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In the absence of clear management from the federal authorities, states and personal firms are pursuing their very own plans to assist Americans deal with the coronavirus pandemic. But whereas there are lots of examples of private and non-private officers working cooperatively, underlying political battles are additionally going down, notably in terms of methods to distribute funding already offered by Congress and funding that could be offered within the coming weeks and months.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
The HHS inspector common’s hospital survey launched this week exhibiting that tools shortages haven’t been resolved hit a sore spot for the Trump administration. The president criticized the inspector common and instructed that the outcomes had been politically motivated, however the hospital officers’ feedback to HHS point out that the federal response is a step behind as hospitals battle hundreds of circumstances of COVID-19, the illness attributable to the coronavirus. Federal and state officers will not be but capable of give Americans good steering on what the long run appears to be like like. There are too many unanswered questions in regards to the virus, its transmission and testing choices. Some of the applications carried out to assist customers through the disaster — issues like lowered costs for insulin and insurers’ ensures of protection for testing and therapy — could also be too widespread to ditch after the epidemic ends. That will depart well being care suppliers, drugmakers, insurers and others searching for new revenue choices. Although Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has pulled out of the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee, his platform nonetheless highlights lots of the issues within the well being care system, resembling affordability and entry to care, which have gained larger consideration with the coronavirus pandemic. Federal officers are searching for an equitable technique to divvy up the $100 billion earmarked for hospitals within the aid invoice signed by President Donald Trump final month. Hospitals within the pandemic’s sizzling spots assume they need to be rewarded first, however others, which can not have been hit as arduous, observe that they’ve additionally given up moneymaking elective procedures to arrange for the disaster and are in want of assist. A federal court docket in Texas on Monday will contemplate new arguments on the state’s determination to declare abortion an elective process that should be prohibited through the coronavirus disaster. Reproductive rights advocates hope to get an exemption for nonsurgical abortions and for girls who’re near the state’s time restrict on abortions.
Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists suggest their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they assume you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The Washington Post’s “Flushing Out the True Cause of the Global Toilet Paper Shortage Amid Coronavirus Pandemic,” by Marc Fisher
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Politico’s “How Public Health Failed Nursing Homes,” by Joanne Kenen, Rachel Roubein and Susannah Luthi
Paige Winfield-Cunningham: The Washington Post’s “The Dark Side of Ventilators: Those Hooked Up for Long Periods Face Difficult Recoveries,” by Carolyn Y. Johnson and Ariana Eunjung Cha
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