Health

Are you confused about the new SNAP requirements?
Do you need help signing up for SNAP or Medicaid?
Have you been cut off SNAP or Medicaid or had benefits reduced?
Do you need help paying for Medicare premiums or co-pays?

The Vermont Workers’ Center is holding open hours at the Brooks Memorial Library Community Room on Feb. 6 from 2-4:30 PM to help people understand and navigate these programs. We’ll have information about Medicaid, Medicare, and the SNAP work requirements and exemptions, and can work with people on submitting applications and other paperwork.

Every year strains of influenza spread around the world. In the United States we look to the southern hemisphere and the U.K. to get an indication of what might head our way.

Drug manufacturers develop vaccines based on their best information, which is partly guesswork, and hope they come close to identifying the strain of flu we will face.

The 2025-26 U.S. flu season may be bad this year because the vaccines that were created are not a good match for the strain of flu that we will experience. According to a recent report on NPR, “And now, parts of the Northern Hemisphere, such as the United Kingdom, are being hit hard. That often foreshadows what’s in store for the U.S.

Medicare Advantage (MA) was created in 1997 to move the Medicare program further into the private insurance marketplace. It was a Republican led effort to privatize Medicare by offering people cheaper premiums and enticing them with things like gym memberships and cheaper drugs.

Over the years the plan has been so successful that more than 50% of Medicare beneficiaries have moved to the plans. The federal government was paying private insurers handsomely to offer the plans and they were rolling in a new source of income. But things are changing and some insurance companies are dropping the plans because they are not continuing to make the level of profit they have become accustomed to.

Health insurance is not about health because it treats individuals as if they were profit centers. Insurers count on people not using their product too much. But when a company insures seniors they will eventually end up having too many sick people use their insurance and that is not a good thing for them.

It’s the September 2025 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. New Hampshire has shut down their reporting. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

It’s worth checking in on some basic health care issues from time to time because expert guidance changes and new developments are always worth considering. When it comes to blood pressure experts have long recommended that a person’s blood pressure should be at or below 140/90, but in recent years recommendations are for that to be 130/80.

According to a recent article on the Medscape web site, “The target blood pressure level for adults remains below 130/80 mm Hg, but drug therapy should be initiated sooner, according to new guidelines published Thursday by the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC). Eleven other medical organizations endorsed the new guidelines, which replace those issued in 2017. “We’re trying to get started earlier in the process of preventing cardiovascular disease,” said Daniel W. Jones, MD, dean and professor emeritus of the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson, who chaired the guidelines committee. Almost half of American adults have hypertension, according to the AHA.”

Digging deeper into the 2025 budget bill reveals that Medicaid is not the only insurance that will be in jeopardy. Premiums for people insured under the Affordable Care Act, (ACA or Obamacare) will see steep rises in insurance premiums and the Medicare program will see cuts that will indirectly harm the senior population.

According to a recent article in “The American Prospect”, “The combination of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s (OBBBA) cuts to Medicaid (and, unless Congress does something about it, to Medicare) and the failure to extend enhanced ACA tax credits for exchange participants will cause roughly 15 million Americans to lose their health insurance, according to the latest estimates. Those who hang on to pay the higher rates are disproportionately likely to really need insurance due to medical conditions. This will tend to create sicker insurance pools, meaning more claims payouts by insurers.”

There has been a movement in the psychiatric world to recognize a new medical specialty. The name has evolved from psychoneuroimmunology to immunopsychiatry. What it boils down to is recognizing a link between immune system dysfunction and psychiatric conditions.

This is not a revelation but more of a renewed recognition that there may be strong links between some autoimmune diseases, immune system dysfunction and mental health diseases. In particular, researchers have found links between psychotic disorders and autoimmune diseases. Links have been established between celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, lupus and the development of schizophrenia.

One of the great inequities in the world of medical research revolves around the lack of progress in finding some degree of cure for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). I have cared for too many people with ALS over many decades, and there has been very little progress in research since I started my nursing career in 1978.

I have been re-awakened to the misery of ALS because a friend was recently diagnosed. I had a close friend who died of the disease about 10 years ago and it is a difficult experience for everyone involved in caring for a person for ALS. As much as we think we can empathize with someone who has ALS, we really will never know what having ALS feels like.

On Monday and Tuesday, June 23-24, 2025, temperatures are forecast to reach into the high 90s. The heat index will be higher, with high humidity and dew point temperatures potentially causing dangerous conditions.

Keep an eye on your family, friends, neighbors, and yourselves for symptoms of heat illness. Symptoms include muscle cramps, heavy sweating, nausea, headache, or light-headedness. Most symptoms can be treated with fluids and by resting in a cooler place. Look for grassy areas that are shaded. Paved areas will always be warmer, even in the shade. If symptoms persist or worsen, or someone seems confused or loses consciousness, dial 9-1-1 immediately for help!