- Center on Health Equity & Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
What We’re Reading: Delta Variant Cases Rise; Life Expectancy Drops; US Medical Debt Reaches $140 Billion
COVID-19 cases and deaths rise as Delta variant spreads; Lowest life expectancy since 2003; US medical debt nearly doubles in 4 years.
Delta Variant Makes Up for 83% of US COVID-19 Cases
The CDC says the Delta variant makes up 83% of sequenced COVID-19 cases in the United States, STAT News reports. The variant also may be responsible for up to 90% of cases in areas with low vaccination rates. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, calls this “a dramatic increase” from the week of July 3, when the Delta variant made up for 50% of sequenced cases. COVID-19 deaths have also increased, rising by nearly 48% in the past week with an average of 239 deaths per day. “We know the majority of deaths could be prevented by vaccination,” Walensky said.
US Life Expectancy Dropped 1.5 Years in 2020
Largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy in the United States dropped by 1.5 years, according to The New York Times. The article says if an American child was born today and lived their entire life under the conditions of 2020, they would be expected to live 77.3 years, down from 78.8 years in 2019. This is the lowest life expectancy since 2003 and disproportionately lowered for Black and Hispanic Americans. The life expectancy for Black Americans dropped from 74.7 to 71.8, and from 81.8 to 78.8 for Hispanic Americans. This drop is not likely to be permanent.
US Medical Debt Totals $140 Billion
Medical debt among Americans has nearly doubled in 4 years, according to The New York Times. Research published in JAMA Network Tuesday says collection agencies held $140 billion in unpaid medical bills in 2020, compared to $81 billion in 2016, and 17.8% of US ind ividuals had medical debt in June 2020. This only accounts for debts sold to collections agencies and does not yet reflect data during the pandemic. Debt is also largest in the states where Medicaid has not expanded, with those Americans owing an average of $375 more than those in states with Medicaid expansion in 2020, further increasing the gap that existed the year before enactment by about 30%.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
Read More
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
Listen
Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
Listen
ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
Read More
