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RALEIGH, NC – September 12, 2023 – North Carolina cannot expand Medicaid until the Republican-dominated General Assembly decides upon the 2023-24 state budget. The House and Senate have been negotiating over the budget for months. The Republicans in the House and the Senate cannot agree upon a budget proposal due to an impasse over casinos. Neither chamber voted on a budget this week when they realized that the versions were different. The Senate version would legalize nontribal casinos. The House did not include this provision.

A state Medicaid expansion (ME) bill was passed by the General Assembly and was signed by the Governor in March_. However, the bill is tied directly to agreeing upon the 2023-24 state budget. When the General Assembly agrees upon the budget, six hundred thousand under-resourced North Carolinians will have access to health care, including almost 17 thousand people from Buncombe County. ME and the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program (HASP) will bring 8 billion dollars annually to the state and almost 2 billion dollars to support behavioral health, public safety, and rural health care. If the ME program is begun this year, North Carolina will receive an almost 2 billion dollar incentive of additional HASP payments. By delaying ME, the HHS estimates that 9 thousand North Carolinians a month are losing their Medicaid coverage who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid expansion.

Robert Reives, the House Democratic leader from Chatham County, said that the Republican leadership has not asked for Democrat support for nontribal casinos. He added, “I can’t even comment on the budget. Because, the problem is, we’ve not been involved in any part of the process.”

The issue that is holding up this year’s state budget is gambling. The General Assembly may be ‘gambling’ away the health of 600 thousand North Carolinians and billions of dollars of additional federal funding by not making the casino provision a separate bill.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

ASHEVILLE, NC –  September 20, 2023 – The COVID-19 metrics are on the CDC’s COVID Dashboard.

• For the week ending on September 9^th, hospital admissions levels are low in 94 of 100 counties in North Carolina, including Buncombe County, and almost 88% of the counties in the U.S. However, they have increased in North Carolina and Buncombe County from the previous week.
• For the week ending on September 9^th, between 2-4% of the deaths in North Carolina were due to COVID, the 3^rd lowest level of 6 groups. This is higher than the previous week.
• Emergency room visits for COVID-19 are moderate in North Carolina for the week ending on September 9^th. This represents about 3-4% of all ER visits, the middle of 5 levels and unchanged from last week.

Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. The Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater data for the week ending on September 6^th is on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard.

• The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a red level representing the highest level of 5 groups, currently between the 80^th and 100^th percentile relative to the past level measured at the same site.
• The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample is decreasing from the previous week, between -99 and -10%, the largest of the 2 groups for a negative rate of change.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants everyone to know that:

• COVID-19 can affect people differently. Some people have mild symptoms like a cold and others have more severe symptoms like a bad case of the flu. Some effects can be long-lasting.
• Older adults and immunocompromised people are at a higher risk of developing severe illness and being hospitalized.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines
• For extra protection, wear an efficient medical grade mask
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home
• People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
• If you test positive, your doctor may recommend medical treatment

Buncombe County residents can pick up free COVID-19 home test kits in the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Building at 40 Coxe Avenue, Asheville during regular business hours.

If you get COVID, here’s the latest CDC guidelines:

• Isolate for 5 days provided the fever has resolved for at least 24 hours without taking any fever-reducing medicine. (Day 0 is the day that symptoms first appear. If there are no symptoms but a positive test, then day 0 is the day the test was positive.) Isolation means staying home and away from others.
• Wear a high-quality mask around others at home and in public for the next 5 days
• Masking can stop earlier with 2 negative antigen tests taken 48 hours apart

More and more Americans have developed some immunity to COVID-19 from immunizations and previous infection. New variants continue to infect people with the most at-risk groups more susceptible to severe illness.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

PHILADELPHIA, PA – August 26, 2023 – With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination and medical science has been politicized and attacked by various individuals and groups. Critics have spread misinformation that the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous and ineffective in spite of strong evidence to the contrary. COVID-19 public health mandates like masking, vaccination and lockdowns have met with strong resistance and backlash about the loss of individual freedoms. These finding are consistent with a decrease in the childhood vaccination rate since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the CDC and the American Medical Association.

