,” Naylor said. "We have the applicant pool to support that, but again, it's not as easy as just saying, 'Okay … we're going to take another 90 students.' It's making sure all the resources and infrastructure that we need to educate the students outside the classroom is there as well." In response to a question about applying the collaborative model to other healthcare positions besides nursing, Sophie Dagenais, CEO and president of the endowment, said she sees the potential for the model to expand to other healthcare jobs and even other industries, but that the endowment hopes to learn from this model first. “This is a grant that is in year two of three years, and first we wanted to learn what is this going to demonstrate, what will we learn and then how may we scale it possibly,” she said. According to endowment spokesperson Amber Rogerson, funds for the program are set to expire after June 2027. “It's too early to discuss what happens after that,” wrote Rogerson in an email, “though we know the partners are considering the future, and some of the work supported by the grants is now built into their regular operations.”
Little Rock, Kapor Center to develop startup businesses
The city of Little Rock will partner with the Kapor Center on a multi-year project to work with "gap-closing" startup businesses to solve financial stability, housing, health care, education and workforce development challenges, according to a Wednesday news release.
Linn County health providers launch measles vaccination campaign
Several Linn County health care providers are launching a second-year campaign urging residents to check their measles vaccination status and know what to do if
Whistleblower Law Collaborative Adds Former DOJ Senior Health Care Fraud Counsel Augustine M. Ripa
/PRNewswire/ -- Whistleblower Law Collaborative LLC (WLC), a firm dedicated to representing whistleblowers nationwide under the False Claims Act and other...
Women's Health Care Affordability Challenges
As health care costs dominate the national political conversation, our 2026 KFF Women’s Health Survey shows the toll those costs are taking on women. Our new nationally representative survey of women and men ages 18–64 finds costs remain a major barrier for women, specifically — causing everything from delayed care to rationed medications to cuts in spending on basic needs.
Federal health care subsidies devour the budget and kill patient satisfaction
A recent report finds that health care now consumes almost one of every three dollars the federal government spends, with more to come.
Republican candidates highlight health care in 2026, battling voter distrust
According to the latest NBC News poll, voters trust Democrats over Republicans on health care by 22 points. Three Republican strategists said the GOP is trying to narrow the advantage.
Award-winning Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton area health care provider retires
An award-winning South Carolina Lowcountry health care provider is retiring after nearly five decades of serving patients in the Beaufort, Jasper and Hampton County areas.
Award-winning Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton area health care provider retires
An award-winning South Carolina Lowcountry health care provider is retiring after nearly five decades of serving patients in the Beaufort, Jasper and Hampton County areas.
MU Health Care expands with new ambulance base in west Columbia
The new ambulance base located at 101 S. Fairview Road aims to provide faster response times and emergency services into the surrounding communities.
Stanford Health Care to lay off 95 employees
Terminated staff will continue to be paid until Nov. 2.
Bangladesh's new approach to noncommunicable diseases
Bangladesh has committed to reducing premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases, rebuilding prevention and control efforts around primary health care.
Huntsman Mental Health Institute Celebrates 40 Years of Clinical Care and Five Years of Transformative Growth
Celebrating 40 years of compassionate mental health care and five years as Huntsman Mental Health Institute, the organization reflects on its history, honors its pioneers, and advances a bold vision for the future.
Opinion: Alaska’s health care decisions must be guided by science, not politics
The Senate’s consideration of the next FDA commissioner carries big stakes in a state where access to care is already limited.
Opinion: Alaska’s health care decisions must be guided by science, not politics
The Senate’s consideration of the next FDA commissioner carries big stakes in a state where access to care is already limited.
Opinion: Alaska’s health care decisions must be guided by science, not politics
The Senate’s consideration of the next FDA commissioner carries big stakes in a state where access to care is already limited.
Perriello joined by clinicians to discuss healthcare after 200+ endorse him in open letter
An open letter endorsing Tom Perriello, signed by more than 200 medical professionals, is putting health care front and center in Virginia’s 5th District.
Rising costs top concern at Ohio Farm Science Review
LONDON, Ohio — The high costs of diesel fuel, fertilizer, and health care are among the top concerns of farmers as the November election approaches, Ohio ...
