The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Dear John,
An ahead-of-print article released today examines COVID-19 racial/ethnic disparities in California.
Disparities In California COVID-19 Cases
In a paper released today, Marissa Reitsma and coauthors analyze COVID-19 disparities in terms of structural risk exposures, testing, test positivity, and COVID-19 cases in California, the state with the most COVID-19 deaths in the country.
They found that, from March 22 through October 3, 2020, among cases with known race/ethnicity, 70 percent were among Latino people, compared with their 39.1 percent state population share. In comparison, White people were underrepresented, with only 19.1 percent of cases while making up 37.5 percent of the state population.
Further, death rates during that time for both Latino and Black populations were more than 1.5 times higher than those in the state’s White population.
For more free, timely COVID-19 articles, blog posts, and podcasts, visit our website and please consider supporting our work.
Today on Health Affairs Blog, Lauren Gerlach and Mona N. Shah discuss Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waivers, which allow states to make programmatic changes that are not otherwise permitted under federal law, provided the changes promote the goals of the Medicaid program and are budget neutral.
Also, the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Policy Working Group argues that, without a well-informed thematic framing and clear identification of guiding values, the new administration will also struggle to take a rights-based and evidence-based approach to the complex challenges facing asylum seekers.
Elevating Voices: Asian American and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month: In a 2016 Health Affairs Blog post, Howard Koh discussed the importance of promoting tobacco cessation services for
Medicaid beneficiaries. "While most smokers want to quit, they may be largely unaware that Medicaid-covered tobacco cessation services exist,” he wrote.
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