Weekly Edition: July 1, 2020
Essential Worker Shoulders $1,840 Pandemic Debt Due To COVID Cost Loophole
Sarah Varney
Carmen Quintero had symptoms of COVID-19, couldn’t get tested and ended up with a huge bill. She also was told to self-isolate and assume she had the coronavirus — which is hard when you live with elders.
Lost on the Frontline
The Staffs of KFF Health News and The Guardian and Christina Jewett and Maureen O’Hagan and Laura Ungar and Melissa Bailey and Katja Ridderbusch and JoNel Aleccia and Alastair Gee, The Guardian and Danielle Renwick, The Guardian and Carmen Heredia Rodriguez and Eli Cahan and Shefali Luthra and Michaela Gibson Morris and Sharon Jayson and Mary Chris Jaklevic and Natalia Megas, The Guardian and Cara Anthony and Michelle Crouch and Sarah Jane Tribble and Anna Almendrala and Michelle Andrews and Samantha Young and Sarah Varney and Victoria Knight and Christina M. Oriel, Asian Journal and Alex Smith, KCUR and Elizabeth Lawrence
“Lost on the Frontline” is an ongoing project by Kaiser Health News and The Guardian that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who died from COVID 19, and to investigate why so many are victims of the disease.
Workers Filed More Than 4,100 Complaints About Protective Gear. Some Still Died.
Christina Jewett and Shefali Luthra and Melissa Bailey
As health workers were dying of COVID-19, federal work-safety officials filed just one citation against an employer and rapidly closed complaints about protective gear.
Hollowed-Out Public Health System Faces More Cuts Amid Virus
Lauren Weber and Laura Ungar and Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press and Hannah Recht and Anna Maria Barry-Jester
The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources necessary to confront the worst health crisis in a century. An investigation by The Associated Press and KHN has found that since 2010, spending for state public health departments has dropped by 16% per capita and for local health departments by 18%. At least 38,000 public health jobs have disappeared, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the world’s top public health systems. That has left the nation unprepared to deal with a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million people and killed more than 126,000.
Six Takeaways Of The KHN-AP Investigation Into The Erosion Of Public Health
KHN and The Associated Press sought to understand how decades of cuts to public health departments by federal, state and local governments has affected the system meant to protect the nation’s health. Here are six key takeaways from the KHN-AP investigation.
How We Reported ‘Underfunded And Under Threat’
Hannah Recht and Meghan Hoyer, The Associated Press
To assess the state of the public health system in the United States, KHN and The Associated Press analyzed data on government spending and staffing at national, state and local levels. Here's what data we used and how we did it.
‘More Than Physical Health’: Gym Helps 91-Year-Old Battle Isolation
Heidi de Marco
For Art Ballard, the local gym was like his second home. The 91-year-old former jeweler relied on his near-daily workouts to stay healthy and for social interaction. But when California instituted its stay-at-home order, Ballard’s physical health suffered. So did his mental health.
How Mis- And Disinformation Campaigns Online Kneecap Coronavirus Response
Shefali Luthra
The pandemic has been marked by a significant amount of misinformation — some spread on purpose — that could prove deadly.
California Prisons Are COVID Hotbeds Despite Billions Spent On Inmate Health
Dan Morain
At $3.6 billion a year, California spends more on prison health care than other states spend to run their entire prison systems. But despite the spending, and federal court oversight, prisons across California are struggling to contain deadly outbreaks of COVID-19.
As Cases Spike, California Pauses Multimillion-Dollar Testing Expansion
Angela Hart and Rachel Bluth
California is cutting off funding for COVID-19 testing just when counties say they need more resources in rural and disadvantaged areas.
Among Those Disrupted By COVID-19: The Nation’s Newest Doctors
Julie Rovner
For new medical residents, this has been a year like no other. In part that’s because getting from here to there — from medical school to residency training sites — has been complicated by the coronavirus.
Supreme Court, Rejecting Restrictive La. Law, Refuses To Roll Back Abortion Rights
Julie Rovner
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberals in the 5-4 decision that strikes down a state law requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: High Court’s Surprising Abortion Decision
In a decision that surprised both sides of the polarized abortion debate, the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that would require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Jennifer Haberkorn of the Los Angeles Times join KHN’s Julie Rovner to break down what happened, what comes next and how this case could provide a clue to the one challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
NIH Spearheads Study To Test At-Home Screening For HPV And Cervical Cancer
Charlotte Huff
The National Cancer Institute plans to launch a multisite study next year involving roughly 5,000 women to assess whether self-sampling at home for the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer is comparable to screening in a doctor’s office.
Hospital Executive Charged In $1.4B Rural Hospital Billing Scheme
Lauren Weber and Barbara Feder Ostrov
In an investigation last year, KHN detailed the rise and fall of Miami businessman Jorge A. Perez’s rural hospital empire, which spanned eight states and encompassed half of the rural hospital bankruptcies in 2019.
In Arizona Race, McSally Makes Health Care Pledge At Odds With Track Record
Shefali Luthra
The use of the word “always” makes this claim a stretch.