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Billions in opioid settlement money was meant to be spent on treating and preventing addiction â but what happens if itâs misspent? Some advocates say attorneys general need to pay closer attention. If they donât, a new tool might empower the public.
In 2017, when President Donald Trump tried to repeal Obamacare and roll back Medicaid coverage, Republican governors helped turn Congress against it. Now, as Trump tries again to scale back Medicaid, Republican governors â whose constituents stand to lose federal funding and health coverage â have gone quiet on the health consequences.
Spending cuts hitting medical providers, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act enrollees, and lawfully present immigrants are just some of the biggest changes the GOP has in store for health care â with ramifications that could touch all Americans.
Rural hospitals would take an outsize hit from Republicansâ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs. Researchers say the financial erosion would trigger hospital closures and service cuts, especially in communities where large shares of patients are enrolled in Medicaid.
Congressional Republicans are looking to cut at least $880 billion from a pool of federal funding that includes Medicaid â and the program is likely to take a major hit. A previous budget crunch in Missouri offers a window into how cuts ripple through peopleâs lives.
The Biden administration shut off federal family planning grants to Tennessee and Oklahoma after the states directed clinics not to provide abortion counseling. The Trump administration restored the money, claiming two lawsuits were settled. They werenât.
Attitudes about a debunked link between measles vaccines and autism havenât budged that much. But thereâs a sharp partisan divide over whether the vaccine is safe.
Roughly 20 states now have laws permitting families to place cameras in the rooms of loved ones. Facility operators are often opposed.
Amid a youth mental health crisis and a shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds, residents of a St. Louis suburb opposed a plan to build a 77-bed pediatric mental health hospital. Resistance to such facilities has occurred in other communities as misconceptions about mental health spur fear.
A bill designed to force PBMs to pay higher fees to independent drugstores sailed through the state House, but lobbyists are marshaling their forces to kill the measure in the Senate.
Enrollment of underrepresented groups at medical schools fell precipitously this academic year after the Supreme Courtâs 2023 ban on affirmative action. Education and health experts worry the Trump administrationâs anti-DEI measures will only worsen the situation, even in states like California that have navigated bans on race-conscious admissions for years.
Congressional Republicans are pushing plans that could make deep cuts to Medicaid to finance President Donald Trumpâs tax cuts and other priorities. At stake is coverage for millions of low-income Americans, as well as a huge revenue source for hospitals â and every state.
Gloria Sachdev, a pharmacist by training, has spent years taking on the health care establishment in Indiana, working to pull down high hospital prices and make information public to patients. Now, in a newly created position in the governorâs Cabinet, sheâs no longer fighting from the outside.
Health leaders say a tool to boost medical coverage for Native Americans, a population that has long faced worse health outcomes than the rest of the nation, has been underused by many states and tribes since it was written into the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago.
In the seventh year of Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ âBill of the Monthâ series, patients shared their most perplexing, vexing, and downright expensive medical bills, and reporters analyzed $800,000 in charges â including more than $370,000 owed by 12 patients and their families.
The nationâs Catholic health systems were largely founded and led by nuns with a mission to serve the sick regardless of their creed or financial means. Today, no nuns run any U.S. Catholic health system, while many of these hospitals pull in billions, according to their financial reports.
In red and blue states, state lawmakers from both parties are expanding protections for patients burdened by medical debt.
The state has among the highest levels of medical debt in the country, data shows.
Clinics in states where most abortions are legal, such as Kansas and Illinois, are reporting an influx of inquiries from patients hundreds of miles away â and are expanding in response. Despite the Supreme Courtâs overturning of federal protections in 2022, abortions are now at their highest numbers in a decade.
Even when patients double-check that their care is covered by insurance, health providers often send them bills as they haggle with insurers over reimbursement, which can last for months. Itâs stressful and annoying â but legal.
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