Las últimas cifras de inscripción al Medicaid muestran que creció de 71,3 millones de miembros en febrero de 2020, cuando la pandemia comenzaba en los Estados Unidos, a 80,5 millones en enero, según un análisis de KFF de datos federales.

La recesión causada por la pandemia y un requisito federal de que los estados mantuvieran inscritos a los beneficiarios de Medicaid hasta que terminara la emergencia nacional aumentó el grupo de personas en el programa en más de 9 millones durante el año pasado, indica el nuevo informe.

En 2013, justo antes de que muchos estados expandieran Medicaid bajo la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA), el número de beneficiarios era de 56 millones.

Medicaid, que alguna vez se consideró el “patito feo” en comparación con el popular y políticamente poderoso programa Medicare, ahora cubre a casi 1 de cada 4 estadounidenses.

Juntos, Medicaid y Medicare ofrecen … Read the rest

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For the third time in nine years, the Affordable Care Act has survived a constitutional challenge at the Supreme Court. In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that the states and individuals who filed the latest challenge lacked standing to sue.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers are looking for ways to expand health benefits as they pull together spending plans on Capitol Hill. And criticism is growing of the Food and Drug Administration, which approved a controversial drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease over the recommendation of its own expert outside advisers.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call and Rachel Cohrs of Stat.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• The ACA

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The pandemic-caused recession and a federal requirement that states keep Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled until the national emergency ends swelled the pool of people in the program by more than 9 million over the past year, according to a report released Thursday.

The latest figures show Medicaid enrollment grew from 71.3 million in February 2020, when the pandemic was beginning in the U.S., to 80.5 million in January, according to a KFF analysis of federal data. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)

That’s up from about 56 million in 2013, just before many states expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. And it’s double the 40 million enrolled in 2001.

Medicaid, once considered the ugly duckling compared with the politically powerful and popular Medicare program, now covers nearly 1 in 4 Americans. In New Mexico, the ratio is more than 1 in 3.

Together, Medicaid and Medicare cover 43{556dae1e865ad4cb1aff81550537a4c07ba73ce20e0d02df2b728475a26ac49a} … Read the rest

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Dr. Leora Horwitz treats fewer and fewer covid patients at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Still, she thinks there are too many.

And they almost all have something in common.

“I’ve only had one patient who was vaccinated, and he was being treated for cancer with chemotherapy,” she said, reflecting recent research on the vaccines’ limited effectiveness for cancer patients. “Everyone else hasn’t been vaccinated.”

While taking care of those seriously ill with covid, she asks patients, with sympathy and respect: Why not get vaccinated? A few of them told the internist and hospital researcher that they’re concerned about vaccine safety. But mainly, she said, the responses break down into two groups: One comprises people who have been planning to get vaccinated but didn’t get around to it yet. The second highlights a disturbing deficiency in the pandemic response: those eager to get vaccinated but unable to … Read the rest

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For more than a year, public health officials have repeatedly told us that masks save lives. They’ve warned us to keep our distance from our neighbors, who’ve morphed into disease vectors before our eyes.

Now they are telling us that if we’re vaccinated, we no longer need to wear masks or physically distance ourselves in most cases — even indoors. To many people, myself included, this seems hard to reconcile with so many long months of masking and physical distancing and sacrificing our social lives for fear of covid-19.

What is an anxious, pandemic-weary (and wary) soul to do?

First, it’s important to stress that the dramatic rollback of mask-wearing and physical distancing recommended last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a policy California has adopted starting Tuesday as part of a broader reopening — applies only to people who have been fully vaccinated.

Even if … Read the rest

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Cuando Kiki Radermacher, terapeuta de salud mental, llegó a una casa de Missoula, Montana, por una llamada de emergencia al 911 a fines de mayo, el hombre que había pedido ayuda estaba atrincheado en una esquina, gritándole a los policías.

 La casa que estaba alquilando iba a venderse. Había llamado al 911 cuando el miedo de quedarse sin hogar lo hizo tener pensamientos suicidas.

“Le pregunté: ‘¿Quieres sentarte conmigo?’”, recordó Radermacher, miembro del equipo móvil de respuesta a crisis de la ciudad. Luego ayudó al hombre a encontrar un servicio de apoyo. “Realmente queremos empoderar a las personas para encontrar soluciones”.

Missoula comenzó a enviar a este equipo especial en llamadas de emergencia de salud mental en noviembre como un proyecto piloto, y el próximo mes el programa se volverá permanente.

Es una de las seis iniciativas de respuesta móviles a crisis en Montana, que comenzó como una prueba en … Read the rest

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