Upended: How Medical Debt Changed Their Lives
People talk about the sacrifices they made when health care forced them into debt.
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People talk about the sacrifices they made when health care forced them into debt.
For many women, abortion access has also meant better economic opportunities. But that could change in states that plan to ban most abortion access if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. And those constraints could have a big impact on Black women. In Tennessee, Black women have abortions at more than four times the rate of white women.
A Wyoming clinic slated to open this summer would be the only one in the state to provide procedural abortions and the closest option for some people in surrounding states. But its fate is uncertain now that the Supreme Court looks poised to strike down Roe v. Wade.
Some doctors are getting licensed in multiple states so they can use telemedicine and mail-order pharmacies to provide medication abortions to more women. At the same time, states are cracking down on telemedicine abortions, blunting the efforts of out-of-state doctors.
Federal data shows that vaccination rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives were some of the highest in the nation, but tribes say resistance has slowed efforts to boost members.
Conservative lawmakers may find their anti-abortion agendas complicated by state constitutions that explicitly grant citizens the right to privacy, regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court does.
Despite state Republican leaders’ rigid opposition to expanding the health program designed for low-income residents, advocates successfully gathered enough signatures to get the measure on the fall ballot.
Black Americans’ vaccination rates still trail all other groups, while Hispanics show improvement. Native Americans show the strongest rates nationally.
Spiritual leaders risk their own lives and health to tend to covid’s victims and their loved ones.
While South Dakota is excelling in vaccine distribution and in keeping its economy intact, some health measures show the state is also dealing with one of the highest per capita covid death rates in the country.
In some parts of the country, the surge in covid cases is overwhelming coroners, morgues, funeral homes and religious leaders. It has required ingenuity and even changed the rituals of honoring the dead.
Recreational marijuana may face resistance from GOP-dominated state governments despite being voted into law in Montana, South Dakota and Arizona.
A KHN review found more than 20 states either don’t count or have incomplete data on the use of COVID-19 antigen tests, leaving the public in the dark about the true scope of the pandemic.
Voters in Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and several other conservative-leaning states will decide in November whether to legalize medical or recreational marijuana.
The politics of COVID-19 are pretty polarized, but health experts across the ideological spectrum agree: The U.S. will need more robust testing before it’s safe to relax social-distancing requirements. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, Congress and the nation’s governors continue to spar over who should be responsible for what. Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider, Tami Luhby of CNN and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
An innovative hospital run by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina showcases an alternative model of health care that could have lessons for other tribal communities and beyond.
For American Indians on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota, getting health care can be a weeks-long proposition, and it has some moving away from their homes and families seeking better access.
Forty-nine states now take Medicaid applications by phone and 49 also accept online applications, reports the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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