Category: states

For Medically Vulnerable Families, Inflation’s Squeeze Is Inescapable

Inflation hasn’t hit Americans like this in decades. And families living with chronic diseases have little choice but to pay more for the medicine, supplies, and food they need to stay healthy.

‘Still a Lot of Pain’: Four Years After Mass Shooting, Texas Community Grapples With Fallout

Santa Fe, Texas, was a mental health care desert until a 17-year-old gunman killed 10 people at the local high school in 2018. Now the city, which sits between Houston and Galveston, has a resiliency center, where anyone affected by the shooting can get free counseling. But even with an influx of mental health care, the community struggles with the aftermath.

Community Health Centers’ Big Profits Raise Questions About Federal Oversight

Nonprofit federally funded health centers are a linchpin in the nation’s health care safety net because they treat the medically underserved. The average profit margins is 5%, but some have recorded margins of 20% or more in three of the past four years.

Watch: How Nursing Homes Put Friends and Families on the Hook for Residents’ Debts

In pursuit of unpaid bills, nursing homes across Rochester, New York, have been suing relatives and friends of their residents. This CBS News report, done in partnership with a KHN-NPR investigation, takes a look at the practice and tells the stories of some of the people affected.

Abortion Is Just the Latest Dividing Line Between the Twin Cities of Bristol and Bristol

The community of Bristol straddles the border between two states with very different abortion laws. Tennessee prohibits most abortions at about six weeks and will soon ban them nearly outright. Virginia allows them at least through the second trimester. To maintain abortion access in the area, staff at a clinic on the Tennessee side of the state line are helping open a clinic about a mile down the road on the Virginia side.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: A Big Week for Biden

Congress is leaving for its annual summer break having accomplished far more than many expected, including, barring unforeseen snags, a bill to address the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries and extend the enhanced subsidies for insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the abortion issue continues to roil the nation as Indiana becomes the first state to ban the procedure in almost all cases since the Supreme Court overruled the constitutional right to abortion in June. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

They Call It ‘Tranq’ — And It’s Making Street Drugs Even More Dangerous

Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, has made it into the illegal drug supply of opioids and cocaine. It is changing the way outreach workers treat overdoses and may be responsible for grisly injuries and infections among people who unknowingly inject it.

Newsom Pins Political Rise on Abortion, Guns, and Health Care

As California Gov. Gavin Newsom claims the role as the national Democratic Party’s political attack dog, he is trolling red-state governors over their positions on guns and abortion. He’s also making a case for himself — with health care front and center.

EPA Action Boosts Grassroots Momentum to Reduce Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’

Experts say the EPA’s recent declaration that some PFAS chemicals are unsafe at detectable levels in drinking water signals acceleration in efforts to curb exposure to compounds found in nearly every American’s blood.

Covid Sewage Surveillance Labs Join the Hunt for Monkeypox

Wastewater testing has proved a reliable early alarm bell for covid outbreaks. U.S. researchers are now adapting the approach to track the explosive spread of monkeypox.