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Children (5.3 million) and young adults (4.7 million) will lose CHIP/ Medicaid coverage. Nearly onethird of those predicted to lose coverage are Latino (4.6 million) and 15% (2.2 million) are Black, according to CMS. Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, covers 15 million people regardless of immigration status.

“One third of our population use this as insurance for children. Over half of all California children have coverage through MediCal,” says Kristen Testa, Health Director at The Children’s Partnership.

“So this unwinding will have a tremendous effect on all those families. Every one of them is going to have to renew,” she said.

Calling this period “an all hands on deck situation,” Testa noted there are community-based organizations all over California that are trained and given grants to help with enrollment.

“There’s also the California Health Department website that has listings across the state,” she said.

California passed a continuous coverage law last year for young children that won’t go into effect until 2025, so some kids are going to lose coverage in the interim.

“So the important thing is for everybody to know and help our community renew their coverage and know where to go,” she said.

Not so lucky are people in 11 states that did not expand Medicaid under the ACA or the American Rescue Plan.

CMS estimated 383,000 individuals, who will lose eligibility for Medicaid, would fall in the coverage gap in the remaining 11 non-expansion states – with incomes too high for Medicaid, but too low to receive Marketplace tax credits.

CMS noted that state adoption of Medicaid expansion in these states would mitigate potential coverage loss at the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE).

Those states are Wyoming, Wisconsin, Kansas, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

“This is a moment where we’re going to really feel the stark differences across our country. In the eleven remaining nonexpansion states, eight of which are in the south, there is already too little access to healthcare coverage for people, including communities of color,” GuerraCardus said.

After being able to take care of their healthcare needs for several years, she said that some people suddenly will lose coverage and not have any other option for affordable coverage. (Peter White/ Ethnic Media Services)

He touted the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which stood at 7.7% in the third quarter of 2022, which is way better than the 5.7% growth in the same period in 2021.

The full-year GDP growth for 2022 was at 7.6% — the highest in 46 years.

“Our growth assumptions remain reasonably ambitious.

We are looking to the same growth rate– that of 2022 and between 6 to 7 percent for this year,” Marcos said.

Tax collections and investments figures are also moving upwards, he said.

“With the current growth momentum, the Philippines is poised to reach upper middleincome status very soon,” he noted.

Aside from addressing domestic issues, Marcos said his administration would continue to attach great importance to the nation’s external relations, with its foreign policy geared towards actively pursuing international engagements while maintaining the country’s national interest. He said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continues to be a cornerstone of Philippine foreign policy, adding that his administration’s aim is to elevate relations with the country’s bilateral and multilateral partners.

The Philippines, Marcos said, will continue to work with its partners in building a stronger United Nations as it is a staunch champion of multilateralism. The Vin d’Honneur is an official reception hosted by the president of the Philippines at Malacañang Palace, traditionally on New Year’s Day.

The Vin d’Honneur” — literally, “wine of honor” — follows a French practice that takes place at the end of inaugurations, speeches, and ceremonies. g

FDA experts are still puzzled over who should...

PAGE 4 old, the death rate has hovered around 1 in 100,000 since April. Earlier in 2022, babies 6 months old and younger were hospitalized and died at relatively high rates. Vaccination levels in the 4-and-under group hover at about 10%.

While acknowledging the FDA’s desire to regularize its covid vaccine policy, panel members said it’s still too early to know for sure whether covid will surge only in the winter, like flu, respiratory syncytial virus, and other respiratory infections.

“For the next few years we may not know how often we need to make a strain change in the vaccine,” said Dr. Steven Pergam, medical director of infection prevention at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Or even if people who are not in poor health or elderly need additional boosters.

One vaccine-maker represented at the meeting, Novavax, said it would need to know by the end of March which strain to include in its vaccine for fall. Companies with mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna can change their formulas faster, but their products aren’t clearly better than Novavax’s. All three of those vaccinemakers revealed at the meeting that they are developing single- dose vials or prefilled syringes.

Health News) KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.