States Move To Fix Gaps In Medical Insurance Coverage For Ride-Shares – Kaiser Health News

Stateline covers a complexity in legal coverage for ride-share passengers who are injured during incidents. Meanwhile, researchers have found that eating avocados can dramatically reduce the risk of heart attacks in both men and women when the avocados replace some other foods.

Stateline:
Rideshare Riders Could Get Stuck With Medical Bills In A Crash

In the early hours of Sept. 12, 2020, Denver chef Brian Fritts, 32, was riding in the backseat of a Lyft car when another vehicle crashed into it and drove off, leaving him with six crushed vertebrae and a broken jaw. His life has never been the same. Nor has his pocketbook. A loophole in Colorado’s rideshare insurance laws left him with no payments to cover his medical bills and other expenses. He owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of which was not covered by Medicaid, his health insurance. “I can’t sit up; I can’t stand for very long,” he told the Colorado legislature this month in a House Judiciary Committee hearing. And, he said, he needs more surgery to fix his crooked jaw, a procedure he said he can’t afford. (Povich, 3/29)

In other public health news —

CNN:
Avocados Reduce Risk Of Heart Attacks, Study Says 

Eating avocados reduced the risk of heart attacks in both men and women, including when eaten in place of butter, cheese or processed meats, a new study found. Cardiovascular disease is a leading killer worldwide, taking nearly 18 million lives every year, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States alone, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says heart disease takes a life every 36 seconds. Eating at least two servings of avocado a week reduced the risk of having a heart attack by 21% when compared to avoiding or rarely eating avocados. However, there was not an equivalent benefit in reducing the risk for stroke, according to the study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. (LaMotte, 3/30)

The New York Times:
Does Moderate Drinking Protect Your Heart? A Genetic Study Offers A New Answer

Last week, two patients asked Dr. Stanley L. Hazen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, how much daily alcohol consumption would be good for their cardiac health. He gave them both well-accepted medical advice — an average of about one drink a day helps the heart. “I didn’t give it a second thought,” he said. Then he saw a paper published in JAMA Network Open whose findings upended his thinking about what to tell patients. The paper, he said, “totally changes my life. ”Its conclusion: There is no level of drinking that does not confer heart disease risk. (Kolata, 3/29)

The Wall Street Journal:
Positive Drug Tests Among U.S. Workers Hit Two-Decade High 

The percentage of working Americans testing positive for drugs hit a two-decade high last year, driven by an increase in positive marijuana tests, as businesses might have loosened screening policies amid nationwide labor shortages. Of the more than six million general workforce urine tests that Quest Diagnostics Inc., one of the country’s largest drug-testing laboratories, screened for marijuana last year, 3.9% came back positive, an increase of more than 8% from 2020, according to Quest’s annual drug-testing index. That figure is up 50% since 2017. (Feuer, 3/29)

The Washington Post:
Chronically Ill Face Life-Or-Death Challenges Due To Pandemic Shortages

Crystal Evans lives in constant fear that bacteria will grow inside the silicone tube that connects her windpipe to the ventilator that pumps air into her lungs. Before the pandemic, the 40-year-old with a progressive neuromuscular disease followed a fastidious routine: She carefully changed the plastic circuits that carry air from the ventilator five times each month to keep them sterile. She also swapped out the silicone tracheotomy tube several times a month. Now, though, those tasks have gotten infinitely harder. A shortage of medical-grade silicone and plastic used for the tubing means she must make do with just one new circuit each month. (Shepherd, 3/29)

KHN:
Delays For Autism Diagnosis And Treatment Grew Even Longer During The Pandemic 

Wylie James Prescott, 3, had to wait more than a year after his autism diagnosis to begin behavioral therapy, even though research shows early treatment of autism can be crucial for children’s long-term development. His mother, Brandie Kurtz, said his therapy wasn’t approved through Georgia’s Medicaid program until recently, despite her continued requests. “I know insurance, so it’s even more frustrating,” said Kurtz, who works in a doctor’s office near her home in rural Wrens, Georgia. Those frustrations are all too familiar to parents who have a child with autism, a complex lifelong disorder. And the pandemic has exacerbated the already difficult process of getting services. (Miller and Gold, 3/30)

And more on the Oscars controversy —

BuzzFeed:
What People With Alopecia Think About That Chris Rock Joke

For the 6.8 million people in the US with alopecia, it was Pinkett Smith’s face when the joke dropped, not the slap, that was the important part. Alopecia is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks hair follicles, triggering a spectrum of hair loss anywhere on the body. It’s unpredictable and can happen to anyone at any time, no matter their age, sex, race, ethnicity, or health status. (Camero, 3/29)

The Washington Post:
Why A Single Slap Struck So Many

Psychologists and experts on violence aren’t surprised by the strong emotions generated by the incident, and their variety. “The complexity right now does center around the talks and discussions we’re having around race, gender and disability … and survivorship,” said Apryl Alexander, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Denver. “All of those things combined impacted the lens in which we saw this unfortunate event.” (Chiu, 3/29)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.