Mental Health Funding
Governor Reynolds has announced that she is providing an additional $50 million in federal CARES money to help people with mental health issues. $20 million of the federal money will go to Medicaid providers who provide outpatient services to mental health and substance abuse patients. The 14 Mental Health Regions will receive $30 million. This is in addition to almost $100 million in funding from Iowa counties for the Regions. Warren County’s share of the $30 million is $485,301. Madison County’s share is $154,451. This money appears to be distributed roughly according to population.
Money Returns From Abroad
You may recall that one of President Trump’s goals in his campaign was to encourage American investors to bring money that they were keeping abroad, to the United States. One of the things that was discouraging people from doing that was the taxes that they would have to pay if they brought that money back here. The President successfully convinced Congress to lower tax rates, including tax rates on money brought here from abroad. Bloomberg News now reports that as of the end of 2019, over $1 trillion has been brought to the U.S. from abroad.
COVID-19 Statistics
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention releases statistics on deaths around the nation. By far, the leading causes of death are heart disease and cancer. The most recent statistics, updated July 9, 2020, showing deaths from February 1, 2020 to July 4, 2020, show a total of 1,336,369 deaths.
Deaths involving COVID-19 were 118,598.
Deaths involving Pneumonia, with or without COVID-19, excluding influenza deaths 127,930.
Deaths involving COVID-19 and Pneumonia, excluding Influenza, 51,303.
The CDC warns that there is some lag time between deaths and the reports of causes of death, so the numbers for the more recent days may go up for all causes.
The high point for COVID-19 deaths was the week of April 18 with 16,877, out of a total of 75,929 deaths. The more recent numbers for early July are surely incomplete, but the week of June 20 shows COVID-19 deaths of 2,394, out of a total of 43,286. Whatever the final figures turn out to be, it seems clear that COVID-19 deaths have dropped significantly.
A website called Statista shows the death rate, per 100,000 people, for COVID-19 by state, as of July 10. The states with the highest numbers are New Jersey and New York with 174 and 166. Iowa has 24.
