The latest CDC pulse data show flattening but steady rates of long COVID. We estimate that around 17 million people may have long COVID, similar to the numbers of people with cancer or coronary artery disease. kff.org/coronavirus-co…

During last week’s #HealthWonkShop , KFF's Larry Levitt moderated a discussion on the current state of primary care.

“Almost every healthcare issue I’ve worked on starts and ends with payment,” he said.

🎧 Watch the recap or listen to it as a podcast: bit.ly/3vHqmQg

If you constructed a Venn diagram of states important to the presidential race, the Senate, or abortion access this November, Arizona would be smack in the overlapping middle.

Some personal news: I seem to have won the KFF NCAA men's basketball pool. But, I'm thinking next year we need to switch to the women's tournament, which was frankly more compelling and fun to watch.

Importantly, this new study did not find benefits from relieving medical debt after it's already been incurred.

That's a very different question from the potential benefits to patients from policies that would allow them to avoid medical debt to begin with.

Interpretation is that relief isn't effective if it happens so late in the process

'Experimental and quasi-experimental research has shown beneficial effects of upstream policies that address healthcare costs before bills are sent for collection...'

Important work

Randomized trial, in partnership with one of the largest coordinators of medical debt relief

Null effects on financial outcomes is in contrast to positive effects of debt relief found in other contexts (student loans, mortgages)

tinyurl.com/27txwsc9

Larry Levitt That is *the* question twitter.com/MikeSacksEsq/s…

The No Surprises Act prohibits many surprise balance bills, but not all. For more on:
-when privately insured people may still be getting surprise balance bills?
-what happens next?
-what federal resources are available?
See KFF brief: kff.org/health-costs/i…

With regard to today's NYT on MultiPlan and $UHG nytimes.com/2024/04/07/us/… Chris Hamby:
Multiplan and United Healthcare are among top 3 entities getting claims disputed through the federal No Surprises Act process:
healthsystemtracker.org/brief/independ… KFF Peterson Center on Healthcare

69% of people being dropped from Medicaid had their coverage terminated because of “procedural” reasons. They may or may not still be eligible.

kff.org/medicaid/issue…

New paper with Ben Sommers and Rebecca Smith: Looking at self-reported insurance in Census data, we document a big disconnect between (1) 'actual' growth in Medicaid (based on administrative data), (2) self-reported Medicaid coverage, and (3) self-reported uninsurance

I thought the same thing this morning! #healthcarenerds 🤓

Medicaid is not a NYT Spelling Bee word?!

🧵HHS finalized the annual regulation (NBPP or Payment Notice) for ACA Marketplaces and individual/small group market. Quick takes on premium impact, and other implications.
Rule: cms.gov/files/document…
cc: Cynthia Cox, Jared Ortaliza, Matt McGough

In some states, public officials are trying to make government work for their constituents. In others, they aren’t. And it shows in Medicaid coverage losses
wapo.st/3xgLs8r

The Great Medicaid Purge was even worse than expected wapo.st/3xgLs8r

Health care added 72,000 jobs in March 2024, above avg monthly gain of 60k over last year. Job growth continued in ambulatory care +28k, hospitals +27k, and nursing&residential +18k -BLS-Labor Statistics
For longer trends in health care jobs see KFF Peterson Center on Healthcare:
healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collecti…