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If Obamacare Goes Away, Here Are Eight Ways Your Life Will be Affected
Read More: If Obamacare Goes Away, Here Are Eight Ways Your Life Will be AffectedBy Simon F. Haeder, Pennsylvania State University More than 10 years after its passage, the Affordable Care Act once more hangs in the balance. There have been plenty of near misses before, including previous Supreme Court appearances and Congressional votes. Yet in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, this time around Republicans may…
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Access, Affordability, Affordable care act, Birth control, Contraception, Health, Health care, Policy
Without Ginsburg, Judicial Threats to the ACA, Reproductive Rights Heighten
Read More: Without Ginsburg, Judicial Threats to the ACA, Reproductive Rights HeightenBy Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News On Feb. 27, 2018, I got an email from the Heritage Foundation, alerting me to a news conference that afternoon held by Republican attorneys general of Texas and other states. It was referred to only as a “discussion about the Affordable Care Act lawsuit.” I sent the following note…
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The Death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Puts the Affordable Care Act in Danger
Read More: The Death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Puts the Affordable Care Act in DangerWith the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the fate of health insurance coverage for millions of Americans — already hanging in the balance — is under even greater threat. On June 25, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading across the U.S., the Trump Administration filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court…
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Lessons From How the Polio Vaccine Went From the Lab to the Public That Americans Can Learn From Today
Read More: Lessons From How the Polio Vaccine Went From the Lab to the Public That Americans Can Learn From TodayBy Carl Kurlander, University of Pittsburgh and Randy P. Juhl, University of Pittsburgh In 1955, after a field trial involving 1.8 million Americans, the world’s first successful polio vaccine was declared “safe, effective, and potent.” It was arguably the most significant biomedical advance of the past century. Despite the polio vaccine’s long-term success, manufacturers, government…
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How a New Way Of Parsing COVID-19 Data Began to Show The Breadth Of Health Gaps Between Blacks and Whites
Read More: How a New Way Of Parsing COVID-19 Data Began to Show The Breadth Of Health Gaps Between Blacks and WhitesBy David R. Buys, Mississippi State University Physicians and public health experts know that older adults are more susceptible to the flu than those in other age groups. We also know the health of Black Americans is worse than that of almost all other groups for not only flu, but for chronic conditions and cancer.…
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COVID Exodus Fills Vacation Towns With New Medical Pressures
Read More: COVID Exodus Fills Vacation Towns With New Medical PressuresBy Markian Hawryluk and Katheryn Houghton and Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News The staff at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is accustomed to the number of patients tripling or even quadrupling each summer when wealthy Manhattanites flee the city for the Hamptons. But this year, the COVID pandemic has upended everything. The 125-bed hospital on the…
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With No Legal Guardrails for Patients, Ambulances Drive Surprise Medical Billing
Read More: With No Legal Guardrails for Patients, Ambulances Drive Surprise Medical BillingBy Laura Ungar, Kaiser Health News School librarian Amanda Brasfield bent over to grab her lunch from a small refrigerator and felt her heart begin to race. Even after lying on her office floor and closing her eyes, her heart kept pounding and fluttering in her chest. The school nurse checked Brasfield’s pulse, found it…
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Coronavirus Is Hundreds of Times More Deadly for People Over 60 Than People Under 40
Read More: Coronavirus Is Hundreds of Times More Deadly for People Over 60 Than People Under 40By Nir Menachemi, IUPUI How deadly is SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? And what are the risks of death for people of different ages and demographics? These have been hard numbers to calculate during this pandemic. To calculate the true death rate – more accurately called the infection–fatality ratio (IFR) – you would simply…
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Addiction Treatment Shrinks During the Pandemic, Leaving People With Nowhere To Turn
Read More: Addiction Treatment Shrinks During the Pandemic, Leaving People With Nowhere To TurnBy Elizabeth Chiarello, Saint Louis University COVID-19 has overshadowed the U.S. opioid crisis, but that doesn’t mean opioid addiction has gone away. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis has gotten worse. Drug overdose death rates rose 13% in the first half of 2020. COVID-19 threatens to dismantle an already frayed addiction treatment system, creating…
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Thereโs a Better Way to Treat Chronic Pain
Read More: Thereโs a Better Way to Treat Chronic PainA couple of weeks ago, I caught a tiny glimpse of what it’s like to live with chronic pain. For two days, I suffered the agony of an abscessed tooth before finally going to the emergency room and getting a prescription for antibiotics. I already had strong painkillers at home and the doctor told me…
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Why Black Aging Matters, Too
Read More: Why Black Aging Matters, TooBy Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News Old. Chronically ill. Black. People who fit this description are more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other group in the country. They are perishing quietly, out of sight, in homes and apartment buildings, senior housing complexes, nursing homes and hospitals, disproportionately poor, frail and ill, after enduring…
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Is Long-Term Care Insurance Worth the Money?
Read More: Is Long-Term Care Insurance Worth the Money?Before David Levington’s wife died at the age of 88, he hired full-time home health aides to help with her personal care. According to the 2019 Genworth Cost of Care Survey, the median cost for home health aides is $23 per hour, or more than $4,000 per month on average — an amount that is…
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Trust, Fear and Solidarity Will Determine the Success of a COVID Vaccine
Read More: Trust, Fear and Solidarity Will Determine the Success of a COVID VaccineBy Arthur Allen, Kaiser Health News Thousands of letters stuffed with money flooded Jonas Salk’s mailbox the week after his polio vaccine was declared safe and effective in 1955. Everybody wanted his vaccine. Desperate parents clogged doctors’ phone lines in search of the precious elixir; drug companies and doctors diverted doses to the rich and…
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What Is Race-Based Medicine?
