Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Virginia Offers Relief After Federal ACA Subsidies End
Cardinal News: New State Funding Aims To Help Virginians Who Were Priced Out Of Health Insurance After Loss Of Federal Subsidies
About 100,000 Virginians lost their Marketplace health insurance late last year after federal subsidies expired and premiums surged. Now, a new state program could help many of them afford coverage again. (Schabacker, 7/9)
AP: Beshear Asks McConnell To Update Kentucky Voters On His Condition
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is directly asking Sen. Mitch McConnell, the state’s most powerful figure in Congress, to disclose more about his condition after three weeks of silence from the 84-year-old since he was hospitalized in Washington. The letter released Wednesday from Beshear, a Democrat who is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028, to the former Senate Republican leader says, “Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and well-being, and ability to hold office.” (Barrow, 7/9)
Health industry news from the states —
Fierce Healthcare: MGB Nurses, Home Care Clinicians Launch Record-Breaking Strike
About 4,000 nurses and another 450 home care clinicians launched a strike Wednesday morning after months of bargaining with employer Mass General Brigham failed to yield a contract deal. The nurses’ demonstration, quarterbacked by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, was scheduled for a single day, but due to the minimum duration of temporary worker contracts signed by the health system will be followed by a four-day lockout. (Muoio, 7/8)
Boston Globe: Brigham And Women’s Hospital Nurses Strike Over Pay Raises, Insurance Costs
Governor Maura Healey has summoned the state’s largest health system and its striking nurses to the State House on Wednesday in an attempt to broker a new contract, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association. (Wolf and Saltzman, 7/8)
Chicago Tribune: Prime Seeks To Close Inpatient Pediatric Unit At St. Joseph
Prime Healthcare plans to permanently close the inpatient pediatrics unit at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet – adding the hospital to a growing list of Chicago area facilities eliminating such care. (Schencker, 7/8)
STLPR: Mobile Clinic To Travel To St. Louis Amid CareSTL Troubles
A Springfield, Missouri-based health center is traveling to St. Louis this week to address what it calls a recent loss of access to care in the city. Workers at Jordan Valley Health, which operates 10 mobile units throughout the region, will bring one to the Bayer YMCA near the intersection of Page and Union boulevards. (Fentem, 7/8)
The Hill: Texas Governor Orders Birth Tourism Investigation Into Hospital
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed state officials on Tuesday to “immediately” launch an investigation into a state hospital for allegedly seeking to profit from “birth tourism” practices. Abbott said in a letter to Stephanie Muth, the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, that Mission Regional Medical Center has advertised “BIRTH PACKAGES IN SOUTH TEXAS” in foreign countries “in an apparent effort to profit from securing United States citizenship for their children.”“Birth tourism is an illegal practice that exploits the extraordinary hospitality that the United States and Texas offer to millions of foreign travelers each year,” Abbott said in a statement. (Davis, 7/8)
Reproductive health measures —
Axios: State IVF Measures May Reduce Access To Fertility Care, Docs Say
Proposals in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma to tighten state oversight of fertility services could make in vitro fertilization a political target and encroach on personal medical decisions, a group of physicians wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. (Reed, 7/9)
Kansas City Star: Kansas And Missouri Voters Face Proxy Abortion Fights
The word abortion will not appear on the Aug. 4 ballots in Kansas and Missouri. But high-profile votes in both states are widely viewed as proxy fights over access to the procedure. (Bayless, 7/9)
More news from across the nation —
North Carolina Health News: NC Weighs Accessibility Upgrades For Government
Two decades ago, lobbyist Julia Adams started out at the North Carolina General Assembly as an advocate for people with disabilities. Adams, herself, alternates between using a wheelchair and crutches to get to lawmakers’ offices and committee meetings. In those days, it was a real challenge in the legislative building, which was completed in 1963. (Hoban, 7/9)
CalMatters: California Colleges Reveal Military Weapons Stockade
For many public colleges and universities in California, keeping their campuses safe includes owning military-grade weaponry — AR-15s, stun grenades designed to cause temporary blindness and sonic weapons that resonate so loudly they are known in the armed forces as the voice of God. According to state law, campus police can only own military equipment if the college believes there is no other way to uphold civilian safety. (Huss, 7/8)
Honolulu Civil Beat: Audit Of Honolulu Homeless Program Halted
An audit of a Honolulu homeless assistance initiative that came under fire for being ineffective has been halted because the program keeps changing direction and can’t produce reliable data about its efforts. That development leaves the future direction of the Crisis, Outreach, Response and Engagement program in flux. Known as CORE, the program launched in 2021 to pair social workers with EMTs on 911 calls for help with homeless people in mental health crises. The City Council last September voted to audit the $2.7 million program, citing concerns it had drifted from its original purpose to steer people off the streets and into shelters and services. (Hay, 7/8)
The Colorado Sun: Why Bad Summer Air Quality Is Likely Here To Stay In Colorado
When Dr. David Beuther began working as a pulmonologist — that’s a lung doctor — in Colorado two decades ago, summer used to be the easy time. In winter, his patients, holed up indoors and crowded together with others, caught viruses and developed coughs and struggled to breathe. Summer brought the relief of fresh air. (Ingold, 7/9)
