Author: Avisoscuba
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Andy Miller and Renuka Rayasam STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — As principal of Dunaire Elementary School, Sean Deas has seen firsthand the struggles faced by children living in extended-stay hotels. About 10% of students at his school, just east of Atlanta, live in one. The children, Deas said, often have been exposed to violence on hotel properties, exhibit aggression or anxiety from living in a crowded single room, and face food insecurity because some hotel rooms don’t have kitchens. “Social trauma is the biggest challenge” when students first arrive, Deas said. “We hear a lot about sleep problems.” To meet students’…
DENVER — On a bustling street corner one recent afternoon outside the offices of the Harm Reduction Action Center, employees of the education and advocacy nonprofit handed out free naloxone kits to passersby. Distributing the opioid reversal medication is essential to the center’s work to reduce fatal overdoses in the community. But how long the group can continue doing so is in question. The center depends on Colorado’s Opioid Antagonist Bulk Purchase Fund, also known as the Naloxone Bulk Purchase Fund, which now lacks a recurring source of money — despite hundreds of millions of dollars in national opioid lawsuit…
Abortion has emerged as the most important issue in the November election for women under 30, according to a survey by KFF — a notable change since late spring, before Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race. Nearly 4 in 10 women under 30 surveyed in September and early October told pollsters that abortion is the most important issue to their vote. Just 20% named abortion as their top issue when KFF conducted a similar survey in late May and early June. The new survey found other shifts among women voters that stand to benefit Harris, including an increase…
Each year, the Indian Health Service rejects tens of thousands of requests to fund outside care that it doesn’t provide, forcing patients to go without treatment or pay big medical bills themselves. The IHS is supposed to provide free care to Native Americans, but it does so only at scattered clinics and hospitals the agency funds and then manages or turns over to tribes to operate. Many of those are in rural areas and offer limited services. They might not provide cancer treatment or pregnancy care, for example. That’s where the agency’s Purchased/Referred Care program is supposed to come in. But funding shortages, complex…
The Host As part of a media blitz aimed at women voters, Vice President Kamala Harris this week rolled out a plan for Medicare to provide in-home long-term care services. It’s popular, particularly for families struggling to care for both young children and older relatives, but its enormous expense has prevented similar plans from being implemented for decades. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden called out former President Donald Trump by name for having “led the onslaught of lies” about the federal efforts to help people affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton. Even some Republican officials say the misinformation about hurricane relief…
Thank you for your interest in supporting Kaiser Health News (KHN), the nation’s leading nonprofit newsroom focused on health and health policy. We distribute our journalism for free and without advertising through media partners of all sizes and in communities large and small. We appreciate all forms of engagement from our readers and listeners, and welcome your support. KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). You can support KHN by making a contribution to KFF, a non-profit charitable organization that is not associated with Kaiser Permanente. Click the button below to go to KFF’s donation page…
At age 66, South Carolina physician Paul Rousseau decided to retire after tending for decades to the suffering of people who were seriously ill or dying. It was a difficult and emotionally fraught transition. “I didn’t know what I was going to do, where I was going to go,” he told me, describing a period of crisis that began in 2017. Seeking a change of venue, Rousseau moved to the mountains of North Carolina, the start of an extended period of wandering. Soon, a sense of emptiness enveloped him. He had no friends or hobbies — his work as a…
When Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance claimed Haitian immigrants had caused infectious-disease rates to “skyrocket” in Springfield, Ohio, local health commissioner Chris Cook checked the records. They showed that in 2023, for example, there were four active tuberculosis cases in Clark County, which includes Springfield, up from three in 2022. HIV cases had risen, but sexually transmitted illnesses overall were decreasing. “I wouldn’t call it skyrocketing,” said Cook, noting that there were 190 active cases in 2023 in all of Ohio. “You hear the rhetoric. But as a whole, reportable infectious diseases to the health department are decreasing.” Tensions…
Montana lawmakers are looking to fast-track Medicaid coverage for older adults who need help with daily life. LISTEN here: Montana is looking to fast-track Medicaid access for older adults who need help to stay in their homes or towns. Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for low-income Americans, opens the door to services such as paying for help to prepare meals or shower safely. But applying for and obtaining that coverage can take weeks or months, leaving aging people in a dangerous limbo: too vulnerable to live at home without assistance, but too healthy to merit a hospital or…
By Cara Anthony October 10, 2024 Article HTML Cara Anthony KFF Health News Midwest correspondent Cara Anthony took a reporting trip to the small southeastern Missouri city of Sikeston and heard a mention of its hidden past. That led her on a multiyear reporting journey to explore the connections between a 1942 lynching and a 2020 police killing there — and what they say about the nation’s silencing of racial trauma. Along the way, she learned about her own family’s history with such trauma. This formed the multimedia “Silence in Sikeston” project from KFF Health News, Retro Report, and WORLD…