Read More: What Is Race-Based Medicine?Earlier this year, four medical students published a report — Toward the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine: Transforming Clinical Education, Research, and Practice — that examined the problematic nature of race in medicine and why the health care community needs to move away from race-based medicine. When health care providers use a person’s race…
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Nurses and Doctors Sick With COVID Feel Pressured to Get Back to Work
Read More: Nurses and Doctors Sick With COVID Feel Pressured to Get Back to WorkBy Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News Every day, the nation is reminded of COVID-19’s ongoing impact as new death counts are published. What is not well documented is the toll on family members. New research suggests the damage is enormous. For every person who dies of COVID-19, nine close family members are affected, researchers estimate…
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Wondering If It’s Safe to See a Health Care Provider?
Read More: Wondering If It’s Safe to See a Health Care Provider?“Your dental office is now open,” a live person with an automated tone called to inform me. “Would you like to reschedule your appointment?” I know how important dental care is, but no part of me wanted to leave my quarantine cocoon. I certainly didn’t want anyone sticking their hands in my mouth. I politely…
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Health Care Workers of Color Nearly Twice as Likely as Whites to Get COVID-19
Read More: Health Care Workers of Color Nearly Twice as Likely as Whites to Get COVID-19By Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News Health care workers of color were more likely to care for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, more likely to report using inadequate or reused protective gear, and nearly twice as likely as white colleagues to test positive for the coronavirus, a new study from Harvard Medical School researchers…
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COVID-19 โLong-Haulersโ Are Finally Being Heard
Read More: COVID-19 โLong-Haulersโ Are Finally Being HeardIn early March, Dr. Margot Gage Witvliet and her family returned to their home in Texas after a trip to Europe. It was the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. “I believe I got sick on the airplane, and I think that I was one of the ones to carry [COVID-19] into…
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Obamacareโs Unexpected Bonus: How the Affordable Care Act Is Helping Middle-Aged Americans During the Pandemic
Read More: Obamacareโs Unexpected Bonus: How the Affordable Care Act Is Helping Middle-Aged Americans During the PandemicBut after passage of the ACA, 5.6 million of them – 9% of the 62 million in the pre-Medicare group – purchased coverage in the individual health insurance market. As a result, their uninsured rate fell from over 14% in 2013 to less than 9% in 2018. Now the new question: Have there been improvements…
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Avoiding Care During the Pandemic Could Mean Life or Death
Read More: Avoiding Care During the Pandemic Could Mean Life or DeathBy John M. Glionna, KHN These days, Los Angeles acting teacher Deryn Warren balances her pain with her fear. She’s a bladder cancer patient who broke her wrist in November. She still needs physical therapy for her wrist, and she’s months late for a cancer follow-up. But Warren won’t go near a hospital, even though…
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Enslaved Peopleโs Health Was Ignored From the Countryโs Beginning, Laying the Groundwork for Todayโs Health Disparities
Read More: Enslaved Peopleโs Health Was Ignored From the Countryโs Beginning, Laying the Groundwork for Todayโs Health DisparitiesEric Kyere, Indiana University Some critics of Black Lives Matter say the movement itself is racist. Their frequent counterargument: All lives matter. Lost in that view, however, is a historical perspective. Look back to the late 18th century, to the very beginnings of the U.S., and you will see Black lives in this country did…
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African American Teens Face Mental Health Crisis but Are Less Likely Than Whites to Get Treatment
Read More: African American Teens Face Mental Health Crisis but Are Less Likely Than Whites to Get TreatmentRebecca Klisz-Hulbert, Wayne State University, The Conversation Black youth in the U.S. experience more illness, poverty, and discrimination than their white counterparts. These issues put them at higher risk for depression and other mental health problems. Yet Black youth are less likely to seek treatment. About 9% of them reported an episode of major depression…
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I’ve Had COVID-19 Symptoms for 130 Days and Counting
Read More: I’ve Had COVID-19 Symptoms for 130 Days and CountingAs told to Diana Whitney When my symptoms first started on March 20, I thought they were allergies. I had a slight cough and mild fatigue and felt a little achy in my back, below the rib cage. My husband and I had been sheltering in place in our home in Texas, and I knew…
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How to Access Mental Health Care Using Telehealth
Read More: How to Access Mental Health Care Using TelehealthIt’s hard not to feel anxious as the COVID-19 pandemic persists, cases rise and new hotspots erupt. The acute crisis has given way to sustained disruption and uncertainty. Women have been especially impacted by higher rates of job loss than men. Working mothers in particular shoulder disproportionate responsibilities and face long-term economic harm. For the…
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Is Telehealth as Good as In-Person Care? A Telehealth Researcher Explains How to Get the Most Out of Remote Health Care
Read More: Is Telehealth as Good as In-Person Care? A Telehealth Researcher Explains How to Get the Most Out of Remote Health CareJennifer A. Mallow, West Virginia University COVID-19 has led to a boom in telehealth, with some health care facilities seeing an increase in its use by as much as 8,000%. This shift happened quickly and unexpectedly and has left many people asking whether telehealth is really as good as in-person care. Over the last decade,…
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Access, Access to health care, Affordability, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health care, Health insurance, Policy
For COVID Tests, the Question of Who Pays Comes Down to Interpretation
Read More: For COVID Tests, the Question of Who Pays Comes Down to InterpretationBy Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News In advance of an upcoming road trip with her elderly parents, Wendy Epstein’s physician agreed it would be “prudent” for her and her kids to get tested for COVID-19. Seeing the tests as a “medical need,” the doctor said insurance would likely pay for them, with no out-of-pocket cost…
