State News

The 2021 California Health Interview Survey results (released in 2022) show that Black or African American adults and American Indian and Alaska Native adults had disproportionately high rates of adverse childhood experience, according to State of Reform. In addition, 27 percent of Californians stated that they did not receive medical care due to cost or lack of insurance.

Most of those who qualify for health coverage on New Mexico’s healthcare exchange, beWellnm, will be receiving large healthcare savings, reports Los Alamos Daily Post. These savings in premiums, deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs are due to the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, as well as New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace Affordability Program. This state program reduces premiums and out-of-pocket costs not just for New Mexicans who qualify for coverage on the marketplace, but also for small businesses and their employees. It also provides resources for planning, design and implementation of healthcare coverage initiatives for uninsured New Mexicans.

The Healthcare Value Hub’s Healthcare Affordability State Policy Scorecard ranked Kansas 49 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in healthcare affordability, reports Kansas Public Radio. Poor healthcare affordability may stem from private payers in Kansas paying more than double Medicare rates for the same services and could be improved through the creation of healthcare price transparency tools and spending oversight committees to curb excess prices.

Uninsured patients in New Mexico are often charged up to ten times more for medical treatments than insured patients, reports KRQE. These statistics, taken from a study prepared for the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, have dire implications for uninsured New Mexicans, namely, that they will likely incur medical debt. The study looked at the prices of 17 different medical services across 43 New Mexico hospitals and revealed that prices varied widely between those with and without health insurance. For instance, for a certain coronary artery stent, the average list price was around $85,000 but the average insurance payments totaled only around $44,000, meaning that the uninsured patient was stuck with a bill almost double what an insured patient would receive. New Mexico passed the Patients Debt Collection Act in 2021, which bans hospitals from suing low-income patients or sending them to collections, but advocates claim that more protections may be required, given the disparities in hospital charges.

The state of California has kept funds collected from fines levied against residents who do not have health insurance, rather than using the funds to lower costs, according to Kaiser Health News. Revenues collected from the state’s individual mandate were supposed to fund state-based subsidies for low- and middle-income residents who purchase coverage through Covered California, but following a boost in federal subsidies during the pandemic, the Newsom administration claimed the state subsidies were no longer necessary. Penalties collected total $1.3 billion from 2020 through 2022 and are now being held in a special fund for future use in health affordability programs when the federal subsidies expire.

Recent legislation passed in New York aims to protect patients who have accumulated medical debt, reports the Office of Governor Hochul. The legislation amends the civil practice law and rules to prohibit healthcare providers from placing home liens on an individual’s primary residence or garnishing their wages to collect medical debt. This issue is particularly important to consumers, as more than 50,000 New Yorkers have been sued for medical debt over the past five years.

There exist large disparities in telehealth usage in Massachusetts, specifically by age, internet accessibility and rurality, reports Healthcare Innovation. These revelations come from a report by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, which found that seniors, children and people who live in rural areas were less likely to use telehealth during the pandemic. Telehealth use was also lower in communities where fewer households had home internet access. The report also found that telehealth greatly enabled access to primary, chronic disease and behavioral healthcare during the pandemic, making the uneven uptake more alarming. Furthermore, lower quality experiences with telehealth were associated with gaps in broadband infrastructure, digital affordability and in the usability of technological platforms.

Oregon voters approved Measure 111, making healthcare a right under the Oregon Constitution, reports The Lund Report. The measure enshrines every Oregonian’s right to affordable and clinically appropriate healthcare and that the state balance healthcare with other needs in the state’s budget. How this affects state residents in reality will likely be determined by the Legislature and the courts.

North Carolina small businesses are facing increasing health insurance costs that are hindering their growth, reports Spectrum News 1. These revelations come from a Small Business for America’s Future survey of 109 small business owners in North Carolina. Each of the business owners had up to 500 employees, although the majority had 10 or fewer employees. According to the survey, 72 percent of respondents reported that they don’t provide employee health insurance because it is too expensive. Furthermore, 86 percent of small business owner respondents feel strongly that healthcare affordability for small business owners is an issue that lawmakers must address. According to survey authors, the key issue for these business owners is urgency around the issue – they want quick action from lawmakers.