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Black Americans still suffer worse health. Here’s why there’s so little progress.
Fred Clasen-Kelly and Renuka Rayasam, KFF Health News, Oct. 28
The United States has made almost no progress in eliminating racial disparities in key health indicators. The country’s health care system “by its very design, delivers different outcomes for different populations,” according to a June report. Experts argue that federal, state, and local governments have put systems in place that maintain the status quo. For example, authorities have permitted nearly 80% of all municipal solid waste incinerators — linked to lung cancer, high blood pressure, higher risk of miscarriages and stillbirths, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma — to be built in Black, Latinx, and low-income communities.
CT DACA recipients can soon get health coverage on the exchange
Katy Golvala, The Connecticut Mirror, Oct. 24
Beginning November 1st, Connecticut participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) can enroll in health coverage through the state’s health insurance exchange, Access Health CT. DACA recipients will also be able to obtain subsidies to help cover the cost of a plan if they qualify based on their income, address, and household size. The change is a result of a federal policy that expanded the Affordable Care Act eligibility to DACA recipients. “It shows that expanding coverage is something our government officials know is a good thing to do,” said Carolina Bortolleto, a co-founder of CT Students for a Dream.
For people with opioid addiction, Medicaid ‘unwinding’ raises the stakes
Kim Krisberg and Stephanie Colombini, KFF Health News, Oct. 30
For nearly a decade, methadone has helped Stephanie reduce opioid cravings and prevent withdrawal symptoms. It has helped her hold down a job and be able to take care of her young children. Because she was insured by her state’s Medicaid program, the cost of methadone was covered. However, when Medicaid unwinding began, she learned she had been dropped by the program and could no longer afford her prescription. She is one of approximately 25 million Americans who have lost Medicaid coverage. The loss of coverage, which also cuts access to other forms of health care, can put patients in risky situations.
Infant mortality got worse after Roe reversal. Experts are investigating.
Ariana Eunjung Cha, The Washington Post, Oct. 23
Hundreds more babies died than expected in the year and a half following the Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion. The findings raise questions about the ripple effects of the ruling on maternal and child health. In some months, infant mortality jumped by as much as 7 percent, or 247 excess deaths, from the baseline before the decision. Researchers said the most significant increases in deaths were in infants with congenital anomalies or birth defects. “Infant mortality is very uncommon, so small increases mean large changes. It’s 2024, and we should not be seeing increases. We should be seeing decreases,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco.
Should race be used in clinical algorithms? How one doctor’s research is helping shape policy
Katie Palmer, STAT News, Oct. 31
In 2020, when the murder of George Floyd ignited calls for racial equity across the United States, the field of medicine also confronted its own questions about race. James Diao was among the people who started looking into why race, a social construct, was a factor in clinical tools. “These big questions were really fundamentally not just scientific problems, but also human and moral problems about how values are incorporated into these seemingly dispassionate tools that we use,” said Diao. His research has played a role in policy decisions to remove race from some clinical algorithms.