Category: NPR

Sweeps Of Homeless Camps In California Aggravate Key Health Issues

Cities have tasked police and sanitation workers with dismantling homeless camps that they say pose a risk to health and safety. But that’s meant some displaced people are losing needed medications.

Reduce Health Costs By Nurturing The Sickest? A Much-Touted Idea Disappoints

Matching the sickest patients with social workers and medical support doesn’t reduce costly hospital readmissions, a study finds. Still, some believe greater social investment could make a difference.

Stakes High For Democrats And Republicans In Bid To Rush ACA To Supreme Court

Both sides say they want the high court to quickly weigh in on a case that could invalidate the federal health law. Whatever the court decides will likely have consequences in 2020 elections.

Effort To Control Opioids In An ER Leaves Some Sickle Cell Patients In Pain

People with sickle cell disease aren’t fueling the opioid crisis, research shows. Yet some ER doctors still treat patients seeking relief for agonizing sickle cell crises as potential addicts.

Massachusetts May Drop Requirement That Minors Get Permission For Abortion

The state now requires women and girls under 18 to obtain permission from their parents or a judge. But in a recent poll, most Massachusetts voters favored letting minors decide on their own.

UNICEF Estimates 400,000 Babies Will Be Born On New Year’s Day

Over half those births will happen in just eight countries, according to the U.N. agency.

Reporters Pick Their Favorite Global Stories Of The Decade

The topics range from a ticking time bomb in the Arctic to the art of taking selfies in an ethical way. Here are the stories selected by our contributors.

A Decade Marked By Outrage Over Drug Prices

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans has trouble affording prescription drugs, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Over the past decade, high prices of several medicines have become flashpoints.

Rural Areas Across The Country Face Drastic Shortage Of Mental Health Care

When the last psychiatrist in International Falls, Minn., retired that meant that there is no psychiatrists for more than 100 miles. It’s a story increasingly common across rural America.

Utah And Idaho Set To Expand Medicaid Programs

Utah and Idaho are set to join the states that have expanded their Medicaid programs for low-income people under the Affordable Care Act.