What We’re Reading: ACA Marketplace Enrollment Rises; Vaccine Sharing Initiative May End; Tracking Opioid Overdoses

Insurance Enrollment via ACA Marketplace Plans Rises

Nearly 5.5 million people are now signed up to receive health insurance through 2023 using the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, according to Reuters. This signals an 18% increase in enrollment compared with this time last year, according to data released by HHS. The open enrollment period takes place from November 1 to January 15, 2023, with a December 15 deadline for those wanting to be covered by January 1. HHS claims that new consumers make up about 1.2 million of the people who have signed up for plans.

Vaccine Sharing Initiative Facing Potential End

A plan to phase out the COVID-19 vaccine sharing initiative was proposed by Gavi, the nonprofit that supplies immunizations to developing countries, according to The Washington Post. The vaccine sharing initiative had shipped more than 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccines to 146 countries. Experts claim that this move would change how COVID-19 is approached by global health institutions, which are likely to consider COVID-19 more akin to a routine illness rather than the public health emergency that it has been for nearly 3 years. Should this initiative end, Gavi would launch a new COVID-19 vaccination program in 2024-2025, ending its support for vaccine delivery in 37 middle-income countries and continuing to provide free doses to 54 poor countries through its standard immunization efforts.

Nonfatal Opioid Overdoses to Be Tracked by White House

The White House is planning to launch a national dashboard that would track nonfatal opioid overdoses nationwide, according to USA Today. Areas hit the hardest by the opioid epidemic would be able to get more targeted resources by using this database. Approximately 81,000 Americans have died due to opioids in the past year. The director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Rahul Gupta, MD, said that the office hopes that this new database will be used by first responders, clinicians, and policy makers to make sure people are connected to care, minimize response times, and ensure resources are available.