uninsured
With COVID hospitalizations rising, Duke experts urge people who are eligible to get the next COVID booster
The rise in hospitalizations and the report that First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 is a reminder that the virus is still with us, though not wreaking the kind of havoc it did in the first two years of the pandemic. A daily average of 501 patients with COVID were hospitalized in North […]
The best editorial of the weekend: A physician explains the “desperation” NC’s Medicaid expansion blockade has caused
If you haven’t already, be sure to catch the extraordinary essay that veteran Rockingham County physician Steve Luking penned for the Greensboro News & Record over the weekend. In “As lawmakers wait; people are dying,” Luking makes plain in straightforward human terms what statistics have shown repeatedly over the last decade as Republican legislators have […]
New mapping provides county-by-county profile of NC’s low-wage uninsured workers
Researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families have published a new report that profiles the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians attempting to survive without health insurance. North Carolina, of course, is one of 12 states that has not yet taken up Medicaid expansion, thus denying a huge number of working adults […]
NC has one of the highest rates of uninsured people. New council considers what to do.
A group of doctors, businesspeople, legislators and others are part of a group that Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday that will consider ways get health insurance to more people. The North Carolina Council for Health Care Coverage convened its first meeting today at 10 a.m. A video stream is available. The council is convened by […]
NC’s overall uninsured rate masks stark differences across racial and ethnic groups
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the long-standing inequities in our society, including disparate access to health care among different racial and ethnic groups in North Carolina. Last month, the Census Bureau released 2019 state-level data on health insurance coverage that inform our understanding of the gaps in health care coverage that existed prior to the […]
A triple disaster: Uninsured, living far from a hospital, and sick with COVID-19
This is a disturbing scenario: The 274,000 North Carolinians who live in a county without a state-licensed hospital. Of them, the 37,700 who are uninsured. And an unknown number of these rural, uninsured residents who have COVID-19. Seventeen counties in North Carolina lack a state-licensed hospital, which means those residents with acute symptoms of […]
NC’s and the nation’s uninsured rate has fallen to a historic low under ACA, but you’d never know that listening to Senate leaders
Here’s some important and quick facts that all Americans and North Carolinians should know this week, when the Senate will formally vote in an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act: The United States has made significant progress over the past seven years when it comes to reducing the number of people that are uninsured, […]
Senate GOP health “repeal without replacement” proposal would do great harm to NC
By now many have heard that the proposed Senate GOP “repeal and replace” health care bill is dead after some Senate Republicans could not support it. However, the bad news is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says they will now pursue a vote to repeal without replacement. McConnell announced last night that the vote— […]
Thanks, Obamacare, for this amazing graph!
Here’s a a good way to start the new week: Consider this remarkable graph on the effectiveness of the Affordable Care Act — an imperfect law that conservatives have done everything in their power to undermine, especially in states like North Carolina. Indeed, if Gov. Pat McCrory and the General Assembly had not decided to […]
If only we’d allow Obamacare to “not work” in NC like it’s “not working” in Washington state
As Adam Linker explained last week when he debunked the latest conservative mythology surrounding the Affordable Care Act, the law continues to succeed despite its imperfections and the endless, hysterical attacks of the President’s political opponents. Today, there’s still more confirmation of this undeniable reality from Washington state. As The Olympian reported this morning, the […]
Uninsured? Die earlier.
I often hear this canard from some politicians on the right: “Everyone has health insurance in this country – you can just go to the emergency room and get treated.” Putting aside that it’s much more expensive to treat people in the ER for problems that a regular visit to a primary care physician could […]