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U.S. maternal mortality rate increased 27% over five years, NIH study finds
Anil Oza, STAT News, April 9
A new study documenting an increase in maternal mortality from 2018 to 2022 calls the issue “an urgent public health priority.” The study, led by the National Institutes of Health, sheds light on long-term maternal health because it analyzes deaths up to a year postpartum. The findings have been released at a time when federal health agencies in charge of reducing these deaths are seeing massive job and funding cuts. “We cannot take our eyes off of maternal health right now, and if anything, we need to not just maintain focus, but actually increase investment in maternal health to bring down some of what we’re seeing — increases in pregnancy-related death rates, but also persistent inequities by racial and ethnic groups,” said Rose Molina, one of the study’s authors.
CDC faces backlash for cutting sickle cell, adult disability programs
Alexander Tin, CBS News, April 10
Nearly half of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s staff working on developmental disabilities and birth defects were laid off this month. Included in those cuts were teams working on research about sickle cell disease. Data collection for studying people with sickle cell, a painful blood disorder that predominantly affects Black families, will likely be halted as a result. Testing for its more dangerous complications will also likely be stopped. Without this work, experts worry it could lead to preventable hospitalizations, complications and death.
Immigration crackdowns disrupt the caregiving industry. Families pay the price.
Vanessa G. Sanchez and Daniel Chang, KFF Health News, April 4
Alanys Ortiz is a Venezuelan immigrant who works as a caregiver for a teenager with special needs. She helps her eat, bathe and perform other daily tasks that she can’t do alone. However, Ortiz’s ability to continue that work has been thrown into doubt by the current administration, which ordered an end to the temporary protected status program for some Venezuelans. Americans depend on many such foreign-born workers to help care for family members who are older, injured, or disabled and cannot care for themselves. Increasingly, the workers who provide that care are immigrants, such as Ortiz. That workforce is in jeopardy amid an immigration crackdown.
A fifth of Americans are on Medicaid. Some of them have no idea.
Anna Claire Vollers, Stateline, April 9
Some Americans who are covered by Medicaid don’t realize their insurance is funded by that program. One reason is that state programs aren’t always called “Medicaid.” In Connecticut, for example, it’s called HUSKY. Another reason is that nearly all states now use private insurance companies to run their Medicaid programs, which means many enrollees may hold an insurance card or paperwork with the name of a commercial insurance company. Physicians, public health experts, and advocates worry that the confusion over Medicaid is affecting public debate over funding cuts.
Rural hospitals and patients are disconnected from modern care
Sarah Tribble, Holly K. Hacker and Caresse Jackman, KFF Health News, April 9
When patients enter Greene County Hospital in Alabama, they encounter a waiting area with chipped and stained floor tiles and an abandoned reception desk. But a less visible, more critical inequity is working against high-quality care for patients: the hospital’s internet connection is a fraction of what experts say is sufficient. High-speed broadband is the new backbone of America’s health care system, which depends on electronic health records, high-tech wireless equipment and telehealth access. Greene County is one of more than 200 counties in the United States with some of the worst access to reliable internet, primary care providers and behavioral health specialists.