health care
The many cliffs of American health care
I saw the Instagram ads before a birthday party had even crossed my mind. Scrolling through my social media feed months before, the federal government started reminding me — in Instagram ads, Facebook ads, and emails — that as of my 26th birthday, I would no longer be eligible for the health insurance I depended […]
Bipartisan health care bills spearheaded by North Carolina, Virginia members of Congress
WASHINGTON — Top lawmakers on the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee Tuesday unveiled a bipartisan health care legislative package that would require accurate billing practices by hospitals, price transparency and hidden fee disclosures. Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx said the four bipartisan bills will help increase transparency for patients. “The Committee is […]
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs budget, issues dozens of vetoes
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed the state’s nearly $200 billion budget, but he issued more than 40 vetoes ranging from higher education policy to health care management. The main focus of both the House’s and the Senate’s budgets was education. The Senate plan was much more conservative, while the House plan was bipartisan. After […]
Ohio’s health disparities weigh down progress, annual study shows
An annual dissection of various aspects of Ohioans’ health showed improvements in some areas related to access to care, but also saw demographic disparities continue to hold the state down. The Health Policy Institute of Ohio’s annual Health Value Dashboard compares the state to the rest of country in terms of general health outcomes, along […]
U.S. judge rules insurers don’t have to cover many free preventive health services
WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas. The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care — including pregnancy-related care, cancer screenings, […]
Idaho college censors portions of art exhibit for discussing abortion
Artists whose work was scheduled to be displayed at Lewis-Clark State College for an exhibition called “Unconditional Care” say their First Amendment rights were violated after the college censored parts of the show related to abortion. The college, which is located in Lewiston, Idaho, and serves close to 4,000 students, cited Idaho’s No Public Funds […]
Your money or your life: Ohioan on $50K per week cancer drug fears leaving behind huge medical debt
This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News. After several rounds of treatment for a rare eye cancer — weekly drug infusions that could cost nearly $50,000 each — Paul Davis learned Medicare had abruptly stopped paying the bills. That left Davis, a retired physician in Findlay, Ohio, contemplating a horrific choice: risk saddling […]
How the judge who could ban the abortion pill won confirmation in the U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court judge who could end more than two decades of legal access to medication abortion underwent extensive questioning about LGBTQ equality at his December 2017 confirmation hearing — and very little about his views on abortion. Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump earlier in 2017, spent much […]
Doctors recount ‘heart-wrenching’ stories in new study on medical care post-Roe
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) are trying to piece together how the end of Roe v. Wade has so far transformed pregnancy-related medical care in America, and the yet-to-be-released preliminary data are alarming, the lead principal investigator told States Newsroom in an exclusive interview. The team has already received dozens of […]
Hundreds of U.S. hospitals sue patients or threaten their credit, a KHN investigation finds
This story originally appeared in Kaiser Health News. Despite growing evidence of the harm caused by medical debt, hundreds of U.S. hospitals maintain policies to aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills, using tactics such as lawsuits, selling patient accounts to debt buyers, and reporting patients to credit rating agencies, a KHN investigation shows. The collection […]
For patients with sickle cell disease, fertility care is about reproductive justice
This story originally appeared in Kaiser Health News. Teonna Woolford has always wanted six kids. Why six? “I don’t know where that number came from. I just felt like four wasn’t enough,” said Woolford, a Baltimore resident. “Six is a good number.” Woolford, 31, was born with sickle cell disease. The genetic disorder causes blood […]
Severe pregnancy complications are affecting Black women in Ohio the most
Urban centers are seeing the highest rates of pregnancy complications for Ohio women, followed by Appalachia, with Black women being impacted the most, a new report says, pointing to systemic racism, a lack of health care access, and poor community conditions. Not only are there disparities in general maternal health, but also in maternal morbidity: […]