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Sesame Street creates Rohingya muppets for refugee children

Wed Dec 16

Elmo has landed in Bangladesh, and he brought along two new friends. In an effort to improve early education in the world’s largest refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, Sesame Street added two new members to their cast: 6-year-old twins Noor and Aziz. 

The refugee camp is home to the one million Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh after Myanmar’s military forces targeted them in 2016. The genocidal acts led to 6,700 Rohingya Muslim deaths, including 700 children. Bangladesh has not only welcomed these refugees, but in January began providing formal education to the children. 

Now, Sesame Street is stepping in to help. 

Sesame Workshop, an American nonprofit and producer of Sesame Street, has been working for years to bring innovative forms of education to children in need while championing diversity. Many Rohingya children have never watched television, and are currently at risk of growing up without being able to read, write, or do simple math. With the help of a battery-powered projector, Sesame Workshop is investing in a $200 million effort to expand educational tools and fill this educational gap for children in refugee camps in Syria and Bangladesh.

SOURCES / READ MORE: NBC News, BBC News, CNN, The New York Times

Congress prohibits surprise medical bills

Tue Dec 22

You’ve probably been hearing about the stimulus check, but there’s a lot more included in the nearly 5,600 page coronavirus economic relief package that was passed by Congress this week. One of them is legislation that will end most surprise medical bills. 

It’s estimated that about one in five emergency visits and one in six inpatient admissions causes a surprise bill.  A surprise bill, as the name indicates, is when patients see an unexpected charge after a medical visit. While the average surprise charge is just above $600 for emergency room visits, some patients are shocked to receive extra charges of over $100,000. 

How does this happen?

There are a few ways, for example, if your in-network hospital assigns you to an out-of-network doctor without your knowledge or consent. Patients will now only have to pay their in-network obligations as the new legislation bans billing for air ambulances, out-of-network emergency care, and most out-of-network care at an in-network facility. 

Why is this just now being addressed?

Politics plus business. Although the ban had bipartisan support for a long time, it created a lobbying war between doctors, hospitals, and insurers that left Washington unable to reach a compromise. They could all agree that patients should not receive the unexpected bill, but who then determines the cost? 

• The health insurance lobby wanted to default to an average in-network price, which would resolve billing disputes through price benchmarks in that area. 
• Doctors and hospitals wanted the ability to negotiate pricing, and then have outside arbitrators come in when necessary to set the final price. This could lead to higher than average prices, which would then be covered by insurers.

While there has been some evidence that supports the first approach leading to lower prices, the arbitration resolution ultimately won out and the ban will take effect in 2022. The Department of Health and Human Services will also have to decide who these arbitrators will be.

SOURCES / READ MORE: Vox, AP News, NPR, The Washington Post