As Pandemic-Era Medicaid Provisions Lapse, Millions Approach a Coverage Cliff
States are trying to reach millions of Medicaid enrollees to make sure those still eligible remain covered and help others find new health insurance.
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States are trying to reach millions of Medicaid enrollees to make sure those still eligible remain covered and help others find new health insurance.
Coastal and politically progressive states have passed stronger paid sick and family leave policies, but many workers in rural America are left out, facing tough decisions when choosing between caring for themselves or sick family members or keeping their jobs.
U.S. airlines have response plans for passengers who run into health issues in flight, but planes carry limited and sometimes incomplete medical supplies that can put travelers at risk.
After almost every mass shooting, a debate is renewed over whether to publish the photos of the carnage the guns have inflicted.
As the covid-19 pandemic grinds on, Elko County, Nevada, still lacks a public health department. Yet its elected leaders rejected federal funds that could have helped it create one. Decisions like the one in Elko, and ones made by officials with other state and local governments, leave health experts concerned about whether the country's public health infrastructure will be prepared to handle future health challenges.
The nation鈥檚 largest private health system, HCA Healthcare, has faced years of scrutiny over its share of emergency room patients who are admitted to the hospital. And now U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, is calling for a federal investigation, prompting an escalating defense by the hospital system, based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Centene, the largest Medicaid managed-care company in the U.S., has thrown more than $26.9 million at political campaigns across the country since 2015, especially focused on states where it is wooing Medicaid contracts and settling accusations that it overbilled taxpayers. Among its tactics: Centene is skirting contribution limits by giving to candidates through its many subsidiaries.
In Nevada, local health officials are assessing the threat of monkeypox, but their response may be hampered by historically limited public health infrastructure worn thin by the covid-19 pandemic.
Smoke- and ash-filled air can trigger or exacerbate severe respiratory conditions. But the medical specialists who treat these illnesses are often scarce where they are most in need.
On top of fearing for their children鈥檚 lives, new parents of very fragile, very sick infants can face exorbitant hospital bills 鈥� even if they have insurance. Medical bills don鈥檛 go away if a child dies.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
A two-year congressional investigation has identified troubling lapses in the nation鈥檚 organ transplant system. Blood types mismatched, diseased organs transplanted anyway, and 鈥� most often 鈥� organs lost or damaged before they can save a life.
Five years after HIV tore through a rural Indiana town as a result of widespread drug use, a syringe and needle exchange program was set up in rural Nevada to prevent a similar event.
Abortion access is shaping races for legal office across the country, from local district attorneys to attorneys general. But it鈥檚 also highlighting the boundaries of their offices.
Music festival promoters are allowing distribution of overdose reversal medication as fentanyl deaths continue to surge. But nonprofits and volunteers are often left to do the work, and more controversial forms of harm reduction aren鈥檛 openly allowed.
Congenital syphilis rates keep climbing, according to newly released federal data. But the primary funding source for most public health departments has been largely stagnant, its purchasing power dragged even lower by inflation.
Federal data shows that vaccination rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives were some of the highest in the nation, but tribes say resistance has slowed efforts to boost members.
Democrats in Congress and the states are devising strategies to expand health coverage 鈥� through the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid and a 鈥減ublic option.鈥� But progress remains halting, at best. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington may have to agree on how to control prescription drug prices if they wish to finance their coverage initiatives. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews Michelle Andrews, who reported and wrote last month鈥檚 KHN-NPR 鈥淏ill of the Month鈥� episode about a very expensive sleep study.
With schools opening up classrooms, millions of young athletes are also getting out on fields and courts. But pandemic precautions and delays are spurring conflicts among parents, coaches and doctors.
Hundreds of Americans suspect they contracted covid early in the pandemic and recovered, only to get infected again months later. But because the U.S. does so little genetic sequencing of covid samples, we don鈥檛 know much about reinfection rates.
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