Meg Winchester
@mswinche.bsky.social
senior editor @Health Affairs | medical anthropologist | health policy, climate, global health, social determinants, accountable care | views expressed are my own
A recent survey found that 92% of U.S. adults have delayed or avoided medical care due to high costs. Meanwhile, a new study from Yale estimates that Medicare for All would save over 114,000 lives and $1 trillion a year. If this country was truly “pro-life,” we would have universal healthcare.
$900 million would cover a year of food assistance for 400,000 people wapo.st/4xe1GJT
Trump administration set to spend at least $900 million on White House construction
The price tag is much larger than what has been previously reported, according to a Post review of confidential contracts, and taxpayers would cover most of it.
wapo.st
"As a scholarly journal we need some guardrails to ensure scholarship, not slop." In this Editor's Choice, @jocalynclark.bsky.social writes on seeking actual, not artificial, intelligence www.bmj.com/content/394/...
We’ve update our Medicaid enrollment tracker and the news for children isn’t good. Since January 2025 there has been a shocking drop of 2.3 million kids enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP. This means the child uninsured rate is likely going up.
My editor asked me to write about what happened to summer:
We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit
Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys
theguardian.com
Not a big fan of the "sick, elderly and/or disabled people don't count" discourse that appears to follow public health disasters these days.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2w agoBreaking News: Two deaths in Michigan have been linked to cyclospora. Both people who had the parasite also had underlying health issues.
University of Cambridge historian Ben Zdencanovic explores America's long struggle to build a healthcare safety net.
Trump administration is withholding more than $1B in Medicaid funds from California and Minnesota, in latest example of weaponizing real and imagined fraud
For six decades, politicians have blurred the distinction between protecting Medicaid from abuse and using abuse to discredit Medicaid itself.
theconversation.com
"No additional staff have been hired to help with the implementation of the new Medicaid requirements as the state grapples with a budget crisis." nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news...
Nebraska becomes first state to disenroll Medicaid recipients under new work requirements
The first work requirement-related disenrollments begin in Nebraska on Saturday. While the state Medicaid director estimates this will impact 200 Nebraskans, advocates are concerned that the number wi...
nebraskapublicmedia.org
RFK told Dana Bash that Lyme disease “almost certainly” came from gain of function research. Which is utterly false. www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
Lyme Disease Did Not Come From a Secret Military Lab, Contrary to FDA Chief's Claim
Bacterium that causes it circulated long before the lab opened, decades of evidence show
medpagetoday.com
Thanks so much to @mswinche.bsky.social for the lovely and thoughtful review of my book Coverage Denied at Health Affairs Forefront! I arrived at this scholarly work because of my own encounters with this, so I’m especially glad when it resonates. www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...
Health Affairs Journal
healthaffairs.org
I read @mirandayaver.bsky.social's excellent book on insurance denials and you should too! Review below:
The Accumulated Inconvenience Of Insurance Coverage Denials | Health Affairs Forefront
In a new book review, Senior Editor Margaret Winchester reviews Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States by Miranda Yaver.
healthaffairs.org
This story is horrifying. I was waiting for the moment when private equity was mentioned and then there it was. This is the sad result of a society that values rich people and their money, more than human life. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
A for-profit hospital slashed costs. Then a patient froze to death on its roof.
A little-known company grew on promises to save distressed hospitals. Instead, it sunk them into financial chaos.
motherjones.com
Had a lot of thoughts while listening to this — not all of them polite — including continuing to marvel that Nebraska did not scale up their Medicaid staff at all in anticipation of work requirements
Meet the Man Launching Trump's Medicaid Work Requirements Months Early
Nebraska Medicaid Director Drew Gonshorowski says the state’s data capabilities put it in a strong position to quickly implement the historic changes. Advocates and researchers warn that eligible peop...
tradeoffs.org
My paper is out today in PNAS documenting how ICE activity in Trump 2.0 compares to the last 10 years and the mismatch between the action and the rhetoric. Joint with the fabulous @caitlinpatler.bsky.social and @elizabethacox.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
NEW: A large trove of Claude-generated documents have been exposed to the web and indexed by Google. We reviewed what appear to be real medical records, the full names and phone numbers of school-aged children, and company documents marked for internal use only. futurism.com/artificial-i...
