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In a few weeks, pandemic-era emergency boosts to SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, will be rolled back across 32 states, putting more pressure on food pantries to fill the gaps and exacerbating challenges for rural areas, where a greater share of people are enrolled in the program compared with metro areas.
A foster care program on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota is attracting attention from officials elsewhere as they search for ways to reduce trauma inflicted on Indigenous families, who’ve faced generations of high rates of family separation.
Many small-town care facilities that remain open are limiting admissions, citing a lack of staff, while a wave of others shutter. That means more patients are marooned in hospitals or placed far away from their families.
Abortion is a top issue for state lawmakers meeting for their first full sessions since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
KHN has teamed up with our partners at PolitiFact to monitor 100 key promises made by Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign — including those surrounding the Affordable Care Act.
Coastal and politically progressive states have passed stronger paid sick and family leave policies, but many workers in rural America are left out, facing tough decisions when choosing between caring for themselves or sick family members or keeping their jobs.
Some rural residents must travel hours for a sexual assault exam. Specialized telehealth services are expanding so they can obtain care closer to home.
An examination of billing policies and practices at more than 500 hospitals across the country shows widespread reliance on aggressive collection tactics.
Since 2017, Medicaid expansion has been adopted in seven states where a question was placed directly on the ballot. But campaign leaders say that strategy may not work in Florida and Wyoming, where Republican opposition remains strong.
Only a sliver of the funding given to state, local, and tribal governments through the American Rescue Plan Act has been steered to mental health nationwide, but mental health advocates and clinicians hope the money it provides will help address gaps in care for children. In Appalachian Ohio, the funding is helping expand services.
Low-income residents in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid are in a tough spot: They don’t qualify for the subsidies that people with slightly higher incomes get to buy marketplace plans because of a glitch in the federal health law. But a court decision last year makes it easier for them to make good-faith estimates of a pay increase, and there is no financial penalty if they don’t hit that figure.
South Dakotans voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program to cover thousands of additional low-income residents. But as other conservative states have shown, voter approval doesn’t always mean politicians and administrators will rush to implement the change.
Although control of Congress was still undecided Wednesday, Republicans seemed poised to take power in the House, while the fate of the Senate remained too close to call. Economic issues were at the top of voters’ minds, but abortion access also played a large role in their decisions.
A broad coalition of Medicaid expansion supporters faces off against a smaller group of opponents as early voting begins on a constitutional amendment that would increase coverage under South Dakota’s program.
In many cities, social workers and counselors are responding to mental health emergencies that used to be solely handled by police. That approach is spreading to rural areas even though mental health professionals are scarcer and travel distances are longer.
People in jails and prisons are particularly vulnerable to the fallout from the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota allows people to buy and use recreational marijuana but not alcohol. Some tribal citizens say cannabis is safer than alcohol, meth, and opioids — which have wreaked havoc on the state’s Indigenous communities.
On July 16, a three-digit number, 988, became the centerpiece of a nationwide effort to unify responses to Americans experiencing mental health crises. But many people, especially those in rural areas, will continue to find themselves far from help if they need more support than call operators can offer.
A lack of Native physicians means many tribal communities rely on doctors who don’t share their lived experience, culture, or spiritual beliefs. In Episode 9, meet two medical students working to join the ranks of Indigenous physicians.
Medical breakthroughs mean cancer is less likely to kill, but survival can come at an extraordinary cost as patients drain savings, declare bankruptcy, or lose their homes, a KHN-NPR investigation finds.
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