In Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, Millions Face Long Drives to Stroke Care

Across the nation, nearly 800,000 people suffer strokes each year. The issue is particularly acute across the regions of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, where more than 80% of counties have stroke death rates above the national average. Many of these counties also face high rates of poverty and are home to vulnerable elderly populations. They have a shortage of medical providers or have seen local hospitals shutter.Kaiser Health News, Read More.

UnitedHealthcare May Deny Emergency Visit Coverage

In the face of growing opposition from hospital and doctors groups, UnitedHealthcare said on Thursday it would delay a plan to stop paying for emergency room visits that it deemed nonurgent, at least until the pandemic has ended.The policy, which would affect millions of United’s customers, was greeted with longstanding worry over the unintended consequences of the coronavirus crisis on Americans’ health as people put off care for serious illnesses. The change had also sparked outrage in light of the steep declines in E.R. visits that ironically resulted in healthy profits and savings for insurers.The New York Times, Read More.
Being Vaccinated Doesn’t Mean You Must Go Maskless. Here’s Why.

For more than a year, public health officials have repeatedly told us that masks save lives. They’ve warned us to keep our distance from our neighbors, who’ve morphed into disease vectors before our eyes. Now they are telling us that if we’re vaccinated, we no longer need to wear masks or physically distance ourselves in most cases — even indoors. To many people, myself included, this seems hard to reconcile with so many long months of masking and physical distancing and sacrificing our social lives for fear of covid-19. What is an anxious, pandemic-weary (and wary) soul to do?KHN, Read More.