Worth reading: Veterans' health, Medicare data, and public-health challenges in West Virginia

The Washington Post's After the Wars series offers an in-depth look at the challenges facing veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This past week, it's featured Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "The Other Wounds," about veterans' injuries and illnesses that aren't the direct results of enemy attacks, and Stephanie McCrummen's "The Choice," about one of the  difficult decisions facing survivors of military sexual assault.

An unprecedented release of Medicare data has allowed for a lot of reporting on how much Medicare pays physicians; Puneet Kollipara rounds up several articles in Wonbook. Two relevant op-eds I especially like are Charles Orenstein in the Los Angeles Times explaining what the data can and can't tell us and Catherine Rampell in the Washington Post reminding us who really pays for Medicare.

A few more recent pieces worth a look:

Evan Osnos in the New Yorker: Letter from West Virginia: Chemical Valley: The coal industry, the politicians, and the big spill

Kimberly Johnson in Aljazeera America: As coal fades in West Virginia, drugs fill void

Paul D. Thacker at Slate: How to Handle FDA Rejection: Women’s groups are calling the FDA sexist for not approving female Viagra. They are so wrong.

Ellen Goodman at Health Affairs Blog: It’s Always Too Soon Until It’s Too Late: Advanced Care Planning With Alzheimer’s

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