About health insurance/insurers
Exchange insurers owe $10.4B in risk-adjustment payments: Health insurance companies will trade $10.4 billion in exchange risk-adjustment payments this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced.
Comment: Up from $10.3B last year.
About the public’s health
Medical groups sue RFK Jr. over vaccine policy: The plaintiffs include large, influential medical bodies such as the Itasca-based American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, challenged Kennedy’s decision on the basis that it was arbitrary and capricious and violated the legal structure Congress set up for vaccine recommendations. An unidentified pregnant woman also joined the suit, filed Monday.
Many U.S. Adults Wouldn't Test for Suspected COVID, Survey Shows: Among the 30% of people who said they would not or might not take a test, 53.6% said they didn't see a reason to test, 30.1% said it would not be helpful to know if they were positive for COVID, and 20.7% said they would not trust test results, the authors noted in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.
Measles cases hit highest level since it was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000: This year's measles outbreak is the worst since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. Halfway through 2025, reported cases have already surpassed 1,274 − the peak for all of 2019.
As women have far fewer babies, the U.S. and the world face unprecedented challenges:This change in decision-making and behavior appears to be accelerating. New research from the United Nations found that the number of children born to the average woman worldwide has reached the lowest point ever recorded. In every country and every culture, women are having fewer than half as many children as they did in the 1960s.
Comment: A really good summary of the issues.
Uterine cancer incidence, mortality to increase substantially by 2050, model shows: Incidence and mortality rates for uterine cancer are projected to rise substantially over the next 3 decades, according to research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Racial disparities also are expected to become more pronounced, with incidence-based mortality predicted to be nearly three times higher among Black women than white women by 2050.
Tobacco report shows progress on anti-smoking policies worldwide:Measures linked to falling tobacco use worldwide now reach 6.1 billion people — or 75 percent of the global population, according to a report from the World Health Organization.
The report, issued at the recent World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin, found that 2.6 billion people in 79 countries are covered by smoke-free policies in indoor public places.
About healthcare personnel
Healthcare job growth down 37% month over month: Healthcare gained 39,200 jobs in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Though slightly less than the average monthly increase of 43,000 jobs over the previous 12 months, it marks a sharp, 37% downturn from May’s 62,200-job gain.