Report: Medicaid expansion could cover 693,000 Floridians

| 7/21/2020

Report: Medicaid expansion could cover 693,000 Floridians

A new report estimates 693,000 uninsured Floridians could have health coverage if the state expanded Medicaid as allowed under the federal Affordable Care Act. The report, released by the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said people ages 19 to 29 and 50 to 64 would benefit the most from an expansion, with 193,000 and 184,000 people being eligible, respectively. Florida is one of 15 states that have not expanded Medicaid to cover low-income adults who don’t qualify under current Medicaid requirements. [Source: WPEC]

Some Florida dental offices are charging extra pandemic fees

Florida residents may be due for a dental cleaning since dentists were closed for months during quarantine — but these appointments may come with extra fees. Raul Vera, a 20-year-old University of Florida junior, said he expected the fee when he walked into his appointment. He just didn’t know how much it was going to be. “I was told before my appointment I did have an extra charge related to the resources dealing with COVID-19, but they never told me what the charge or the amount of the charge would be,” Vera said. [Source: Health News Florida]

Coronavirus: School nurses furloughed as classes go online

The Palm Beach County Health Care District notified more than 200 school health care staff members that their work is suspended. They tend to routine student boo-boos and bellyaches as well as the more serious health problems for their young charges. Parents trust them with their children’s lives. But some 233 school health employees, woven into the educational experience, on Monday became collateral damage to the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. [Source: Palm Beach Post ]

DeSantis urges Floridians with COVID antibodies to give plasma

“So many Floridians have asked what else can I do to be helpful in the fight against COVID-19?” DeSantis said at a news conference at blood donation company OneBlood’s headquarters in Orlando. OneBlood CEO and Sunny Isles Beach Mayor George “Bud” Scholl said Monday that there is a 500 percent increase in demand from hospitals for convalescent plasma. [Source: Tampa Bay Times ]

How Central Florida day cares are being impacted by COVID-19

Lake Forrest Preparatory School in Maitland said two workers tested positive, but so far no students have, although some are still being monitored. The school director said they paid for all employees to get tested as a precaution. They have a system in place for temperature checks, and one of the employees who tested positive had a normal temperature at the start of the workday. [Source: WFTV]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› The Villages in Florida and the coronavirus [Boston Globe]
For months, many of the residents at one of America’s biggest retirement communities went about their lives as if the coronavirus barely existed.

› How personalized medicine is revolutionizing healthcare in Florida and beyond [Florida Trend]
The future of healthcare just landed in Florida. This is a story about the ingenuity of Israeli technology and a partnership with the premier active adult community on planet earth.

› Industry executives say Florida’s nursing homes face ‘category 5 emergency’ [Miami Herald]
As state officials focused their attention for the last three weeks on the rising COVID-19 case numbers among younger Floridians, the number of infected residents and staff at elder care facilities has more than doubled.

› Some ICUs in Florida have run out of beds [CBS]
At least 45 hospitals in Florida had no available beds in intensive care units as of Sunday afternoon as the state has emerged as the new epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic.

Tags: Health Care eNews

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