Data Show 10 Million Were Disenrolled From Medicaid Over 6 Months
The latest tracker data on Medicaid enrollment show that over 10 million people have lost Medicaid coverage since the redetermining of eligibility began in April (notably, this is about 1 in 34 of the population, or around 3%.) Among other news, the cost of the health care minimum wage in California, and more.
Stat:
10 Million People Disenrolled From Medicaid Over Past Six Months
More than 10 million people were disenrolled from Medicaid over the past six months, according to the latest data published by a KFF tracker. The tracker has collected data on Medicaid enrollment since the first states began redetermining eligibility in April, after the expiration of the federal requirement of continuous coverage during the Covid-19 public health emergency. (Merelli, 11/3)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
Los Angeles Times:
Healthcare Minimum Wage Expected To Cost $4 Billion In First Year As California Budget Deficit Looms
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that set a first-in-the-nation minimum wage for healthcare workers, three words in a bill analysis foretold potential concerns about its cost: “Fiscal impact unknown.” Now, three weeks after Newsom signed SB 525 into law — giving medical employees at least $25 an hour, including support staff such as cleaners and security guards — his administration has an estimated price tag: $4 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year alone. (Mays, 11/4)
The CT Mirror:
Nursing Home Association Sues State Over New Staffing Mandates
An organization representing 165 Connecticut nursing homes has sued the state Department of Public Health over new staffing regulations that require a certain number of licensed nursing staff and nurse aides per shift. The Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities charged in a lawsuit filed last month that the health department’s new guidelines “represent a significant, overreaching departure from [the] existing regulations regarding staffing ratios for nursing homes.” (Carlesso, 11/3)
Bloomberg:
Houston Voters Weigh $2.5 Billion Bond Sale For Public Hospitals
Houston’s public hospitals serving the city’s neediest have some needs of their own. Steam and water pipes bursting at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital have burned patients and staff, and sewage has backed up into Ben Taub Hospital’s pharmacy. If denizens of Harris County, home to the nation’s fourth-largest city, approve a $2.5 billion bond referendum on Tuesday, the more-than-30-year-old hospitals will get makeovers, and health-care services for the region’s indigent residents will be expanded. (Coleman-Lochner, 11/3)
The Washington Post:
Family ‘Distraught’ After Man’s Death At Johns Hopkins Was Ruled A Homicide
In January, 63-year-old Paul Bertonazzi was driven to Johns Hopkins Hospital by Baltimore police because, officials said, he was experiencing a mental health episode and needed help. Baltimore police took him to the emergency room. Within hours, according to officials, Bertonazzi’s body had gone limp, paralyzed from the neck down. Five days later, the man was dead. Now Maryland’s chief medical examiner has ruled Bertonazzi’s death a homicide — and determined he died as a result of “trauma to the body,” law enforcement officials said. (Mettler, 11/4)
KFF Health News:
As Transgender ‘Refugees’ Flock To New Mexico, Waitlists Grow
This summer, Sophia Machado packed her bags and left her home in Oregon to move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where her sister lived and where, Machado had heard, residents were friendlier to their transgender neighbors and gender-affirming health care was easier to get. Machado, 36, is transgender and has good health insurance through her job. Within weeks, she was able to get into a small primary care clinic, where her sister was already a patient and where the doctor was willing to refill her estrogen prescription and refer her to an endocrinologist. She felt fortunate. “I know that a lot of the larger medical institutions here are pretty slammed,” she said. (Nowell, 11/6)
On the opioid crisis —
The Washington Post:
D.C. Mayor Resurrects Old Policy To Target Open-Air Drug Markets
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) unveiled a proposal to revive “anti-loitering drug-free zones,” a policy that was repealed in 2014 amid constitutional concerns. (Flynn and Brice-Saddler, 11/5)
The Washington Post:
Can Vaccines, Monoclonal Antibodies Help Curb Addiction And Overdoses?
The concept has long tantalized scientists: harnessing the power of antibodies to block the dangerous effects of heroin, cocaine and nicotine, substances that have wrecked or ended millions of American lives. Despite years of efforts that have failed to yield viable vaccines or lab-made antibody treatments, research is accelerating as the nation grapples with an unprecedented drug crisis — more than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses in each of the past two years, fueled chiefly by the synthetic opioid fentanyl. (Ovalle, 11/5)
