Category: Disparities

Trump’s Medicaid Chief Labels Medicaid ‘Mediocre.’ Is It?

This claim ‘wouldn’t pass muster’ in a first-year statistics class.

School Districts Grapple With Quarantines, Face Masks And Fear

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, school districts, especially those with large Chinese student populations, are in uncharted territory as they apply new federal travel rules to their students. Some also are weighing requests from parents that are more about fear than science, such as whether to allow students with no travel history to stay home from school.

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Happy Friday! In news that is technically really good and exciting but is also kind of icky: yarn made from human skin could eventually be used to stitch up surgical wounds as a way to cut down on detrimental reactions from patients. As CNN reports, “The researchers say their ‘human textile,’ which they developed from […]

Reduce Health Costs By Nurturing The Sickest? A Much-Touted Idea Disappoints

Nearly a decade ago, Dr. Jeffrey Brenner and his Camden Coalition appeared to have an answer to remake American health care: Treat the sickest and most expensive patients. But a rigorous study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows the approach doesn’t save money. “We built a brilliant intervention to navigate people to nowhere,” Brenner tells the “Tradeoffs” podcast.

Yang And Sanders Use Maternal Mortality Stats To Talk About Race

These numbers are stark.

San Francisco Hopes To Improve Care For People With Mental Illness Living On Streets

Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland, a veteran of public health psychiatry, was appointed by San Francisco’s mayor earlier this year to a newly created job: director of mental health reform. His main task is to improve mental health and addiction treatment for people experiencing homelessness.

As Health Care Costs Rise, Workers At Low-Wage Firms May Pay A Larger Share

People at companies with large numbers of people earning $25,000 or less faced bigger deductibles for single coverage and were asked to pony up a larger share of their income in premiums than those at other firms.

Charity Care Spending By Hospitals Plunges

The proportion of money that California hospitals spent on free and discounted care for low-income people dropped by more than half from 2013 to 2017 — even for nonprofit hospitals. Hospitals say there’s less demand for charity care because more people now have health insurance, but consumer advocates counter that people still need help.

This Indiana Clinic Has Patient-Care Stats Worth Bragging About

A small health center in Goshen, Ind., near the border with Michigan, puts “listening to patients’ stories” first. “The rest is housekeeping.”

Migrant Moms Await Due Dates And Court Dates

A growing number of pregnant women are among the migrants seeking asylum in the United States. Many must wait in Mexico until their cases are heard, spending weeks or months in migrant shelters with limited access to health care.