KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Live From Aspen: Health and the 2024 Elections
Health policy may not be the top issue in this year’s presidential and congressional elections, but it’s likely to play a key role. President Joe Biden and Democrats intend to hold Republicans responsible for the Supreme Court’s unpopular ruling overturning the right to abortion, and former President Donald Trump aims to take credit for government efforts to lower prescription drug prices — even in cases in which he played no role. Meanwhile, some critical health care issues, such as those involving Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, are unlikely to get discussed much, even though the party in power after the elections would control the future of those programs. This week, in an episode taped before a live audience at the Aspen Ideas: Health festival in Aspen, Colorado, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
Daily Edition for Friday, June 21, 2024
Laguna Honda Is Back In Business: Laguna Honda Hospital, San Francisco’s largest skilled nursing facility, has regained Medicare certification and can admit new residents again and bring back others who had to be transferred during the recertification process — ending a two-year regulatory saga that threatened the closure of the facility. Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sobrevivientes del tiroteo en el desfile de los Chiefs esperan las donaciones prometidas mientras acumulan cuentas médicas
By Peggy Lowe, KCUR and Bram Sable-Smith
Los costos médicos para los sobrevivientes del tiroteo son muy altos y no terminarán pronto. Según un estudio de la Escuela de Medicina de Harvard, el gasto médico promedio para alguien que recibió un disparo se eleva a casi $30,000 el primer año.
Super Bowl Parade Shooting Survivors Await Promised Donations While Bills Pile Up
By Peggy Lowe, KCUR and Bram Sable-Smith
Families of the people hurt during the Feb. 14 mass shooting are carrying what one expert calls “victimization debt.” In the third story of our series “The Injured,” we learn about the strain of paying small and large medical bills and other out-of-pocket costs.
California Leaders Tussle With Health Industry Over Billions of New Dollars for Medi-Cal
By Bernard J. Wolfson
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to pull funds earmarked for new investment in Medi-Cal to help plug California’s $45 billion deficit. A state budget passed June 13 by the legislature largely endorsed Newsom’s plan. Voters could settle the matter in an industry-backed initiative that has qualified for the November ballot.
Daily Edition for Thursday, June 20, 2024
Shigella Outbreak Plaguing San Jose Homeless Encampments: An outbreak of shigellosis, a highly infectious gastrointestinal infection, is sweeping through Columbus Park homeless encampments, public health officials said. The risk to the general public is low. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle and Bay Area News Group.
A Tale of Two States: Arizona and Florida Diverge on How To Expand Kids’ Health Insurance
By Daniel Chang
Both Florida and Arizona want to expand eligibility for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, but their approaches to charging low-income families premiums for the coverage showcase the nation’s ideological divide on helping the disadvantaged.
Experts: US Hospitals Prone to Cyberattacks Like One That Hurt Patient Care at Ascension
By Rachana Pradhan and Kate Wells, Michigan Radio
Clinicians working for Ascension hospitals in multiple states described harrowing lapses, including delayed or lost lab results, medication errors, and an absence of routine safety checks to prevent potentially fatal mistakes.
‘We’re Flying Blind’: CDC Has 1M Bird Flu Tests Ready, but Experts See Repeat of Covid Missteps
By Amy Maxmen
Three months into the U.S. bird flu outbreak, only 45 people have been tested. Laboratories that are the foundation of diagnostic testing have yet to get approval to detect the bird flu virus. They say their path forward has been slowed by miscommunication and uncertainty from the CDC and FDA.
Presidential Politics, Polka and Wisconsin
By Angela Hart
Wisconsin, the land of fried cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers, is one of a half-dozen key battleground states where President Biden is trying to make health care a key issue in his expected November matchup with former president Donald Trump. Biden narrowly won Wisconsin in 2020, after it went for Trump in 2016. […]
