Category: states

The Families of Trans Kids in Texas Consider Their Options Amid Crackdown on Care

After Texas limited transgender medical care for young people, patients are trying to figure out what’s next.

Can a Monthly Injection Be the Key to Curbing Addiction? These Experts Say Yes

In California, where overdose deaths are on the rise, physicians say administering anti-addiction medication as a monthly injection holds tremendous potential. So, why aren’t more patients getting it?

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Leaked Abortion Opinion Rocks Washington’s World

The unprecedented early leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn the landmark abortion-rights ruling Roe v. Wade has heated the national abortion debate to boiling. Meanwhile, the FDA, after years of consideration, moves to ban menthol flavors in cigarettes and cigars. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Shefali Luthra of the 19th, and Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, Rovner interviews KHN’s Paula Andalo, who wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode about a family whose medical debt drove them to seek care south of the border.

Sex Education Update in Texas Still Lacking, Say Some Students and Educators

The last time Texas updated its sex education curriculum was in the ’90s. Students will now learn about contraception and STIs — but not gender or consent. And parents must opt in to the classes for their children.

As Overdoses Soar, More States Decriminalize Fentanyl Testing Strips

Georgia may soon join a growing list of states decriminalizing the use of fentanyl testing strips. Bans of the strips — on the books in about half of states, experts say — stem from laws criminalizing drug paraphernalia adopted decades ago. But the testing devices are now recommended to help prevent overdose deaths.

What’s Next If ‘Roe v. Wade’ Falls? More Than Half of States Expected to Ban or Restrict Abortion

If the Supreme Court affirms the leaked draft decision and overturns abortion rights, the effects would be sweeping in states where Republican-led legislatures have been eagerly awaiting the repudiation of a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

States Watching as Massachusetts Takes Aim at Hospital Building Boom and Costs

A Massachusetts health care cost watchdog agency helped block plans of the state’s largest hospital system to expand into the suburbs. Now, other states are looking at whether Massachusetts’ decade-old model of controlling health costs is worth emulating.

Medicare Surprise: Drug Plan Prices Touted During Open Enrollment Can Rise Within a Month

Even the savviest Medicare drug plan shoppers can get a shock when they fill prescriptions: That great deal on medications is no bargain after prices go up.

Abortion Politics Lead to Power Struggles Over Family Planning Grants

Conservative-leaning states and nonprofit reproductive health care providers are competing over control of states’ Title X funding for family planning programs.

Downsized City Sees Its Health Care Downsized as Hospital Awaits Demolition

A 124-year-old hospital in a midsize Rust Belt city in Indiana will soon be torn down, despite protests from residents and city officials decrying the loss of local health services. The Catholic hospital system said it is downsizing the 226-bed hospital because of a lack of demand for inpatient care, as the organization has been building new hospitals in wealthier suburbs.