Jamie Ulmer is now the new chief executive of Healthcare Network, a nonprofit healthcare organization in Collier County. Ulmer replaces Emily Ptaszek, who stepped down as CEO earlier this year for a position in Colorado. Ulmer started July 11. According to the Naples Daily News, he plans to spend two to three days a week in Immokalee, where the organization was launched 45 years ago, because the migrant farmworker community is where the greatest needs are in access to healthcare.
The U.S. birth rate has been trending downwards over the past 15 years, but for the first time since 2014 the number of births actually rose in 2021. The National Center for Health Statistics announced on Tuesday the modest gain of US births of 1% in 2021 from the previous year. The national birth rate fell to a record low in 2020, the first full year of the pandemic. According to NPR, the national fertility rate rose to 1,663 births per 1,000 women, but that is far below the 2,100 births per 1,000 women that each generation needs to exactly replace itself.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced $49 million in grants to help community groups sign more families and children up for health insurance. More than half of the country's four million uninsured children qualify for free coverage through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. When the COVID public health emergency ends, the standards that families have to meet to qualify for free health insurance changes. According to NPR, that could lead to 6.7 million children who now have Medicaid losing their coverage.
El Rev. Gary y Christine La Croix, y Scripps Howard Foundation brindan apoyo para las Noticias de WGCU en Español.