Viewpoint: #Medicaid is vital for low-income, dual-eligible adults and people with disabilities, but coverage disruptions due to administrative barriers increase health risks. ja.ma/4pBxGUO
Big picture:
Strong performance on prevention *within* the health care system isn’t enough to protect us if prevention *outside* it remains weak.
Work in collaboration w/ Irene Papanicolas @brownpublichealth.bsky.social, Tania Sawaya, & Sara Bleich @harvardhpm.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu
Three key findings:
1. In just 1yr, we saw a ~55% enrollment growth among full-benefit duals and >68% among partial duals into C-SNPs.
2. About 1 in 4 duals in 2025 C-SNPs came from plans w/ some form of integration.
3. About 15% of C-SNPs could be terminated if CMS applied “look-alike” rule
3. Public health policies lag far behind — the US has much weaker regulation of food, tobacco, alcohol, and firearms.
At the same time, we eat more calories, have higher obesity prevalence, and more illicit drug/opioid use. This is why Americans are more likely to die prematurely.
3 key takeaways:
1. When it comes to performance *within* primary healthcare system, the US actually *performs better* than most countries (e.g., higher screening, vaccinations, and chronic disease management rates).
2. But millions still lack coverage & reliable access to affordable primary care
It’s hard to put into words how inspiring Dr. Sue Goldie is.
An extraordinary teacher, researcher, leader, and mentor to so many of us @hsph.harvard.edu who now shares her deeply personal story fighting against Parkinson’s disease.
Her story in @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Federal funding reportedly sent to Harvard for about 200 grants totaling $46 million.
Some welcome relief hopefully to so many.
Story below:
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
In new #HealthAffairs Forefront piece, we show a troubling trend:
Rapid growth of “Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans (C-SNPs)” enrolling dual-eligibles.
We argue their growth is threatening national integrated care efforts for duals.
www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/f...
We often hear that the U.S. underinvests in primary care and prevention—and that this explains why Americans live shorter, less healthy lives.
In our new @thelancetph.bsky.social, we take a closer look at this issue.
#IrenePapanicolas @Brown
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Sign of a broken health care system when patients with cancer feel like this:
“I always told myself the stress of dealing with insurance was worse than the cancer.”
Insights from patients w/ cancer dealing with prior authorizations in @jamanetworkopen.com study
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
