Why Young Americans Dread Turning 26: Health Insurance Chaos
Young adults without jobs that provide insurance find their options are limited and expensive. The problem is about to get worse.
The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
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Young adults without jobs that provide insurance find their options are limited and expensive. The problem is about to get worse.
A doctor doing environmental health research in rural Maine is working to establish the best practices to treat patients exposed to 鈥渇orever chemicals,鈥 potentially leading the way for practitioners across the nation.
Lawmakers added a $50 billion program for rural health to President Donald Trump鈥檚 massive tax and spending package with promises it would help plug the hole left by Medicaid cuts. Rural hospital and clinic leaders worry the infusion won鈥檛 reach the right places.
For-profit hospitals provide most inpatient physical therapy but tend to have worse readmission rates to general hospitals. Medicare doesn鈥檛 tell consumers about troubling inspections.
The FDA will encourage new clinical trials on the widely used vaccines before approving them for children and healthy adults. The requirements could cost drugmakers tens of millions of dollars and are likely to leave boosters largely out of reach for hundreds of millions of Americans this fall.
A GOP tax-and-spending bill the House approved Thursday would slash federal Medicaid reimbursement for states that offer health coverage to immigrants without legal status.
Some clinics that provide abortions are closing, even in states where voters have passed some of the nation's broadest abortion protections. It鈥檚 happening in places like New York, Illinois, and Michigan, as reproductive health care faces new financial pressures.
When a New York physician was indicted for shipping abortion medications to a woman in Louisiana, it stoked fear across the network of doctors and medical clinics who engage in similar work. But some physicians vowed not to stop.
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 weren鈥檛.
People with dementia often forget even close family members as the disease advances. 鈥淚t can throw people into an existential crisis,鈥 an expert said.
Breakups between health providers and Advantage plans are increasingly common. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has allowed whole groups of patients to leave their plans.
Pharmaceutical companies accused of fueling the nation鈥檚 opioid crisis are paying state and local governments billions of dollars in legal settlements. But how much are victims who suffered addiction and overdoses getting?
Health plans limit physical or occupational therapy sessions to as few as 20 a year, no matter the patient鈥檚 infirmities. The limits persist despite federal rules banning insurers from setting annual dollar limits on the care they will provide.
As politicians demand that more Medicaid recipients work, many people with disabilities say their state programs鈥 income and asset caps force them to limit their work hours or turn down promotions.
Union Health has made a new bid to buy its only rival hospital in Terre Haute, Indiana. The system passed one hurdle after lawmakers watered down a bill that threatened the proposed deal. That means the merger will now face a likely showdown with Indiana鈥檚 new governor.
Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia 鈥 states with some of the worst health outcomes 鈥 also have some of the highest childhood vaccination rates. But doctors and health officials worry a rising tide of vaccine skepticism is causing those public health bright spots to dim.
After rival hospitals in Terre Haute scuttled plans to merge, a state senator has introduced a bill to forbid similar mergers by repealing a state law he helped write.
Researchers found toxic 鈥渇orever chemicals鈥 in drinking water wells dotting California鈥檚 rural farming regions, far from known contamination sources. The discovery complicates the state鈥檚 drinking water problem, which disproportionately affects farmworkers and communities of color.
Access to information in languages other than English is protected by various federal, state, and local policies. But researchers tracking them say that as rural America grows more diverse, people not proficient in English face added barriers to critical public health information and services.
Two Indiana hospital rivals withdrew their application to merge after facing pushback from the Federal Trade Commission and the public.
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