States Push to Extend Postpartum Medicaid Benefits to Save Lives

More states are moving to extend Medicaid benefits to new mothers up to a full year after giving birth, far beyond the 60 days required by federal law. That development, promoted by numerous medical groups as well as official state medical boards that focus on maternal health, reflects increasing alarm over the United States’ maternal mortality rate, which is the worst among developed nations and is trending in the wrong direction. PEW Trusts, 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.