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In other news:
2025 Scorecard on State Health System Performance From the Commonwealth Fund:
Scorecard Highlights
Topping the 2025 Scorecard’s overall health system rankings are Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, based on 50 measures of health care access and affordability, prevention and treatment, avoidable hospital use and costs, health outcomes and healthy behaviors, income disparity, and equity.
The lowest-ranked states are Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and West Virginia.
Uninsured rates fell to record lows in all states by 2023, and differences in health coverage and access to care narrowed between states. These improvements were in all likelihood due to the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions, recent state expansions of Medicaid eligibility, and more affordable marketplace plan premiums.
The number of children receiving all doses of seven recommended early childhood vaccines fell in most states between 2019 and 2023. In five states, including Nebraska and Minnesota, the decline exceeded 10 percent.
The infant mortality rate (deaths within the first year of life) worsened in 20 states between 2018 and 2022, with considerable variation across states.
Premature, avoidable deaths vary considerably across states — the rate in West Virginia is more than twice as high as the rate in Massachusetts. Not only are avoidable mortality rates higher in the United States than in other high-income countries, but they are also on the rise, even as they fall elsewhere. .
Wide racial disparities in premature deaths are the norm in most states. In 42 states and D.C., avoidable mortality for Black people is at least two times the rate for the group with the lowest rate.
When it comes to having affordable health coverage, good-quality care, and the opportunity to live a healthy life, where you live matters in the U.S. Targeted, coordinated federal and state policies are needed to raise health system performance across the nation.
About health insurance/insurers
US Health, Non-Life Personal Line Insurers’ Sector Outlooks Lowered: Fitch Ratings has lowered the outlook for the U.S. Health Insurance sector to ‘deteriorating’ from ‘neutral’ and the U.S. non-life personal line sector outlook to ‘neutral’ from ‘improving’. The outlooks for other insurance sub-sectors remain ‘neutral’.
The outlook change for U.S. health insurers reflects ongoing higher growth in healthcare utilization and increasing crystallization around the form and magnitude of cuts to government-funded healthcare programs, primarily Medicaid, incorporated into the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on May 22 and is currently with the Senate, where potential changes could either mitigate or exacerbate its impact on the Medicaid program.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
National Hospital Flash Report: Key Takeaways
1. Hospital financial performance improved between January and April. On a year-to-date basis, hospital performance in the first four months of 2025 compared favorably to the same time period in 2024.
2. Average length of stay decreased and adjusted discharges per calendar day increased compared to the prior year period. This reflects improved patient throughput and a higher demand for hospital services.
3. Measures of patient volume showed improvement. Inpatient revenue, discharges, ED visits and operating room minutes all increased compared to the prior year period.
Ascension Enters into an Agreement to Acquire AMSURG: This transformative acquisition will add more than 250 ambulatory surgery centers across 34 states to Ascension’s network, significantly expanding its ability to deliver care in community-based settings, upon closing of the transaction.
About pharma
HIV protection with just two shots a year: FDA approves Gilead drug: The Food and Drug Administration approved Wednesday a powerful new drug that provides nearly complete protection against HIV infection with just a single administration every six months.
The injection, known chemically as lenacapavir and to be marketed as Yeztugo, has been hailed as the closest thing the field has ever had to a vaccine — a groundbreaking intervention that, if rolled out properly, could bring a 45-year-old pandemic to heel. Drugs to prevent HIV, called PrEP, have been around for a decade, but they generally require taking a daily pill and have not substantially curbed global infections.
About healthcare personnel
Clinician Workforce Insights Report See, particularly, page 6 fora list of specialty shortages and surpluses.