Long COVID

Facing a shadow pandemic

BY KATE MURRAY, MPH, AND RUTH LYNFIELD, MD

Amiddle-aged patient complains that he still hasn’t recovered from COVID-19 after several weeks. In addition to persistent digestive issues, he is sidelined by extreme fatigue after minimal activity, whereas last year he was running half-marathons.

Another presents with dizziness and a racing heart upon standing, frequent migraines, and issues with memory and concentration so severe that she has lost her teaching job. She can’t identify any significant health events other than having mild COVID-19 four months ago. Her blood tests are unremarkable.

Long COVID to page 104

Congress enacted legislation authorizing the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965 because the insurance industry didn’t want the elderly and the poor. Oddly enough, today the insurance industry covets the elderly and the poor. Today, half of all Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in insurance companies that participate in what is known as the Medicare Advantage program, and two-thirds of all Medicaid recipients are insured through insurance companies. Here in Minnesota, all MinnesotaCare recipients and eighty-five percent of the enrollees in Medical Assistance (MA), as Minnesota’s Medicaid program is known, are enrolled in insurance companies.

Privatized Medicaid and MinnesotaCare to page 144

By Kate Murray, MPH,

Lynfield, MD,

By Kip Sullivan, JD