A primary care clinic burned, medical offices closed, and hospitals struggled with possible evacuations. The wildfires that have incinerated large swaths of Los Angeles County are stressing the region’s health care infrastructure. Still, providers continue to find ways to deliver vital care.
Health is unlikely to be a top priority for the new GOP-led 119th Congress and President-elect Donald Trump. But it’s likely to play a key supporting role, with an abortion bill already scheduled for debate in the Senate. Meanwhile, it’s unclear when and how the new Congress will deal with the bipartisan bills jettisoned from the previous Congress’ year-end omnibus measure — including a major deal to rein in the power of pharmacy benefit managers. In this “catch up on all the news you missed” episode, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
The growing toll of climate-related disasters is a risk to the emotional well-being of young people. An Orange County, California, pediatric emergency doctor wants to add questions about climate change to standard mental health screenings conducted in pediatricians’ offices and other settings where kids seek care.
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.
Legislative leaders say the decision whether to renew Montana’s Medicaid expansion program this year will loom over behavioral health spending and hospital regulation, among other topics.
KFF Health News Midwest correspondent Cara Anthony and Emily Kwong, host of NPR’s podcast “Shortwave,” talk about Black families living in the aftermath of lynchings and police killings.
Advocates say it is discrimination and are arguing for “insurance fairness” on the grounds that people who have joints surgically replaced typically don’t face the same kinds of coverage challenges.
Health workers and researchers say an HIV outbreak in West Virginia that three years ago was called “the most concerning” in the U.S. continues to spread after state and local officials restricted syringe service programs.
The migration of fentanyl into illicit stimulants such as cocaine is especially dangerous for people who are not regular opioid users. That’s because they have a low tolerance for opioids, putting them at greater risk of an overdose. They also often don’t take precautions — such as not using alone and carrying the opioid reversal medication naloxone — so they’re unprepared if they overdose.
Homelessness experts and community leaders say vulnerability questionnaires have worsened racial disparities among the unhoused by systematically placing white people in front of the line ahead of Black people. Now places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Austin, Texas, are developing alternative surveys to reduce bias.
