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Policies To Improve Health Insurance Coverage as America Recovers From COVID-19

Mar 16, 2021

One year ago this month, the first wave of COVID-19 cases in the United States led to widespread job loss throughout the country. 1 Early in the pandemic, there was serious concern that the impact of these job losses would lead millions of workers to lose job-based health insurance coverage, causing a dramatic spike in uninsurance. Evidence to date suggests that the number of uninsured people has not risen as greatly as...

What the COVID-19 Relief Package Means for Health and Health Care

Mar 12, 2021

The $1.9 trillion measure cleared by Congress includes funding for testing and vaccine initiatives and aims to expand the reach of the Affordable Care Act. THE $1.9 TRILLION COVID-19 relief package cleared by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden will provide Americans with $1,400 stimulus payments but also includes a raft of health- and health care-related provisions. The package, dubbed...

'Hard truths and important facts': Biden pushes for coronavirus testing reset with $50 billion plan

Jan 26, 2021

President Joe Biden seeks to reset the nation’s inconsistent coronavirus testing efforts with a $50 billion plan and more federal oversight. Biden’s plan calls for a newly created Pandemic Testing Board to coordinate a “clear, unified approach” to testing for COVID-19, a marked difference from the Trump administration’s policy of states establishing their own plans with federal support. Laboratories have...

US Lawmakers Approve $900 Billion Coronavirus Aid Package

Jan 12, 2021

Problem Solvers Caucus co-chairs Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., at podium, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., right, speak to the media with members of their caucus about the expected passage of the emergency COVID-19 relief bill, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, on… The U.S. Congress has passed a massive year-end bill that includes a $900 billion coronavirus aid package and $1.4 trillion...

California paves the way for certification of mental health peer support providers

Jan 05, 2021

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that paves the way to expand the use of mental health peer providers by setting up a state certification process. That’s expected to cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars to run every year, but could also reduce costly inpatient hospitalizations. The idea behind mental health peer support is this: People who live with a mental illness help...

What COVID-19 has taught medicine in 2020

Dec 25, 2020

Just a year ago, medical science knew very little about the devastation COVID-19 can wreak. How it can destroy organs throughout the body , and even kill people who seemed to be on the way to recovery. Initially, doctors put desperately ill patients on ventilators and scrambled for drugs that offered any hint of promise (remember hydroxychloroquine?). They called and tweeted with colleagues around the world...

Pandemic Or Not, America Has The Best Health Care In The World

Dec 01, 2020

When President Donald Trump fell ill with COVID-19, there was absolutely no contemplation of moving America’s head of state to another country to receive healthcare services. This might be surprising, considering the oft-quoted World Health Organization ranking of our healthcare system at 37th globally. Wouldn’t we want our president to be treated in the country with the very best healthcare? The problem, of course, is that...

Medical Rationing: Putting the Greatest Good to the Test?

Nov 11, 2020

Medical rationing is not something Americans are accustomed to, but COVID-19 may soon change that. As local hospitals become overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, they may reach the point where they have to make grim decisions over which patients receive limited medical supplies such as a ventilator or an intensive-care bed, and who does not. The Salt Lake Tribune reported on October 25, 2020 that, due to the number of new COVID-19...

USDA invests $871 million in rural community facilities in 43 states, Guam

Nov 10, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WIBW) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing $871 million in rural community facilities in 43 states and Guam. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it is investing $871 million to improve critical community facilities that will benefit 3.5 million rural residents in 43 states and Guam. “Rural America needs safe, modern community infrastructure to help residents and businesses achieve greater...

HHS Releases $20B More in CARES Act Relief, But Warns: Don’t Wait to Apply

Oct 02, 2020

The federal government on Thursday announced an additional tranche of $20 billion in coronavirus relief funding for a wide swath of health care providers, with the caveat that interested parties should apply as soon as possible. Starting October 5, the Department of Health and Human Services will begin accepting applications for the Phase 3 General Distribution of COVID-19 relief, specifically targeting the following types of...

Trump to sign executive orders protecting preexisting conditions and seeking a way to prevent surprise medical bills

Sep 28, 2020

President Donald Trump will sign a series of executive orders aimed at protecting people with preexisting conditions and look for a way to prevent surprise medical bills, senior administration officials said Thursday. Trump discussed the executive orders, which are part of his “America First” health-care plan, during his visit to Charlotte, North Carolina later in the day. Health and Human Services...

‘I was looking for someone like me’ – Is peer counseling the answer?

Sep 11, 2020

Keris Jän Myrick keeps a photo on her desk of the woman who helped transform her life. As a Black woman living with schizophrenia, Myrick had spent years searching for a mentor. Someone who wouldn’t judge, wouldn’t pathologize, wouldn’t ask her to translate her reality into terms they could understand. “I was looking for someone like me,” she said. But when Myrick...

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