By skyforbes 
A daily Covid-19 update from Andy Slavitt, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Let me start here: The Trump Administration is doling out CARES Act money to health care providers. When this happens everyone scrambles for theirs. Some call me to plead their case because those decisions used to be in my court. (They’re not any more.)
The bulk of funding goes to hospitals based on what, COVID patients? No. Financial distress? No. Location? No. Seeing low income patients? Lol. It’s based on revenue.
The logic is that hospitals with the most revenue, lose the most revenue when elective surgeries are cancelled. Yes, and Boeing loses more than a corner dry cleaner when the economy is bad, but you can’t ignore the dry cleaner.
Bad analogy aside, we are worried about the collapse of Medicaid providers, mental health professionals, family medicine, safety net hospitals, and community health centers.
Here is what the Trump Administration says:
Some will note that this does not necessarily add up to the full $100 billion. On that score, some providers will receive further, separate funding , including skilled nursing facilities, dentists, and providers that solely take Medicaid.
What does “not necessarily add up” mean? Sounds like leftover funds — of which Medicaid is a piece of a piece.
When I ran the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services I rarely had people call me outraged over a patient quality problem. But if a formula change negatively impacted someone financially, look out.
Throughout this whole crisis, no one has had to believe a word I say or agree with my opinions. History will be the judge not my contemporaneous account. But all our sins are being laid bare.
More suffering. With most of the loss coming from:
- Nursing homes
- Public housing
- Immigrants we won’t grant status to
- People with disabilities
- Low income communities
- People of color
- Prisons
- Foster homes
- Immigration detention centers
- AND all the people who so their best to take care of them these groups
We are spending a lot of energy worried about ourselves and our families. I understand that. I’m guilty of it. But looking out for ourselves is not where we are most likely to have failed. None of the people “protesting” are the people who actually have the most to protest about.
There is a reason people don’t hear from people being hurt the most: They are on the margins and they are used to being abused & not listened to. This is nothing new. Also, they are forced to unsafely congregate already. They don’t need to do it for fun.
The Surgo Foundation is trying to identify communities according to their vulnerabilities to Covid-19 here.
I haven’t fully digested the content. But Alabama and Georgia appear vulnerable. Easy to take a shot at their political leaders and there will be a time for that. In the meantime, I’m worried for the people who live there whether they are misled or have no choice.
I don’t discount for a second those who say the economic losses are hurting them personally more than the virus. That is their reality. That’s also why we have laws so we don’t completely devolve to all of our wants without regard for one another.
But there’s a real question of how long people can sacrifice and stay home. This is important to know. So today we are sharing the results of a new comprehensive tracking poll asking Americans some key questions.
We look at the answers based on personal experience with Covid-19, political affiliation, region, age, and a number of other factors. Americans are making decisions based on what they believe and feel, and in the absence of a lot of reliable facts, they fill in the holes. But what if we wanted to understand what is really knowable. That’s why I had Nate Silver on my podcast yesterday.
Results and briefs from the poll can be found here:
- 4 out of 5 Americans support strict shelter-in-place measures — across political identities:
- Across the board, Americans have sacrificed for their own health and their neighbors:
- More Americans now think the worst is behind us than previously held that view— although is splits by political party identity somewhat. Whether they’re right or wrong, they believe their sacrifice has value:
- Most interesting news to me: Most Americans say they can continue to follow strict social distancing guides/shelter in place:
- Three-quarters have bought or made a protective mask. Even more, 84%, say they only leave home for necessities.
- 4 out of 10 Americans believe they have had personal experience with COVID-19. One in 10 know someone who has died:
Special thanks to the always great Molly Brodie and of course the also great Drew Altman from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
This story is pulled from my daily COVID-19 updates on Twitter