A Whole Bunch of People's Claude Chats Are Publicly Accessible Online, and There's Some Wildly Private Stuff in There
A trove of documents generated by Anthropic's Claude were indexed by Google. They included medical records and student information.
futurism.com
A @kffhealthnews.org team has collected most states' approved plans and first-year budgets for the #RuralHealthTransformationProgram! #RHTP #RuralHealth Team: Me, @sjtribble-reports.bsky.social + Nate Payne kffhealthnews.org/rural-health...
Tracking State Rural Health Transformation Plans - KFF Health News
KFF Health News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
kffhealthnews.org
Good reminder of how hard it is to access health insurance for people who are disabled by their conditions but in the waiting period for coverage for SSDI/Medicare. The mortality during the wait period for people with cancer (neoplasms) is nearly 40%. www.healthaffairs.org/doi/epdf/10....
ATLANTA (AP) — US surpasses 2025’s record-breaking tally for measles cases, with 2,318 cases and 5 more months left in the year.
150 people have died crossing the Atlantic, according to @msf.org. Fishermen found 38 survivors, with post-traumatic shock, psychosis, bone fractures, traumatic injuries, hypothermia and grief after watching relatives die. msf.org.uk/article/atla...
Atlantic migration: MSF shocked by fatal crossing that claims 150 lives
After 25 days at sea, a boat arrived in Mauritania carrying just 38 survivors from 190 people
msf.org.uk
Federal agency AHRQ, focused on health care quality, cancels $109 million in grants At least 78 grants have been affected. The notices left health services researchers concerned about the future of their field. www.statnews.com/2026/07/22/a...
Federal health quality research grants worth $109 million ended early
At least 78 AHRQ grants worth $200 million have been affected by "non-award" notices; it's estimated those grants had $109.2 million in funding remaining.
statnews.com
When families can’t eat, on top of everything else, the risk increases of the state stepping in to remove their children because of “neglect”
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4w agoPage One. @nytimes.com
1/ The cyclosporiasis foodborne outbreak continues to grow, and there’s A LOT of conflicting information out there. So the YLE team compiled answers to some of the top questions we’re seeing to bring the nuance you may be looking for.
"The tragedy might have had a different outcome if the hospital in Belzoni, a five-minute drive from Ball-Stribling’s home, hadn’t closed 13 years ago. Today, Humphreys County has no hospital, no emergency room, no urgent care clinic, and no county health department."
Pregnant Woman’s Roadside Death Triggers Push To Reopen Mississippi Delta Hospital - KFF Health News
The deaths of Harmony Ball-Stribling and her unborn daughter five years ago have galvanized local leaders determined to reopen a Mississippi Delta hospital. But once a rural community loses a hospital...
kffhealthnews.org
A few weeks ago I shared my view that prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket should be made illegal. Today it was announced that Kalshi is now taking bets on FDA drug approvals and clinical trial outcomes. These markets are metastasizing and nothing good can come of it.
Kalshi to allow bets on clinical trials, FDA decisions
Prediction market platform Kalshi will start taking bets on the outcomes of clinical trials and FDA regulatory reviews, it said on Thursday, making drug-development odds public for the first time.
reuters.com
Probably more helpful to think of them not so much as “Canadian wildfires” but rather “climate change wildfires currently consuming Canada”
“Based on simple math, these outbreak responses—which require rapid, timely responses—are going to be greatly diminished,” the former CDC lab director tells WIRED. www.wired.com/story/cdc-cy...
The CDC Has a Cyclospora Lab. DOGE Downsized It Last Year
“Based on simple math, these outbreak responses—which require rapid, timely responses—are going to be greatly diminished,” the former CDC lab director tells WIRED.
wired.com
Compared to the other areas of government asked about in KFF’s latest survey, the ACA Marketplaces rank last among programs voters associate with widespread fraud — though nearly half of Republican voters (47%) say a lot of fraud is occurring there. See more findings: https://on.kff.org/44suv8B
Case detection & contact tracing could cut Bundibugyo Ebola deaths by ~60%. If a vaccine with modest efficacy were available, ring vaccination may offer modest benefit, while community vaccination could have greater impact. Preprint w/ great colleagues: tinyurl.com/ykp7aw2d
