DOD to investigate mental health care at Camp Lejeune, also will stock morning-after pill

The Associated Press reports that, according to Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.,  "The Defense Department will investigate complaints of substandard mental health care for Marines at Camp Lejeune. ... Public questions about the quality of mental health care provided by a private contractor at the base were raised last year by the September firing of Dr. Kernan Manion, a brain trauma specialist who had complained to commanders about poor facilities, inadequate care programs and weak security. ... In e-mails shown to The Associated Press, Manion complained, among other things, that the military was not dealing with PTSD properly and that the hospital lacked security procedures in the event of a Fort Hood-like shooting" (Maurer, 2/4).

The Washington Post: "The Department of Defense will begin making the morning-after pill Plan B available at all of its hospitals and health clinics around the world, officials announced Thursday. ... The decision is the latest the Obama administration has made reversing politically sensitive policies involving women's health that were implemented during President George W. Bush's administration. Previously, the Obama administration has announced that it was rescinding a federal regulation that would have expanded the ability of health-care workers to refuse to provide medical care they found morally objectionable, including abortion and Plan B; has lifted federal restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research; and has restored funding to international family-planning groups" (Stein, 2/5).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.