Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Connecticut Expands Medicaid For Some, Aims At Keeping More Insured
A bill that would extend Medicaid to a wider group of children and teens without permanent legal status in Connecticut has cleared a key hurdle, though the measure won鈥檛 cover as many people as proponents originally had hoped. (Carlesso, 3/6)
It鈥檚 hard to shop for health insurance. It鈥檚 harder still when there鈥檚 few options to help. Some Americans who can鈥檛 rely on a federal program or their employers鈥 HR department turn to brokers who are trained to help them navigate the complex web of deductibles, formularies, and subsidies. But in 2021 in Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven, Connecticut 鈥 as in many poorer areas in the U.S. 鈥 there were no licensed brokers, period. (Cohrs, 3/7)
Other health news from Massachusetts, Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio 鈥
An infectious disease clinician working closely with the cardiac surgery department had an inkling something was off. It was 2018, and she mentioned to colleagues at Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital the unusual occurrence of a suspicious bacteria, which had popped up several times in the last year and a half. The rare bacteria, Mycobacterium abscessus, can sometimes cause hospital-acquired infections, often from contaminated water. But the number of times hospitalized patients had tested positive for it struck her as odd. (Bartlett, 3/6)
Kevin Wake has suffered three strokes. He is only 54. The first one taught him how humiliating an emergency room visit can be for Black people living with the blood disorder sickle cell disease. It happened in Chicago, where the Kansas native was living in 1999. By the time he arrived by ambulance at the hospital he was immobile, unable to stand or speak. 鈥淭hey started triaging me as Black male in his 30s who is either intoxicated or high on drugs,鈥 Wake recalled recently. (Gutierrez, 3/6)
Federal health officials are pressing Congress to fund a new office tasked with tackling the fallout from environmental exposures. But amid the first major environmental disaster of its existence, the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, the tiny department seems unsure what to do 鈥 or if it can do anything at all. (Owermohle, 3/7)
