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A new issue brief examines the role of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) during the coronavirus pandemic, and public health emergencies more broadly. The analysis finds that the VHA has provided assistance to 46 states and D.C., including treating over 270 non-veteran patients with coronavirus.
With schools nationwide preparing for fall and the federal government encouraging in-person classes, key concerns for school officials, teachers and parents include the risks that coronavirus poses to children and their role in transmission of the disease. A new KFF brief examines the latest available data and evidence about the issues around COVID-19 and children and what they suggest about the risks posed for reopening classrooms. The review concludes that while children are much less likely…
At almost 27 weeks since the first coronavirus case appeared in the United States, we have reached 4 million cumulative cases -- only 15 days since crossing 3 million. While cases are climbing at increasing rates and the economy continues to suffer, the debate around the safety and feasibility of reopening schools for in-person instruction continued this week as state and local officials released their decisions around in person or online learning and the Centers…
Newly updated and expanded, the Peterson-KFF Health System Dashboard compiles data on the U.S. health system’s performance in four areas: access and affordability, health and well-being, health spending, and quality of care. Users can explore trends over time, as well as disparities and differences across demographic groups.
The United States continues to see a spike in COVID-19 cases this week, and yesterday crossed another disturbing threshold: over 77,000 new cases were confirmed on Thursday. With many schools scheduled to begin the new academic year next month, parents, school staff and government officials have been heavily engaged this week in the debate around the safety and feasibility of in-person teaching.
A new chart collection explores the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. health care workforce, and finds that between February and April 2020, nearly 1.5 million health care jobs were lost. While more than 300,000 health services jobs were recovered in May 2020, mainly in dental offices, employment in some health care settings continued to decrease. The rise in health care unemployment follows a sharp decline in utilization and revenue for non-emergency services. Many providers…
As the U.S. coronavirus outbreak spreads beyond densely populated metropolitan areas, a new KFF analysis finds that rural areas typically have fewer intensive care hospital resources than their urban counterparts, and populations at greater risk of developing serious illness and complications from COVID-19. While metro and non-metro areas have similar numbers of hospital beds per capita (23.5 vs 23.8 beds per 10,000 people), non-metro areas have fewer intensive care (ICU) beds – about 1.7 per 10,000 people,…
The coronavirus outbreak has hit densely populated urban areas of the United States first and hardest. Some health systems have experienced surges of patients, raising concerns that there are not enough hospital beds, staffing, and equipment. The novel coronavirus was slower to spread to rural areas in the U.S., but that appears to be changing, with new outbreaks becoming evident in less densely populated parts of the country. A new issue brief looks at urban-rural…
With President Trump and some Republican governors pushing to restart the nation’s economy, most of the public (80%) supports strict shelter-in-place policies to limit the coronavirus’ spread compared to just one in five (19%) who say these measures pose unnecessary burdens and cause more harm than good, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. Majorities of Republicans (61%), independents (84%) and Democrats (94%) support the shelter-in-place orders, though four in ten Republicans (38%) say such…
As the coronavirus spreads rapidly across the United States, private health insurers and government health programs could potentially be burdened with higher health care costs. However, the extent to which costs grow, and how the burden is distributed across payers, programs, individuals, and geography are still very much unknown. A new issue brief, available in full on the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker, explores some of the factors driving health costs upward and downward, as well…
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