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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.
Opponents of the wave of state legislation say the measures place health providersā preferences over patientsā rights.
Although nearly 40% of Americans 60 and older are obese, Medicare doesnāt cover weight loss medications. Meanwhile, studies havenāt thoroughly examined new drugsā impact on older adults.
A federal program meant to reduce maternal and infant mortality in rural areas isnāt reaching Black women who are most likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.
A quality-control crisis at an Indian pharmaceutical factory has left doctors and their patients with impossible choices as cheap, effective, generic cancer drugs go out of stock.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra is asking states to make more of an effort to keep eligible Medicaid recipients enrolled. He particularly fears children losing health insurance coverage.
The number of DOs is surging, and more than half of them practice in primary care, including in rural areas hit hard by doctor shortages.
In whatās known as the Medicaid āunwinding,ā states are combing through rolls to decide who stays and who goes. But the overwhelming majority of people who have lost coverage so far were dropped because of technicalities, not because officials determined they are no longer eligible.
Montana, Alaska, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming are among the latest states moving to provide health coverage for up to a year after pregnancy through the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people.
The federal governmentās ambitious plan to end the HIV epidemic, launched in 2019, has generated new ways to reach at-risk populations in targeted communities across the South. But health officials, advocates, and people living with HIV worry significant headwinds will keep the program from reaching its goals.
Billions of dollars are headed to state and local governments to address the opioid crisis. Policy experts and advocates expect the federal government to play a role in overseeing the use of the money. Failure to do so, they say, could lead to wasted opportunities. And, since Medicaid helps pay health care costs, the feds could have a claim to portions of statesā opioid settlements.
Mayor Eric Adamsā announcement this year to provide abortion pills free of charge at four of New Yorkās sexual health clinics is the cityās latest move on abortion access. Other jurisdictions are also taking steps.
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