Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
North Carolina Governor Pushes To Expand Medicaid
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration made perhaps its most promising pitch yet to legislators on Tuesday to expand Medicaid, with a key health regulator calling it more advantageous than ever to cover hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults. Addressing a House-Senate committee created specifically to study expansion, state Medicaid director Dave Richard said a surge in traditional Medicaid enrollment during the coronavirus pandemic and a fiscal sweetener from Washington make taking the step even more appealing. (Robertson, 3/1)
In updates on marijuana use —
A proposal to revive Georgia’s stalled medical marijuana program cleared its first committee on a unanimous vote Tuesday. The legislation would attempt to break bureaucratic delays by issuing medical marijuana licenses to 22 companies, which would then be authorized to produce and sell cannabis oil to registered patients. Licenses would go to six companies that received tentative approval from a state board last year, along with 16 companies protesting that decision. State Rep. Alan Powell said he wants to fix a “terrible process” that has frustrated patients and businesses. (Niesse, 3/1)
After failing to agree on competing proposals last year, the House and Senate on Tuesday unveiled legislation to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana for adults in Rhode Island, beginning Oct. 1. With support from legislative leaders, Senator Joshua Miller, a Cranston Democrat, and Representative Scott A. Slater, a Providence Democrat, introduced identical 115-page bills that would legalize the sale and possession of up to 1 ounce of cannabis for those age 21 and up. The bills would allow people to keep up to 10 ounces of marijuana at home for personal use, and they’d let people grow a small amount of marijuana at home. (Fitzpatrick, 3/1)
Pennsylvania lawmakers researching a bill to legalize recreational marijuana received a barrage of information Tuesday during a spirited, two-hour hearing in West Philadelphia. They heard testimony espousing their instituting automatic and retroactive mass expungement of cannabis convictions and keeping the state’s “white cartel” of medical marijuana firms’ executives from taking over the recreational market. And there were calls to just legalize it already — from a medical marijuana patient who said he spent time in jail partly because of marijuana charges. (Brubaker, 3/2)
In other news from across the U.S. —
In an effort to continue to try to better study Georgia’s high maternal mortality rate, the state Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would require an autopsy be done every time a pregnant woman dies. Autopsies are currently required only in certain cases, such as when someone dies as a result of violence, an overdose or while an inmate. Senate Bill 496 would require a medical examiner to do an autopsy and determine the cause of death when someone dies while pregnant or within the first year after giving birth. Autopsies would not be required if the woman died in a car crash. (Prabhu, 3/1)
After years of failed attempts to change Indiana law, the Senate unanimously voted to pass language aimed at closing a rape loophole about the definition of consent. Under House Bill 1079, a person who has sexual intercourse with someone who attempts to "physically, verbally, or by other visible conduct refuse the person's acts" commits rape. Indiana law currently states that intercourse is only considered rape if it's done by force or if it occurs with someone who is mentally incapacitated or unaware that it’s happening. That means it's not always clear to jurors with no law experience if someone pulling up their clothes or saying "stop" falls under any of those categories. (Lange, 3/1)
Leading members of the state House and Senate say they are unlikely to stop a proposed split of Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services into two separate agencies. Under an executive order from Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the agency will be divided into a Department of Health and a Department of Family and Community Services. The split was proposed as an efficiency measure to aid Alaska’s largest state agency. Opponents call it rushed and say those served by the agency have not been adequately consulted, an assertion disputed by Adam Crum, the agency’s commissioner. (Brooks, 3/1)
KHN: Dangerous Levels Of Lead Were Found In The Water Of About Half The Schools Tested In Montana
About half of Montana schools that had tested their water by mid-February under a new state rule had high levels of lead, according to state data. But the full picture isn’t clear because less than half of the state’s school buildings had provided water samples six weeks after the deadline. For many schools with high lead levels, finding the money to fix the problem will be a challenge. The options aren’t great. They can compete for a dwindling pool of state money, seek federal aid passed last year, or add the repairs to their long lists of capital improvement projects and pay for the work themselves. (Houghton, 3/2)
KHN: Desperate For Cash: Programs For People With Disabilities Still Not Seeing Federal Funds
Matthew Southern, 35, who has intellectual and developmental disabilities, is able to stay out of an institution because health aides paid through a Medicaid program assist him and his roommate with ordinary tasks. But amid a worker shortage worsened by the pandemic, Southern’s father, Dan, has had to step in to fill in gaps in his son’s care by volunteering at their home 45 minutes away from his northwestern Atlanta suburb. He blames the low pay across the industry. “No one wants to work for $12 an hour,” Dan Southern said. “People can work at Burger King and make more money.” (Weber and Miller, 3/2)