Vance pushes for health fraud legislation in the Senate
The White House is working with Senate leadership to get health care fraud legislation over the finish line before the end of the congressional session, Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday during an announcement about cracking down on health care fraud. As part of that announcement, Vance said the Trump administration has removed about 760,000 enrollees […]
New ambulance base opens in Columbia for MU Health Care
MU Health Care announced the opening of a new ambulance base at 101 S Fairview Road this week in Columbia.
Trump administration announces $45M investment in Missouri rural health care
The Trump administration has announced more than $45 million in funding to support rural health care infrastructure in Missouri.
Is the priority health care or profit?
My head is spinning. First, finger-pointing and counter-finger-pointing. Now a court ordered receiver — no wait, a sale agreement for West Sub and Weiss has been agreed upon (aka “the check is in the mail”). In the continued shenanigans about these two hospitals and with recriminations flying in both directions, there appears to be no […]
California Prop. 44 Pits Health Care Groups Against Union
Prop. 44 would require community clinics to spend at least 90% of their annual revenue on patient care and related services.
Expanded Medicaid dental coverage is improving oral health in Utah
The expansion has made an essential health care service available for tens of thousands of Utahns.
New Digital Maternal Health Hub Aims to Close Critical Gaps in Maternal Health Care Across Pennsylvania
AUDUBON, Pa., September 22, 2026--The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth (TLC), a nonprofit leader in community-based mental health services, has partnered with Greenspace Health to develop Bloom, a centralized digital platform designed to streamline access to maternal health care and social determinants of health (SDoH) resources and services for underserved communities across Pennsylvania.
Six Organizations Honored for Shaping the First Decade of Workplace Mental Health Care
/PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of its tenth anniversary, Spring Health, a global mental health company built on one AI-native platform, named six organizations...
Attacks on Health Care in the occupied Palestinian territory (01-15 September 2026)
Situation Report in English on occupied Palestinian territory about Health, Protection and Human Rights and more; published on 22 Sep 2026 by Insecurity Insight
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
New crisis center aims to expand mental health care in Lansing
A new crisis care center is opening Tuesday in Lansing, offering an alternative to hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
Is 50 the new 60?
Subscribe TL;DR: Younger generations are showing signs of worse health compared to earlier-born cohorts at the same age This backward “drift” is showing up both in mortality risk and chronic disease Worsening trends in obesity and diabetes are the most consistent signals Taking the long view, we’ve made astonishing gains in health and life expectancy in the last century. Global average life expectancy has more than doubled from 32 years in 1900 to 73 years in 2024. (But don’t forget, there were still old people when life expectancy was 32). As people lived longer, they also generally lived healthier along the way. It turns out that avoiding things that can kill you early, like malnutrition and lots of childhood infections, also keeps you healthier later in life. In a classic 2004 paper, Finch and Crimmins proposed that cohorts of children who benefited from fewer early life infections had less lifetime exposure to inflammation and cardiovascular disease later in life, accelerating mortality improvements at older ages. Poor nutrition in the womb has also been linked to a higher risk of later chronic disease. The upshot is that improvements in childhood health can pay dividends many decades later. The combination of better living conditions (nutrition, sanitation) and medical advances (antibiotics, vaccines, blood pressure meds, etc) meant that people’s healthy lifespan generally expanded, even as they lived longer. Aging researchers call this best-case scenario “compression of morbidity”—meaning we delay the onset of disease and disability even faster than the years of life we are adding. During my 20+ year research career, we could generally bank on the idea that younger generations would not only live longer but also keep getting healthier along the way. “60 is the new 50” as they say… Enter “Generational Health Drift” Sadly, this expectation of steady progress may be changing. You’ve probably heard that US life expectancy gains have slowed to a crawl in the past couple of decades. Mortality improvements are also slowing (though less dramatically) in many other high-income countries (you can read more about that in a review paper I wrote here). Mortality is a very blunt health measure, but it is often a good barometer for the broader population health trends happening underneath. And we are now seeing that younger generations may be in worse health at similar ages compared to earlier born cohorts. My collaborator Prof. George Ploubidis at University College London coined this worsening health in more recently born cohorts “generational health drift.” “Generational health drift” is bad news on multiple fronts. Most obviously, we don’t want our health progress to go backward. But the timing is also bad, since our populations are aging. In demographic terms, “population aging” means that the proportion of the population at older ages (i.e >65 years) is increasing. Fun demography