More than 30 million families are shouldering the significant health care demands of an ill loved one. Some families are fortunate enough to live in one of the handful of states that have paid family leave or earned sick time laws that allow workers to earn a portion of their pay while taking time off to address the health needs of a family member. Most families, however, must rely on the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, a law that guarantees 12 weeks of parental or sick leave but covers little more than half of all workers and does not include pay. Mark Schuster, William Berenberg Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital, is quoted. 

One of the greatest promises of the Affordable Care Act is that if you are sick or get sick, health insurers can no longer charge you more or avoid covering you altogether. Patient groups say they've spotted an alarming trend of some health insurance plans designing drug benefits to purposefully keep out sicker, costlier patients. It's currently the subject of a federal complaint, and a new study offers evidence this is happening across the country. Benjamin Sommers, assistant professor of medicine, is a coauthor of the study.

Steven Schlozman, assistant professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Gene Beresin, professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, ccoauthored this blog post as a collaborative effort between the Clay Center For Young Healthy Minds affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and Alexia Norton Jones, the daughter of Martin Luther King's speechwriter and friend.