Medicaid and the Uninsured: September 27, 2024
How North Carolina Made Its Hospitals Do Something About Medical Debt
Noam N. Levey and Ames Alexander, Charlotte Observer and Oona Zenda
State officials threatened to withhold public money from hospitals, pioneering a strategy that could become a national model.
Rural NC County Is Set To Reopen Its Shuttered Hospital With Help From a New Federal Program
Taylor Sisk
One rural North Carolina county is on track to be among the first where a hospital reopens owing to a new federal hospital classification meant to help save small, struggling facilities.
California Medicaid Ballot Measure Is Popular, Well Funded — And Perilous, Opponents Warn
Bernard J. Wolfson
Proposition 35, which would use revenue from a tax on managed-care plans to raise the pay of health care providers who serve Medi-Cal patients, has united a broad swath of California’s health care, business, and political establishments. But a newly formed, smaller group of opponents says it will do more harm than good.
Arkansas’ Governor Says Medicaid Extension for New Moms Isn’t Needed
Sarah Varney
Federal law requires states to provide pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage through 60 days after delivery. Arkansas has not expanded what’s called postpartum Medicaid coverage, an option that gives poor women uninterrupted health insurance for a year after they give birth.
Tossed Medicine, Delayed Housing: How Homeless Sweeps Are Thwarting Medicaid’s Goals
Angela Hart
As California cities crack down on homeless encampments in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling authorizing fines and arrests, front-line workers say such sweeps are undercutting billions in state and federal Medicaid spending meant to stabilize people’s health and get them off the streets.
‘What Happens Three Months From Now?’ Mental Health After Georgia High School Shooting
Sam Whitehead and Renuka Rayasam and Andy Miller
The recent shooting at Apalachee High School outside of Atlanta caused more than physical wounds. Medical experts worry a lack of mental health resources in the community — and in Georgia as a whole — means few options for those trying to cope with trauma from the shooting.
The First Year of Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Is Mired in Red Tape
Renuka Rayasam and Sam Whitehead
Georgia must decide soon whether to try to extend a limited Medicaid expansion that requires participants to work. Enrollment fell far short of goals in the first year, and the state isn’t yet able to verify participants are working.
At Catholic Hospitals, a Mission of Charity Runs Up Against High Care Costs for Patients
Rachana Pradhan
Many Catholic health systems, which are tax-exempt, pay their executives millions and can charge some of the highest prices around — while critics say they scrimp on commitments to their communities.
Longtime Head of L.A. Care To Retire After Navigating Major Medi-Cal Changes
Bernard J. Wolfson
John Baackes, who steered Medi-Cal’s largest health plan following the Affordable Care Act expansion, and later prepared it for a state overhaul of Medi-Cal, will retire after this year. Baackes believes low payments to doctors and other providers, along with an acute labor shortage, hamper Medi-Cal’s success.
US Uninsured Rate Was Stable in 2023, Even as States’ Medicaid Purge Began
Phil Galewitz
About 8% of Americans lacked health insurance in 2023, the Census Bureau announced. But its report doesn’t capture the effect of states winnowing their Medicaid rolls by millions of people since the pandemic emergency ended.
Errors in Deloitte-Run Medicaid Systems Can Cost Millions and Take Years To Fix
Samantha Liss and Rachana Pradhan
As states wait for Deloitte to make fixes in computer systems, Medicaid beneficiaries risk losing access to health care and food.
Let the General Election Commence
Abortion and reproductive health issues headlined the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as expected. But what Vice President Kamala Harris has in mind for other health policies as the Democratic nominee remains something of a mystery. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump says he would not use the 19th-century Comstock Act to impose, in effect, a national ban on abortion, which angered his anti-abortion backers. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins University, and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Tony Leys, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about a woman who fought back after being charged for two surgeries despite undergoing only one.
Watch: Tips on Finding a Good Nursing Home
Jordan Rau and Hannah Norman
KFF Health News’ Jordan Rau explains how to tell the good nursing homes from the bad ones.
La tasa de personas sin seguro médico se mantiene estable, a pesar de la purga de Medicaid
Phil Galewitz
Aproximadamente el 8% de los estadounidenses no tuvieron cobertura en 2023, un aumento estadísticamente insignificante de solo 0.1 puntos porcentuales con respecto al año anterior.