Vaccination has markedly reduced the spread and even eliminated many harmful communicable viral diseases. Polio, smallpox, and rabies have almost been eliminated while common childhood illnesses like measles, mumps, and rubella are very rare nowadays in America. The high rate of vaccination of children has contributed to ‘herd immunity’ where the whole community is protected because person-to-person spread becomes unlikely. Most public schools require all children to be vaccinated against many common contagious diseases unless there is a medical or a religious exemption. Up until the COVID pandemic, a very small percentage of students filed for these exemptions, preserving a high vaccination rate and population immunity to these diseases.

A study from the University of Pennsylvania was published in the journal Vaccine on August 26 about how Americans feel about getting routine vaccinations for their pet dogs. 22 hundred people were specifically chosen for a nationally representative survey. More than one-half of the people surveyed believe that dog vaccination is either unsafe, unnecessary or ineffective. The paper concluded that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has changed how Americans feel about vaccination in general. People who are skeptical about vaccination in humans are more likely to be hesitant about vaccinating their dogs. The authors opine that vaccines work so well that people no longer have any experience with the diseases that they protect against. One good example of a rare health problem in dogs and humans is rabies, a disease that is almost always fatal. Most dogs in America have been vaccinated against rabies, so there has not been much spread of this disease in dogs or to humans from dog bites. According to the CDC, only 60-70 dogs develop rabies annually in the U.S. There are only 1-3 human cases of rabies annually.

Dr. Peter Hotez, pediatrician, vaccine researcher, and Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, and whose appearances on many news networks during the COVID pandemic earned him the distinction of being one of the most trusted public health officials, has written a soon-to-be published book entitled “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science.” He describes how the anti-vaccine movement has become a political tool that has been promoted by some elected officials and news media. According to Hotez, the anti-vaccine movement has joined forces with the anti-science movement resulting in a backlash against COVID-19 prevention, diagnosis and treatment. He reports that a lot of severe illness and many deaths from COVID could have been prevented by following the science.

Vaccine hesitancy has become a major political controversy. It has led to a lower vaccination rate in humans and a change in attitude toward vaccinating pet dogs. The solution to this anti-science attitude is through positive messaging. Good information will provide increased transparency about the few risks and overwhelming benefits of vaccination in order to restore American’s trust in science and the reduction of communicable disease through vaccines. Understanding why people are vaccine hesitant will enable an issue-focused approach to achieving vaccine buy-in.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

ASHEVILLE, NC –  September 13, 2023 – The COVID-19 metrics are on the CDC’s COVID Dashboard.

• For the week ending on August 26^th, hospital admissions levels are low in 96 of 100 counties in North Carolina, including Buncombe County, and almost 93% of the counties in the U.S. However, they have increased in North Carolina and Buncombe County from the previous week.
• For the week ending on September 2^nd, between 1-9 deaths in North Carolina were due to COVID, the lowest level of 6 groups.
• Emergency room visits for COVID-19 are low in North Carolina for the week ending on September 2^nd. This represents about 2% of all ER visits, the 2^nd lowest of 5 levels and is unchanged from last week.

Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. The Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater data for the week ending on August 30^th is on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard.

• The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a red level representing the highest level of 5 groups, currently between the 80^th and 100^th percentile relative to the past level measured at the same site.
• The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample is increasing from the previous week, at 100% or greater, the highest of the 3 groups for a positive rate of change.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants everyone to know that:

• COVID-19 can affect people differently. Some people have mild symptoms like a cold and others have more severe symptoms like a bad case of the flu. Some effects can be long-lasting.
• Older adults and immunocompromised people are at a higher risk of developing severe illness and being hospitalized.

The FDA has recommended an updated COVID-19 booster from Pfizer and Moderna on Monday. The shots target one of the XBB omicron subvariants and appear to work against many others of the currently circulating variants. The following day, the CDC recommended that eligible Americans ages 6 months and older get the booster because it gives added protection against severe disease and death. The shot will be available as soon as next week

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines
• For extra protection, wear an efficient medical grade mask
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home
• People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
• If you test positive, your doctor may recommend medical treatment

Buncombe County residents can pick up free COVID-19 home test kits in the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Building at 40 Coxe Avenue, Asheville during regular business hours.

