• District of Columbia: According to the Biden administration, over 20 million people have signed up for health plans on the Affordable Care Act's marketplace — surpassing the previous year's record of over 16 million enrollments. The administration also reported its largest single-day total for sign-ups on Dec. 15, with almost 750,000 people enrolling in a marketplace plan on HealthCare.gov. "The marketplaces are getting stronger and more embedded into the fabric of U.S. health care," said Adrianna McIntyre, a health policy expert at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "The more the marketplaces grow, the more it enhances their stability." According to health policy experts, the record number of enrollments in recent years have largely been due to increased federal subsidies for individuals purchasing marketplace plans. The subsidies were initially part of a 2021 congressional spending package and have been renewed through 2025. (Weiland, New York Times, 1/10)
• District of Columbia: The American Red Cross last week said that it is experiencing an emergency blood shortage, which has negatively impacted its ability to distribute blood to hospitals. According to the Red Cross, it had a shortage of almost 7,000 units in blood donations between Christmas and New Year's Day alone. "One of the most distressing situations for a doctor is to have a hospital full of patients and an empty refrigerator without any blood products," Red Cross CMO Pampee Young. "A person needs lifesaving blood every two seconds in our country — and its availability can be the difference between life and death, however, blood is only available thanks to the generosity of those who roll up a sleeve to donate." Compared to 2019, the Red Cross said it now has about 300,000 fewer donors, and the number of donations recently reached its lowest level in 20 years. Currently, only 3% of age-eligible individuals, or around 6.8 million Americans, donate blood every year. (Kekatos, ABC News, 1/8; Alltucker, USA Today, 1/9; Habeshian, Axios, 1/10)
• Rhode Island: CVS recently announced plans to close dozens of its pharmacies located inside Target stores. Currently, CVS has pharmacies in around 1,800 of Target's more than 1,950 stores in the United States. The closures will impact a small percentage of these pharmacies. According to a CVS spokesperson, the closures are part of the company's plan to reduce its retail footprint "based on our evaluation of changes in population, consumer buying patterns and future health needs." Previously, CVS had said it planned to close around 900 stores, or around 10% of its U.S. locations, between 2022 and 2024. At the end of 2023, the company had closed around 600 locations as part of this plan. Employees impacted by the Target closures will be offered other positions within the company, and customers' prescriptions will be transferred to other CVS pharmacies. (Nassauer, Wall Street Journal, 1/11)

Many people routinely donate blood, but doing so significantly depletes their iron stores, which may take months to fully replenish — causing concern that donors may be living "on the edge of anemia," Brittany Trang writes for STAT.