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US healthcare

Nearly 46m Americans would be unable to afford quality healthcare in an emergency

March 31, 2021 by Staff Reporter

An estimated 46 million Americans said they would be unable to afford quality healthcare if they needed it today, a new Gallup survey has found. The survey also found wide racial and economic disparities in who believes they can afford healthcare.

Nearly twice as many Black Americans as white Americans said they would not be able to pay for healthcare, at 29% versus 16% respectively. More than one in three low-income Americans, or 35%, said they were unable to pay for needed healthcare in the last 12 months during the Covid-19 pandemic.

One in eight Americans (12%) said they reduced food spending to pay for healthcare. Among people who earn less than $24,000 each year, one-quarter cut back on food to afford healthcare. Also among low-income households, 21% had to reduce spending on utilities to afford care.

“Unfortunately, it’s not surprising that millions of Americans can’t afford healthcare,” said Dr Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, a thinktank whose advocacy work has examined how high prices on insulin have led to rationing and even death among diabetics. “It is, however, shocking and kind of outrageous, but not surprising.”

“Our system has been structured for many years on the basis of private health plans and very deep dysfunction politically and within the medical industry,” said Saini.

The US spends more on healthcare than any nation in the world, and more than twice as much as the average high-income country. At the same time, it has the lowest life expectancy and highest suicide rates among 11 developed nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“The US has an uninsured problem and an underinsured problem,” said Sara Collins, vice-president for healthcare coverage and access at the Commonwealth Fund. “This just leaves people, even if they have health insurance, really exposed to costs.”

“If you have an unexpected trip to the emergency room, it’s very likely you’re not going to be able to cover an unexpected $1,000 bill,” she said. “We have … healthcare prices that are a lot higher than they are in other countries.”

Surveyors said the results show, even as the $1.9tn Covid-19 stimulus bill is expected to provide relief to many, Americans will face a growing unaffordability crisis. Further, many of the provisions in the relief bill are temporary, such as increased provisions to help Americans who lost their jobs afford private health insurance.

“Americans have been facing this mammoth problem. It was there during, and looks like it’s going to be after, the pandemic,” said Saini, about the report. “But it also shows … Americans want, and need I’d say, a radically better healthcare system.”

The survey, conducted by Gallup and a group of medical institutions called West Health, highlighted the enormous disparities in race and wealth that impact the likelihood people can afford healthcare. Surveyors spoke to 3,753 adults from all 50 US states.

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Race, US healthcare, US news

Arkansas and South Dakota pass bans targeting transgender minors

March 29, 2021 by Staff Reporter

Arkansas lawmakers have approved a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children, sending the governor a bill that has been widely criticized by medical and child welfare groups.

The Senate voted 28-7 on Monday in favor of the legislation. If the bill is enacted it would be the first prohibition of its kind in the country, opponents say. The bill would prohibit doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment or surgery to minors, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment. It also allows private insurers to refuse to cover gender-affirming care for trans people of any age.

The legislation restricts treatments that have been endorsed by major medical associations and human rights groups. They say the care is well established and part of a gradual process that has been shown to dramatically improve the mental health of the most vulnerable kids.

The state’s governor Asa Hutchinson a Republican, has not said whether he supports the measure, but has previously supported anti-trans bills. He has five days, not counting Sunday, after the bill reaches his desk to sign or veto the legislation before it becomes law without his signature.

The measure is among dozens of bills targeting trans people that have advanced in Arkansas and other states this year. Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee have enacted measures prohibiting trans girls and women from competing in school sports teams consistent with their gender identity. On Monday, South Dakota’s governor also issued an executive order to prohibit trans girls from playing on girls’ sports teams.

Conservative legislators have introduced more than 80 bills restricting trans rights in the US so far this year – most that would either block trans kids’ use of gender-affirming care or limit their access to certain sports teams. It is the highest number of anti-trans legislative proposals ever filed in a single year.

Hutchinson on Friday signed a law that would allow doctors to refuse to treat someone because of religious or moral objections, a move that opponents say could be used to turn away LGBTQ+ patients.

Opponents of the measure include the American Academy of Pediatrics. The American Civil Liberties Union said it plans legal action to block the treatments ban if it’s signed into law.

If signed, the ban would take effect later this summer.

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Arkansas, LGBT rights, US healthcare, US news, US politics

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