If you get COVID, here’s the latest CDC guidelines:

• Isolate for 5 days provided the fever has resolved for at least 24 hours without taking any fever-reducing medicine. (Day 0 is the day that symptoms first appear. If there are no symptoms but a positive test, then day 0 is the day the test was positive.) Isolation means staying home and away from others.
• Wear a high-quality mask around others at home and in public for the next 5 days
• Masking can stop earlier with 2 negative antigen tests taken 48 hours apart

More and more Americans have developed some immunity to COVID-19 from immunizations and previous infection. New variants continue to infect people with the most at-risk groups more susceptible to severe illness.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

WASHINGTON, DC – August 29, 2023 – Drug cost negotiation is one of the provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) that will make health care more affordable for seniors. On August 29^th, the federal government announced the first 10 drugs that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will negotiate cost with pharmaceutical companies. The government aims to obtain the lowest maximum fair price to make drugs more affordable while allowing the drug companies to make a profit. Medicare beneficiaries will save on the cost of their most expensive prescription medicine. If Medicare spends less money on prescription drugs, then everyone benefits because drug coverage premiums will fall.

Some of the most widely prescribed or expensive medicines that older Americans use are on the list of 10. The IRA limits the selection criteria for the drugs that can be negotiated. Meena Seshamani, the deputy administrator for CMS said that, only drugs were selected that have been on the market for at least 7 years without a competing generic version and “biologic” drugs that have to administered by a physician must be on the market for at least 11 years. The drugs are: Eliquis & Xarelto (blood thinners), Jardiance & Januvia (for diabetes treatment), Farxiga (for the treatment of diabetes and heart failure), Entresto (for heart failure), Enbrel (for the treatment of autoimmune disease), Imbruvica (for the treatment of blood cancer) and Stelara (for psoriasis and other inflammatory disorders). The 10^th drug includes the insulin medicine Novolog and many of its related versions. The price changes will take effect in 2026. The Inflation Reduction Act allows 30 more medicines to be selected over the next 2 years for price changes to begin in 2027 for 15 drugs and 2028 for the remaining drugs.

The cost for these 10 drugs represented about 20% of the total spending for Medicare enrollees over the past year. The drugs cost over $50 billion for the year between June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023. This does not include rebates and discounts that the drug companies may have set up after price negotiation with the private market. Medicare covered most of the cost; however, 9 million Medicare beneficiaries had to spend almost $3.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.

America is the only developed nation in the world where a citizen can become financially-strapped because of the high cost of health care. Oftentimes, hard-working Americans have to compromise their health by spending their limited resources on food and shelter instead of prescription medicine. According to research from the Commonwealth Fund, about 9% of Medicare enrollees ages 65 and older said that in 2021 either they did not fill their prescription or they skipped taking a drug dose due to cost.

In addition to including legislation to fight the climate crisis, lowering energy costs, and creating good paying jobs, the IRA lowers the cost of prescription drugs and health care for Medicare recipients and for people in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges.

This is how the IRA lowers health care costs for Medicare recipients:

• Medicare will be able to negotiate prices of certain drugs with pharmaceutical companies
• Beginning this year, insulin co-payments will be capped at $35 a month
• Beginning in 2025, out-of-pocket costs for prescription medicines will be capped at $2,000 annually

Other health care savings include:

• Drug company rebates if prescription prices outpace inflation
• 3 more years of Marketplace subsidies by the federal government

Here are some health & financial impacts of the IRA:

• 4 million people will save on the cost of their prescription medicine, particularly expensive drugs for cancer or multiple sclerosis.
• 3 million Americans used insulin to treat diabetes in 2020 and many will save money
• 13 million Americans will avoid increasing Marketplace premiums for 3 years.

Drug companies and their allies have filed 8 lawsuits challenging the IRA provision forcing drug price negotiations in behalf of Medicare enrollees. Drug companies and some politicians argue that lower drug prices through negotiation will disincentivize drug research and reduce the number of new drugs that are brought to market.

In a statement on August 29^th by President Biden, “Millions of Americans are forced to choose between paying for medicines they need to live or paying for food, rent, and other basic necessities. Those days are ending.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour