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Federal law requires states to provide pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage through 60 days after delivery. Arkansas has not expanded whatās called postpartum Medicaid coverage, an option that gives poor women uninterrupted health insurance for a year after they give birth.
Georgia must decide soon whether to try to extend a limited Medicaid expansion that requires participants to work. Enrollment fell far short of goals in the first year, and the state isnāt yet able to verify participants are working.
Ten states have not expanded Medicaid, leaving 1.5 million people ineligible for the state and federal insurance program and also unable to afford private insurance. Seven of those states are in the South, where expansion efforts may have momentum but where lawmakers say political polarization is holding them back.
State lawmakers are advancing two bills aimed at protecting children from the harms of social media, part of a nationwide wave of efforts to address the issue. Yet the billsā proponents face hurdles in finding an approach that can survive legal challenges from the tech industry.
The technology has generated notices with errors, sent Medicaid paperwork to the wrong addresses, and been frozen for hours at a time, according to state audits, court documents, and interviews. While it can take months to fix problems, Americaās poorest residents pay the price.
President Joe Biden is campaigning for reelection on his efforts to cut costs for Medicare patients at the pharmacy counter. But independent pharmacists say one strategy makes it unaffordable for them to keep some brand-name medicines in stock.
Florida has served as a haven for Southern pregnant women with little or no access to abortions. But the Florida Supreme Court upheld a six-week abortion restriction that begins in May ā so now women across much of the South seeking abortions will have to look farther afield.
For more than 20 years, children in Arkansas have been measured in school as part of a statewide effort to reduce childhood obesity. But the letters have had no impact on weight loss ā and obesity rates have risen. Still, the practice of sending letters has spread to other states.
A federal program that helped pay for more than 23 million low-income householdsā internet access runs out of money soon. The end of the subsidy launched earlier in the pandemic could have profound impacts on health care access.
Republican Gov. Brian Kempās Georgia Pathways to Coverage program has seen anemic enrollment while chalking up millions in start-up costs ā largely in technology and consulting fees. Critics say the moneyās being wasted on a costly and ineffective alternative to Obamacareās Medicaid expansion.
As money flows to abortion rights initiatives in states, some donors focus on where anger over the "Dobbs" ruling could propel voter turnout and spur Democratic victories up and down the ballot, including in key Senate races and the White House.
After the 1996 Dickey Amendment halted federal spending on research into firearms risks, a small group of academics pressed on, with little money or political support, to document the nationās growing gun violence problem and start to understand what can be done to curb the public health crisis.
While many Republican state lawmakers remain firmly against Medicaid expansion, some key leaders in holdout states are showing a willingness to reconsider. Public opinion, financial incentives, and widening health care needs make resistance harder.
States are using their Medicaid programs to offer poor and sick people housing services, such as paying six monthsā rent or helping hunt for apartments. The trend comes in response to a growing homelessness epidemic, but experts caution this may not be the best use of limited health care money.
Even in states where laws protect minorsā access to gender-affirming care, malpractice insurance premiums are keeping small and independent clinics from treating patients.
State legislatures and politicians are pressuring public health officials to keep quiet about covid vaccines.
As Medicaid programs across the nation review enrollees' status in the wake of the pandemic, patients struggle to navigate the upheaval.
Rural gun homicides have often been overshadowed by violence in cities. But they are taking their toll on small communities ill-equipped to deal with the challenges.
Studies suggest official numbers vastly underestimate heat-related injuries and illness on the job. To institute protections, the government must calculate their cost ā and the cost of inaction.
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