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Health care access is getting substantially cheaper on the state’s health insurance exchange though a combination of state tax proceeds, federal pandemic aid and a growing pool of subscribers. An update on pandemic relief spending from the Legislature’s budget and accountability office on Wednesday shows that the state’s health exchange plans to use new federal pandemic relief funds to reduce monthly insurance payments in 2022. (9/23)

Floridians could be paying more for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act next year. The state Office of Insurance Regulation said the average price of individual policies could increase by an average of 6.6 percent. On Tuesday, state regulators approved the potential rates, which vary by health insurer. (9/22)

Georgia had the third-highest number of people signing up for coverage during this year’s special enrollment period for the federally run health insurance exchanges. The state’s 147,000 enrollees were exceeded only by Florida and Texas among the 36 states that use the healthcare.gov enrollment platform, according to federal data recently released. (Miller, 9/22)

Last September, Mayor Lori Lightfoot became the first Chicago mayor to launch a plan to remove Chicago's toxic lead service lines — pipes that connect most Chicago homes to the water main. The plan aimed to remove 650 lead lines from low-income homes in the first year using $15 million in federal block grants. The Chicago Department of Water Management has removed just six. Water officials say the program's extensive paperwork requirements are slowing them down. (Eng, 9/22)

Three assisted living facility workers are being prosecuted in the death of an 86-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease who authorities alleged was left outside in sweltering weather for six hours, officials said. Jamie Johnston, 30, Jenny Logan, 50, and Letticia Martinez, 27, were charged with negligent death of an at risk person and criminally negligent homicide, both felonies, in the death of Hazel Place at Cappella Assisted Living and Memory in Grand Junction on June 14, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Tuesday. (Slevin, 9/22)

Physician and researcher Dr. Joseph Ladapo was named Florida surgeon general on Tuesday, calling for being “done with fear” amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 51,000 of the state’s residents. Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference to introduce Ladapo, who has worked as an associate professor at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine but recently received a professorship at the University of Florida College of Medicine. (Saunders and Urban, 9/22)