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Record enrollment for Access Health CT
Christine Stuart, CT News Junkie, Jan. 11
As Access Health CT’s annual open enrollment period comes to a close on January 15, the agency is reporting record numbers of people signing up for health insurance. Many people enrolling are seeing reduced costs thanks to federal subsidies.
At-home coronavirus tests are inaccessible to blind people
Amanda Morris, The New York Times, Jan. 10
With visual cues and complex steps, at-home coronavirus tests are often inaccessible to blind people. Although video call apps assist as a workaround, issues of accessibility and privacy arise. Changing test instructions or employing temperature or smell changes to at-home tests are potential solutions to make at-home tests more universally accessible.
Black-owned hospice seeks to bring greater ease in dying to Black Families
Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio/Kaiser Health News, Jan. 10
National data shows that Black Medicare patients and their families use hospice less than white families. A Black-owned and operated organization in Nashville is looking to change that by focusing on increasing Black families’ use of end-of-life comfort care.
More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation.
Julie Zauzmer Weil, Adrian Blanco, and Leo Dominguez, The Washington Post, Jan. 10
Many governing bodies and public institutions have started commissions to reconsider whose names should be on buildings and streets. But until now, there has never been a comprehensive list of slaveholding members of Congress. This database helps reveal the glaring holes in many of the stories Americans tell about the country’s history.
Opinion: AMA’s new language guide is a step toward health equity
David Ansell and Vinoo Dissanayake, STAT News, Jan. 11
Most medical schools do not train future physicians in how structural racism creates and perpetuates health inequities. The American Medical Association published a language guide that encourages doctors to address the cause of health inequities. Such language changes may prompt physicians to consider how the legacy of racist policies might contribute to patients’ illnesses today.