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At least 26 states have passed laws to permanently limit public health powers, a KHN investigation has found, weakening the country’s ability to fight not only the current resurgence of the pandemic but other health crises to come.
Local health officials find themselves once again behind the covid curve as the delta variant drives their case counts. With resources already stretched, along with the politicization of covid-19, county and state health departments in places like Missouri and Texas are making tough calls on whom to trace.
No-shows for behavioral health appointments have been a long-standing problem, with up to 60% skipped. Now telehealth, fueled by the pandemic, makes it easier for people dealing with depression and other mental health issues to make it to their appointments at a time when such care is in high demand. But teletherapy creates other challenges.
As President Biden calls for more support to help schools hold in-person classes, public health experts say schools can be relatively safe if they take well-known steps to prevent covid. But a KHN investigation shows many districts and states have ignored health advice or written their own questionable safety rules for schools.
After missteps in Washington, each state and county is left to juggle where to send vaccines first and how to get them to each nursing home, hospital local health department and even school.
Organized labor is divided over whether to support “Medicare for All.” Meanwhile, many of the Democratic presidential candidates seem unable to use the health issue to their advantage. Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Jennifer Haberkorn of the Los Angeles Times and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists offer their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
More than 95% of the Arkansas residents targeted by the state’s Medicaid work requirement were already working or met the criteria to be exempted from the mandate, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It’s been a wild week for health policy, mostly because of developments surrounding two different legal cases. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner join KHN’s Julie Rovner to sort it out with a discussion of a setback for Medicaid work requirements and the Trump administration’s decision to back a lawsuit claiming the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Also, Rovner interviews filmmaker Mike Eisenberg about his movie “To Err Is Human: A Patient Safety Documentary.”
The decision applies only to Kentucky and Arkansas, and many experts expect the administration and other conservative states to continue to move forward on rules that would limit coverage for people who don’t work.
Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Alice Ollstein of Politico and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the suggested cuts to health programs in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal, the latest on lawsuits challenging work requirements for Medicaid enrollees and the FDA’s crackdown on e-cigarettes. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week.
A federal district judge appeared skeptical of the arguments by the Justice Department and Arkansas and Kentucky that their programs should mandate that some enrollees work.
“Medicare-for-all” has become the rallying cry for Democrats in the new Congress. But there is a long list of other ways to increase insurance coverage. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to chip away at the Medicaid program for the poor, and new rules could mean higher costs for individual health insurance in 2020. Alice Ollstein of Politico, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and, for “extra credit,” provide their favorite health policy stories of the week.
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Sarah Jane Tribble of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call talk about the Food and Drug Administration’s latest actions to address teenagers’ use of e-cigarettes, Arkansas’ Medicaid work requirements and news about the uninsured from the latest federal Census report.
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner talk about a spate of lawsuits involving the Affordable Care Act, as well as the latest in state and federal efforts regarding the Medicaid program for the poor.
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call discuss how Medicare, Medicaid and the fate of the Affordable Care Act are playing out in the politics of the coming midterm elections. Plus, Rovner interviews Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans.
A top Senate Democrat calls the move “a mockery of the HHS ethics process" after Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma did not recuse herself in the decision to approve the Medicaid work requirement in Arkansas — the third state to get such a waiver.
Five states demand small payments from those who gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, but enrollees often face few consequences if they don’t make their remittances.
A federal drug program blocks rural hospitals from getting discounts on rare-disease drugs, forcing staff to cut back on supplies of lifesaving medicines.
The Trump administration is poised to grant states waivers that some critics say could change the shape of the program.
The unusual strategy helped the governor get around a small group of Republican senators who threatened to cancel the expansion, which has brought coverage to more than 267,000 state residents.
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