As Biden Fights Overdoses, Harm Reduction Groups Face Local Opposition
The Biden administration鈥檚 latest plan to address opioid overdose deaths includes $30 million for harm reduction measures, but many conservative states don鈥檛 allow them.
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The Biden administration鈥檚 latest plan to address opioid overdose deaths includes $30 million for harm reduction measures, but many conservative states don鈥檛 allow them.
Researchers say the billions in pandemic funding available for ventilation upgrades in U.S. schools provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to combat covid-19, as well as making air more breathable for students living with allergies, asthma, and chronic wildfire smoke.
Trauma surgeons say that the weapons used in mass shootings are not new but that more of these especially deadly guns are on the street, causing injuries that are difficult to survive.
People in jail who have serious mental illness and cannot stand trial because of their condition are waiting months, or even more than a year, to get into their state psychiatric hospitals.
Some consumers who think they are signing up for Obamacare insurance find out later they actually purchased a membership to a health care sharing ministry. But regulators and online advertising sites don鈥檛 do much about it.
Katie Coleman鈥檚 friends warned her not to tell prospective employers about her cancer diagnosis, fearing it would jeopardize her chances of being hired 鈥 even though it鈥檚 illegal for employers to discriminate because of a medical condition.
A new genetic research project underway in South Carolina aims to reduce health disparities between Black and white residents 鈥 such as cancer and cardiovascular disease rates 鈥 that have long ranked among the nation鈥檚 worst. But researchers face the challenge of recruiting 100,000 participants who reflect the diversity of South Carolina. And history isn鈥檛 on their side.
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.
Stemming gun violence is back on the legislative agenda following three mass shootings in less than a month, but it鈥檚 hard to predict success when so many previous efforts have failed. Meanwhile, lawmakers must soon decide if they will extend current premium subsidies for those buying health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and the Biden administration acts, belatedly, on Medicare premiums. Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat News join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN鈥檚 Michelle Andrews, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR 鈥淏ill of the Month鈥 episode about a too-common problem: denial of no-cost preventive care for a colonoscopy under the Affordable Care Act.
Some foster children with complex mental, behavioral, and physical health needs without a foster placement are having to stay in hotel rooms and even office buildings, a practice called 鈥渉oteling.鈥
An aging population in need of regular cancer screenings has driven private equity companies, seeking profits, to invest in many gastroenterology practices and set up aggressive billing practices. Steep prices on routine tests are one consequence for patients.
Research has long shown that doctors are less likely to respect patients who are overweight or obese 鈥 terms that now apply to nearly three-quarters of adults in the U.S. The Association of American Medical Colleges plans to roll out new diversity, equity, and inclusion standards aimed at teaching doctors, among other things, how to treat patients who are overweight with respect.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
Meigs County in Tennessee reported one of the highest covid-19 vaccination rates in the South for much of the past year. But those reports were wrong because of a data error that has surfaced in other states, such as West Virginia and Montana, as well.
A year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded states and local health departments $2.25 billion to help people of color and other populations at higher risk from covid. But a KHN review shows public health agencies across the country have been slow to spend it.
Hundreds of nurses gathered outside a Nashville courthouse to protest RaDonda Vaught鈥檚 prosecution for a medical mistake, and cheered when her probation sentence was announced.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse many families up to $9,000 in funeral expenses for loved ones who died of covid-19. But fewer than half of eligible families have applied, while others have run into application problems.
Covid cases are again climbing, but you wouldn鈥檛 know it from the behavior of public health and elected officials, much less the general public, all of whom seem to want to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, the fallout over the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion continues even as the Senate fails 鈥 again 鈥 to muster the votes to write abortion rights into law. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
In Texas, where anyone can face a hefty fine of at least $10,000 if they abet an abortion, medical professionals on the front lines face tough quandaries when treating patients who have a miscarriage, a scenario that could soon play out around the country if abortion restrictions tighten.
Travel nurse contracts that were plentiful and paid the temporary nurses far more than hospital staff nurses are vanishing. Hospitals nationwide are turning their energies to recruiting full-time people.
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