About health insurance/insurers
More kids lacked health insurance in 2023, Census Bureau finds “Ninety-two percent of U.S. adults were insured in 2023, according to ‘Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2023,’ one in a series of bureau reports released in September. The rate of adults who lacked insurance held steady at about 8% —approximately 26.4 million people.
The uninsured rate for children rose, however, jumping from 5.4% in 2022 to 5.8%, with about 4.4 million children lacking coverage in 2023. Coverage fell for children of all races and ethnicities, but dropped the most among Hispanic children, 9.4% of whom lacked insurance last year. About 4.8% of Black children were uninsured, as were 4.4% of white children and 4.2% of Asian children.
Kids in states that had not expanded Medicaid eligibility were uninsured at about twice the rate of those that had expanded.”
Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act Saves Medicare Enrollees Nearly $1 Billion in Just the First Half of 2024 “Today , the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), released new data showing that nearly 1.5 million people with Medicare Part D saved nearly $1 billion in out-of-pocket prescription drugs costs in the first half of 2024 because of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, some people with high drug costs have their out-of-pocket drug costs capped at around $3,500 in 2024. Next year that cap lowers to $2,000 for everyone with Medicare Part D. The report shows that if the $2,000 cap had been in effect this year, 4.6 million enrollees would have hit the cap by June 30 and would not have to pay any more out-of-pocket costs for the rest of the year.”
About pharma
2023 340B Covered Entity Purchases “In calendar year 2023, 340B covered entities purchased $66.3 billion in covered outpatient drugs under the 340B Program.”
See the document for a breakdown of where the money went by institutional type.
Amid backlash, FDA changes course over shortage of weight-loss drugs “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after intense public pressure and a lawsuit, is reconsidering its declaration barely two weeks ago that a shortage of the appetite-suppressing drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound is over, a temporary about-face that will allow pharmacies to keep selling unbranded copies.”
Vertex details non-opioid drug data from acute pain trials ahead of FDA verdict “Vertex Pharmaceuticals' experimental acute pain drug suzetrigine (VX-548) demonstrated fewer adverse events (AEs) than both placebo and standard opioid therapy, possibly setting a new benchmark for non-opioid pain management as the company nears its January 30 FDA decision date.”
About the public’s health
National Trends in Infant Mortality in the US After Dobbs “Infant mortality was higher than expected, overall and among those with congenital anomalies, for several months after the Dobbs decision in the US. No post-Dobbs months (ie, no months after June 2022) showed lower than expected infant mortality. These findings are consistent with the increase in infant mortality found in Texas following the state’s abortion ban.”