It sounds like a joke: poppy seeds infused with opioids. Indeed, it was a plotline on the sitcom Seinfeld. But for some it has been a tragedy. People have died after drinking tea brewed from unwashed poppy seeds. And after eating lemon poppy seed bread or an everything bagel, mothers reportedly have been separated from newborns because the women failed drug tests. Poppy seeds come from the plant that produces opium and from which narcotics such as morphine and codeine are derived. During harvesting and processing, the seeds can become coated with the opium fluid. Members of the House and…
In her first months as a community health worker, Jee Hyo Kim helped violent crime survivors access supportive services and resources. When a client with post-traumatic stress disorder sought a therapist, she linked him to one that fit his needs. She helped clients afraid to leave their homes obtain food delivery vouchers. As one client described her, Kim was a “connector.” Then, Kim learned to go further. Through a training program, she gained the know-how and confidence to provide emotional support. She learned evidence-based mental health counseling skills such as asking open-ended questions. She also discovered that some things she…
Most employers have little idea what the pharmacy benefit managers they hire do with the money they exchange for the medications used by their employees, according to a KFF survey released Wednesday morning. In KFF’s latest employer health benefits survey, company officials were asked how much of the rebates collected from drugmakers by pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, is returned to them. In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has tried to deflect criticism of high drug prices by saying much of that income is siphoned off by the PBMs, companies that manage patients’ drug benefits on behalf of employers and…
Dan Weissmann An $88 “observation room” fee for a checkup didn’t sit right with Kari Greene, an “Arm and a Leg” listener from Oregon. When the price went up to $99 the next year, Kari complained to her benefits representative, who thought it was weird, too — but couldn’t do anything about it. In states like Connecticut and Indiana, legislators have passed bills restricting these so-called “facility fees.” In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann takes a close look at Kari’s bill, alongside Christine Monahan, an attorney and assistant research professor focused on facility fees…
DURHAM, N.C. — It’s been 35 years since John Parker died after a pickup collided with the bike he was riding on Cheek Road in east Durham before school. He was 6. His mother, Deborah Melvin-Muse, doesn’t display photos of him, the second-youngest of six children. His brother’s birthday was the day after the crash — and he hasn’t celebrated it since. An older brother carries a deep sense of guilt because he was looking after John that morning. And Cheek Road, in a predominantly Black neighborhood, still lacks sidewalks for children to safely make their way to the local…
Californians in November will weigh in on a ballot initiative to increase scrutiny over the use of health-care dollars — particularly money from a federal drug discount program — meant to support patient care largely for low-income or indigent people. The revenue is sometimes used to address housing instability and homelessness among vulnerable patient populations. Voters are being asked whether California should increase accountability in the 340B drug discount program, which provides money for community clinics, safety net hospitals and other nonprofit health-care providers. The program requires pharmaceutical companies to give drug discounts to these clinics and nonprofit entities, which can bank…
It’s that time of year again: In most states, the Affordable Care Act’s annual open enrollment season for health plans begins Nov. 1 and lasts through Jan. 15. Current enrollees who do not update their information or select an alternative will be automatically reenrolled in their current plan or, if that plan is no longer available, into a plan with similar coverage. Last year marked a record enrollment of about 21 million people. This time around, consumers will find a few things have changed. Don’t Fall for Advertising Scams While some health plans offer small-dollar gift cards or other incentives…
Estamos en esa época del año otra vez. En la mayoría de los estados, la temporada de inscripción abierta de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA) para los planes de salud comienza el 1 de noviembre y dura hasta el 15 de enero. Los consumidores que no actualicen su información o seleccionen una alternativa serán automáticamente reinscriptos en su plan actual o, si ese plan ya no está disponible, en uno con cobertura similar. El año pasado se registró un récord de inscripciones, con unas 21 millones de personas. Esta vez, los consumidores descubrirán que han…
Cara Anthony SIKESTON, Mo. — In the summer of 2021, Sikeston residents organized the biggest Juneteenth party in the city’s history. Sikeston police officers came too, both to provide security for the event and to try to build bridges with the community. But after decades of mistrust, some residents questioned their motives. In the series finale of the podcast, a confident, outspoken Sikeston teenager shares her feelings in an uncommonly frank conversation with Chief James McMillen, head of Sikeston’s Department of Public Safety, which includes Sikeston police. Host Cara Anthony asks what kind of systemic change is possible to reduce…
Jackie Fortiér Casi el 90% de los bebés que tuvieron que ser hospitalizados con covid-19 tenían madres que no se vacunaron mientras estaban embarazadas, según nuevos datos publicados por los Centros para el Control y Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC). Los hallazgos aparecen en el Informe Semanal de Morbilidad y Mortalidad de la agencia. Los bebés que fueron demasiado pequeños para vacunarse tuvieron la tasa de hospitalización por covid más alta de cualquier grupo de edad, excepto las personas mayores de 75 años. El estudio, que analizó los datos médicos de bebés desde octubre de 2022 hasta abril de 2024 en…
While hot-button health care issues such as abortion and the Affordable Care Act roil the presidential race, Democrats and Republicans in statehouses around the country have been quietly working together to tackle the nation’s medical debt crisis. New laws to curb aggressive hospital billing, to expand charity care for lower-income patients, and to rein in debt collectors have been enacted in more than 20 states since 2021. Democrats championed most measures. But the legislative efforts often passed with Republican support. In a few states, GOP lawmakers led the push to expand patient protections. “Regardless of their party, regardless of their…