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Refuge in the Storm? ACA’s Role as Safety Net Is Tested by COVID Recession
By Steven Findlay
Relentlessly knocked around by politics and now headed again to the Supreme Court, the ACA is covering millions who have lost their jobs during the pandemic. But not everyone.
Lights, Camera, No Action: Insurance Woes Beset Entertainment Industry Workers
By Michelle Andrews
Many actors, directors, backstage workers and others in the entertainment industry are often eligible for health coverage through their unions, a model that some experts promote for other gig workers. But coverage is determined by past employment, and many of these professionals aren’t working because of the coronavirus.
En Los Angeles, la tormenta económica por la pandemia ha pegado fuerte en los latinos
By Jackie Fortiér, LAist
Los latinos ahora representan el 60% de los casos de COVID-19 en California, aunque son alrededor del 40% de la población.
Luz, cámara… sin acción: problemas con el seguro de salud en Hollywood por COVID
By Michelle Andrews
Los sindicatos de la industria del entretenimiento gerencian seguros de salud basados en las horas de trabajo, un problema en medio de una pandemia que paralizó las producciones.
Trump’s COVID Program for Uninsured People: It Exists, but Falls Short
By Julie Appleby
The help is real — but access to it isn’t easy.
In Los Angeles, Latinos Hit Hard By Pandemic’s Economic Storm
By Jackie Fortiér, LAist
A new poll finds 71% of Latino households in Los Angeles County experienced serious financial problems because of the coronavirus.
Not Pandemic-Proof: Insulin Copay Caps Fall Short, Fueling Underground Exchanges
By Markian Hawryluk
Although sharing prescription medicines is illegal, many people with diabetes are turning to underground donation networks when they cannot afford their insulin. Caps on insulin copays enacted in Colorado and 11 other states were designed to help. But the gaps between insulin costs and many patients’ financial realities are only widening amid the economic crisis of the COVID pandemic.
Promises Kept? On Health Care, Trump’s Claims of ‘Monumental Steps’ Don’t Add Up
By Julie Rovner and Phil Galewitz
The president entered office seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act, revamp Medicaid and drive down prescription drug prices, among other things. He’s hit some stone walls.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: It’s Scandal Week
President Donald Trump this week issued a prescription drug pricing order unlikely to lower drug prices, and he contradicted comments by his director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the need for mask-wearing and predictions for vaccine availability. Meanwhile, scandals erupted at the CDC, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration. And the number of people without health insurance grew in 2019, reported the Census Bureau, even while the economy soared. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Urban Hospitals of Last Resort Cling to Life in Time of COVID
By Jordan Rau and Emmarie Huetteman
Rural hospitals have been closing at a quickening pace in recent years, but a number of inner-city hospitals now face a similar fate. Experts fear that the economic damage inflicted by the COVID pandemic is helping push some of these urban hospitals over the edge at the very time their services are most needed.
Readers and Tweeters Grapple With COVID Therapies and Forecasts
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.