Health

Independent, UK - Nearly one million Americans will soon receive $500 checks from the federal government as a refund for alleged overcharges on the Affordable Care Act’s federal exchange for buying health insurance.  Starting Wednesday, the Treasury Department will begin to send checks, along with letters signed by President Donald Trump, to more than 950,000 Americans in 30 states.

Trump announced the $500 Obamacare refund checks on September 10 in a video released by the White House, claiming the refunds would correct overcharges incurred under the Biden administration’s Obamacare exchange and Healthcare.gov website.

Time - In medical emergencies, time matters. Seeing a surgeon soon after your appendix has ruptured or you’ve been in a car accident can mean the difference between life and death. But more than a third of U.S. counties have no general surgeons, according to a new analysis published Sept. 28 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

While many people assume that surgeons primarily perform elective procedures, many surgeons in rural communities serve multiple roles, says Dr. Thomas Tsai, medical director for health policy research at the American College of Surgeons and a co-author of the study. In that way, “access to surgeons is the keystone for the broader rural health care ecosystem,” he says.

The study provides yet another data point that rural health care is in trouble in the U.S. It found that 38% of counties—home to roughly 15 million Americans—have no general surgeons, and 30% have no surgeon across 12 different specialties.