Economics

U.S. health department proposes Medicare, Medicaid pilot programs to cut drug costs

Thu, 2023-02-16 10:28 — mike kraft

U.S. proposes Medicare, Medicaid programs to cut drug costs, including $2 generics The U.S. health department proposed on Tuesday three new pilot projects aimed at lowering prescription drug prices for people enrolled in government health insurance plans, including offering some essential generic drugs for $2 a month. Ahmed Aboulenein Reuters

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Local U.S. governments planning to use Covid relief funds to ease medical debtss

Wed, 2023-02-15 09:25 — mike kraft

Governments target medical debt with COVID relief funds Millions of Americans mired in medical debt face difficult financial decisions every day — pay the debt or pay for rent, utilities and groceries. Some may even skip necessary health care for fear of sinking deeper into debt.

...To address the problem, an increasing number of municipal, county and state governments are devising plans to spend federal coronavirus pandemic relief funds to eliminate residents’ medical debt and ease those debt burdens. ...

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Yellen says U.S. counties should use COVID funds for housing, job training

Tue, 2023-02-14 18:20 — mike kraft

Yellen says counties should use COVID funds for housing, job training U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday called on counties, cities and states to focus their remaining COVID-19 pandemic aid funding to develop more worker training and affordable housing programs. Speaking to the National Association of Counties conference in Washington, Yellen said the nearly two-year old American Rescue Plan Act has enabled state and local governments to budget over $14 billion on more than 1,800 projects focused on housing.

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Stop-and-go federal funding floods public health agencies with cash during crises but starves them of funds afterward.

Mon, 2023-02-13 09:08 — mike kraft

JACKSON, Miss. — When the coronavirus first scythed through the nation in early 2020, few places needed help fighting it more than Scott County, Miss., a rural patch of chicken processing plants and pine forests an hour east of the state capital, Jackson.

The poverty rate for the county’s 28,000 residents was far above the nation’s. So, too, were rates of diabetes and other chronic illnesses that worsen the risk of severe Covid-19. Yet Mississippi’s health department, struggling under huge budget cuts ordered by the state’s Legislature, had deployed just two nurse practitioners to cover a quarter-million residents in Scott and eight other counties.

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Additional information: What lies ahead when the Covid health emergency ends

Fri, 2023-02-10 10:38 — mike kraft

What lies beyond the Covid health emergency On Thursday, HHS officials spelled out some of what the end of the PHE would — and wouldn’t — mean for health care. POLITICO

...The agency was clear in its stance that the government is entering a new phase of the pandemic and “broad flexibilities for health care providers are no longer necessary and will end,” according to a fact sheet shared by the agency Thursday.

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