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It finally happened. In a move that many health care advocates have been pushing for years, the state Senate introduced a bill on Wednesday that would expand the state’s Medicaid program to some half million-plus low-income North Carolinians. Until this point, Medicaid has been reserved mostly for children from low-income families along with a small number of parents in those families, poor seniors and people with disabilities. Since 2012, the possibility to sweep in many low-income workers has been on the table as a result of the Affordable Care Act, but Republican leaders in the state senate have been staunch opponents. (Hoban and Crumpler, 5/26)

The pregnancy-related health care services provided under Medicaid vary significantly by state, a new survey has found. The differences matter greatly because Medicaid finances over 40% of births in the United States—more in some states—and two-thirds of births by Black and Alaskan Native people. In recent years, policymakers have paid increasing attention to the higher rates of maternal mortality among those groups. The Kaiser Family Foundation this month released the results of a survey of 41 states between June and October 2021 that shows which pregnancy-related services each state covers. The federal government requires all states to provide cost-free Medicaid coverage to pregnant women with incomes under 138% of the federal poverty line and for at least 60 days after delivery. States are free to broaden the benefits. (Ollove, 5/25)

A legislative committee gave final approval Tuesday to a regulatory change adjusting the allowable amount of mold and yeast in the medical marijuana supply. Connecticut has two laboratories that test medical marijuana. The change, proposed by the Department of Consumer Protection and ratified by the Legislative Regulation Review Committee, means an increase in the total allowable amount of mold and yeast for cannabis tested at one lab and a decrease for the other. (Monk, 5/25)

Racial and ethnic gaps in spending on services for California children and teens with developmental disabilities have persisted, despite California investing tens of millions of dollars in efforts to address such disparities, a new report has found. The report, released Wednesday by the legal advocacy group Public Counsel, found that at most of the California regional centers, which assist developmentally disabled people across the state, spending inequities had worsened for Latino youth during the last budget year. Even as that gap narrowed statewide, it was widening at many individual centers. (Alpert Reyes, 5/25)

Mayor London Breed is proposing a $67.4 million investment in San Francisco’s beleaguered housing stock for the homeless, following a Chronicle investigation that revealed understaffing and squalid conditions in the buildings. The vast majority of the funds, about $62.4 million, would go toward raising pay for frontline workers and increasing the number of on-site case managers, who are critical in connecting residents to health care, job training and other services. (Palomino and Thadani, 5/25)

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday he is bring treated for possible Lyme disease after becoming ill following two events he attended in the northern part of the state. The Republican governor postponed his regularly scheduled COVID-19 briefings this week and said he has tested negative for the coronavirus. (5/25)

It’s been two and a half years since Tracey Edwards went through a pregnancy, labor and birth while incarcerated at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. The suffering she experienced during her birth process still keeps her up at night. That experience is behind the lawsuit she filed last year against state prison officials for “vindication” for “unlawful treatment during the most vulnerable time in her life.” Her lawyers say her case could be reflective of the way pregnant people are treated in prisons in North Carolina and beyond. (Thompson, 5/25)

Texas’ top criminal appeals court on Wednesday ordered a man convicted of killing an 11-year-old Fort Worth girl be removed from the state’s death row. In a three-page opinion, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled by a 6-3 vote that Juan Ramon Meza Segundo does not qualify for execution because of intellectual disability under a recent Supreme Court standard. (5/25)