Good morning and welcome to Monday’s New York Health Care newsletter, where we keep you up to date on what’s happening this week in health care news and offer a look back at important stories from the past week.
Home Care Workers of New York received a $2-an-hour raise starting Oct. 1 under a pay-raise deal included in the state budget passed earlier this year, POLITICO’s Shannon Young reports.
Fiscal year 2023 spending billincluded a $3-an-hour raise for home care workers to be spread over two years. It raised the minimum for home care workers in New York City and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties from $15 to $17 an hour.
Minimum wage for those in all other regions, meanwhile, it rose from $13.20 to $15.20 an hour. Upper counties will see another 70-cent increase, bringing them to a minimum wage of $15.90, which will take effect Dec. 31.
For years, long-term care advocates have pushed Albany lawmakers to support a 150 percent increase in the minimum wage for these workers as part of a “Fair Pay for Home Care” campaign. They have argued that the $3 hourly budget increase does nothing to fix the state’s home care workforce issues.
WHAT WE’RE ALSO WATCHING THIS WEEK:
— New Yorkers may soon start growing medical marijuana at home under new regulations that take effect Wednesday. The rules allow certified patients and designated guardians over the age of 21 to grow up to three mature and three immature cannabis plants at a time. Designated caregivers may grow up to six mature and six immature plants in one residence if they are grown for multiple patients.
— Council of Public Health and Health Planning will hold a full council meeting on Thursday.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Shannon is off this week and next week for vacation. POLITICO’s Julian Shen-Berro is stepping in again to help with this newsletter. Please send him all your tips, news and scoops at [email protected].
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FIRST MEASLES, THEN POLIO — POLITICO’s Shannon Young: Four years after being in the middle of the nation’s worst measles outbreak in decades, Rockland County is back in the spotlight for polio — reviving another disease the U.S. thought it had conquered. In late July, the county, which is north of New York City, drew national attention after confirming that an unvaccinated resident who developed paralysis in his legs had contracted Sabin polio virus type 2, the first confirmed case. in the US in almost 10 years.
A few weeks later, polio was discovered in the sewage in New York City and on Long Island — prompting local, state and federal health officials to race to avoid a repeat of the measles outbreak as Covid-19 and monkeypox continue to spread in New York. The battle continues on all health fronts. “On polio, we just can’t roll the dice,” state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett stressed as she urged New Yorkers in September “to accept no risk at all.”
Governor Kathy Hochul declared a public health emergency in early September, and it sparked high-level talks among senior Biden administration officials concerned about the potential spread of the virus across the country. But with a nationwide polio vaccination rate among 2-year-olds of less than 80 percent—not including New York City (where the rate for children under 5 is 86 percent)—and an even lower rate in Rockland County, officials face off. with a familiar task: persuading vaccine-hesitant people to get vaccinated.
CONTENTS OF THE SCHOOL VAX – POLITICO’s Julian Shen-Berro: After moving to curb abuses of a school vaccine policy following an unprecedented measles outbreak in the New York City area, the state legislature removed religious and philosophical exemptions in 2019. It was a move that left a vocal group of parents and critics of vaccines to demand narrow carving on medical grounds. And like clockwork, medical exemptions skyrocketed in 2020 at some private schools in what one lawmaker called “obvious” fraud.
When religious exemptions were allowed, few schools reported more than a fraction of a percent of students had received a special dispensation for medical concerns. A year after religious considerations were removed, the rate of medical exemptions rose into double digits at some schools. In one school, the figure rose to more than 36 percent.
The shift, revealed by a POLITICO analysis of state data, mirrors a similar result in California and highlights potential gaps in oversight and enforcement that medical experts warn could allow dangerous diseases to flourish. The revelation also comes as New York — the frequent epicenter of contagious outbreaks, from West Nile measles — deals with a resurgence of polio, the continued spread of Covid-19 and at least one childhood case of monkeypox this year.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: This review is for you! Submit news tips, health tips, ideas, critiques and corrections [email protected].
NOW WE KNOW – The US Food and Drug Administration wants to change its definition of “healthy” packaged food.
TODAY’S TIP – The Cleveland Clinic offers tips for starting an exercise routine.
BE SURE TO FOLLOW Shannon @ShannonYoung413 on Twitter. And for all New Jersey health news, check out Daniel Hahn, @danieljhan_.
STUDY THIS – “Now there’s scientific evidence that sheds more light on one of Barkley’s impressive abilities in a long list of endearing traits: the ability to smell when you’re stressed,” reports CNN.
“The Minister of Health of Germany warned Friday that the country is seeing a steady increase in COVID-19 cases as it heads into fall,” the Associated Press reports.
The Wall Street Journal examines the “tax secrets of health savings accounts.”
Kaiser Health News reports that “since pharmaceutical companies began funding their FDA drug applications 30 years ago, the agency’s reviews have moved much faster—perhaps too quickly.”
“Mushrooms find their way in cancer tumors, but what they’re doing there is a mystery,” reports STAT.
New York City has hundreds of thousands of new Covid-19 vaccine boosters are ready, but uptake has been slow, Spectrum News reports.
Three simultaneous outbreaks of disease in New York have left health officials enduring “a four-alarm fire,” straining the public health infrastructure, POLITICO’s Erin Banco reports.
FDA approved a new amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug on Thursday, weeks after its independent advisers recommended the agency approve it over several drugs on the market to treat the debilitating disease, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports.
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