fact: Current population aging is not due to the recent declines in the birth rates making the news, but declines in fertility decades ago, after the “baby boom.” As baby boomers reach older ages, the smaller cohorts behind them mean the percentage of older adults will increase. For example, the share of the population age 65 and older in the US increased from 12.4% in 2004 to 18.0% in 2024. This story of population aging was written long ago. Many worry that population aging will put pressure on health care and pension systems. But if people reach older ages in better health than in years past, those fiscal pressures would be less dire than projected. Healthy older people can also continue to contribute to society in many valuable ways, including paid work, caregiving, community service….even high political office 🤷. On the flip side, if younger generations reach retirement age in worse health and with more disabling conditions, this could magnify the societal challenge of population aging. Evidence for worsening generational health A recent paper that I LOVED in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Leah Abrams and colleagues examined which birth cohorts (aka generations) were behind worsening US mortality. Behold the Lexis diagram (cue swooning demographers). Calendar time is on the x-axis, age on the y-axis. Birth cohorts can be followed over time as they age on the diagonal lines moving up and to the right. This figure plots the year-on-year % change in all-cause mortality at a given age. Green shading indicates mortality improvements over time, white is stagnation, and gray shading indicates worsening mortality. Following the diagonal line for those born in 1950, you can see a noticeable shift from green to gray that follows this cohort for most of their lives. This gray shading shows generally worsening mortality for the 1950 to 1959 birth cohorts compared to their predecessors across all ages. Concerningly for my GenX and elder millennial peeps, there was also a deterioration in mortality for birth cohorts born in the 1970s and 1980s, visible as dark gray areas at ages 30 to 45 during the 2010s. While some of these mortality changes reflect specific shocks such as the opioid epidemic, most deaths still occur from major causes of death such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. For cancer, the gray in the top left corner of the figure below reflects the legacies of smoking for older cohorts, followed by a period of green with improvements in cancer mortality as smoking rates declined. But the white/gray shading in the bottom right corner highlights a stagnation and reversal of the cancer trends, with cohorts born around 1970 to 1985 experiencing worsening cancer mortality. This deterioration was most noticeable for colon cancer mortality, possibly linked to obesity or dietary factors. Not just dying more, but less healthy along the way. A recent paper by Dr. Laura Gimeno of University College London (of which I am a co-author), found evidence that more recently born cohorts in Great Britain have stagnating or worsening health. A stylized picture of what“generational health drift” might look like: The review paper found: Rates of childhood overweight and obesity were highest among Gen Z. Rates of diabetes in the 40s almost doubled from 3.1% among the Baby Boomers to 5.9% in Generation X. Gen Z reported higher rates of poor mental health in adolescence compared to earlier-born groups. These UK results are consistent with studies showing worsening health across generations in the US as well. A 2021 US study found that more recently born cohorts had worse biological markers (like blood pressure and blood sugar) than earlier generations at the same age. A separate 2022 study of Americans aged 50 and over found that more recently born generations had a higher number of chronic diseases, with younger age of disease onset. A 2024 Lancet paper found that in the US, women born in 1945 had 33% obesity prevalence at age 50, rising to 48.2% for women born in 1970 turning 50. So what’s going on, and can we turn it around? We don’t have a definitive answer for what’s causing the deteriorating health of younger cohorts, but circumstantial evidence points to worsening trends in obesity and diabetes in both the US and UK. Remember that cohort trends reflect lagged effects of early environments, and younger generations have faced both earlier onset and more severe obesity across their lifetimes. Despite these very concerning trends, the future is not set in stone. We’ve reversed poor generational health trends before: drops in smoking are a major reason cancer and heart disease deaths fell so dramatically in recent decades. GLP-1 drugs may finally turn the tide against rising rates of obesity and diabetes, though it is still early days. But things could also get worse…for example from a return to higher levels of childhood infectious diseases that can have a lasting impact on health. See for example: [ ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) [ Don’t You Forget About Me(asles): The Virus That Erases Immune Memory ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) Jenn Dowd, PhD · March 24, 2025 [ Read full story ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) Even as an optimist, emerging data on the “generational health drift” has my full attention. For most of my research career, we took it for granted that each generation would be healthier than the last. But if present trends continue, **50 could be the new 60….**and Gen Z celebrities will soon look older than Paul Rudd :). Stay well, Jenn Share the Health! If you found this post useful, please share it with a friend. Share
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