Health Care

A COVID-19 vaccination card.

A new COVID booster is here. Will those at greatest risk get it?

BY: - September 19, 2023

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends new COVID-19 booster vaccines for all — but many who need them most won’t get them. About 75% of people in the United States appear to have skipped last year’s bivalent booster, and nothing suggests uptake will be better this time around. “Urging people to get boosters […]

Hospital workers protest in North Carolina.

Some states back hospital mergers despite record of service cuts, price hikes

BY: - September 7, 2023

Some illnesses and injuries — say, a broken ankle — can send you to numerous health care providers. You might start at urgent care but end up in the emergency room. Referred to an orthopedist, you might eventually land in an outpatient surgery center. Four different stops on your road to recovery. But as supersized […]

An overdose awareness event.

Death rates for people under 40 have skyrocketed. Blame fentanyl.

BY: - September 5, 2023

A new Stateline analysis shows that U.S. residents under 40 were relatively unscathed by COVID-19 in the pandemic but fell victim to another killer: accidental drug overdose deaths. Death rates in the age group were up by nearly a third in 2021 over 2018, and last year were still 21% higher. COVID-19 was a small […]

A Medicaid protest.

Despite federal warnings, red and blue states aggressively cull Medicaid rolls

BY: - August 25, 2023

Despite federal warnings to slow down, both red and blue states have cut off Medicaid coverage for nearly 4 million people because they lack the proper paperwork. In at least four states, half of all the people who have lost coverage for any reason are children. During the pandemic, the federal government directed states not […]

A baby clothing shop.

Abortion-ban states pour millions into pregnancy centers with little medical care

BY: - August 24, 2023

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Louisiana Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell looked for a way to address her state’s abysmal record on infant and maternal mortality, preterm births and low birth weight. Louisiana has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Mizell […]

A researcher in a New Jersey lab.

Death counts remain high in some states even as COVID fatalities wane

BY: - August 23, 2023

Several months after President Joe Biden ended the national emergency for COVID-19, preliminary health data indicates the historic degree to which the pandemic increased death rates nationwide — not just because of the virus itself, but also through the pandemic’s reverberating effects on society. Deaths from vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides and overdoses spiked in many […]

New housing construction.

How Washington state is treating housing as health care

BY: - August 21, 2023

This story first appeared in the Washington State Standard. Washington state is trying something new when it comes to housing: treating it as health care. Apple Health and Homes is a multi-agency state program launched last year that focuses on providing housing to people with health and behavioral health challenges. What’s unique is that the […]

A pregnant woman.

Alabama health department approves birth center regulations

BY: - August 18, 2023

This story first appeared in the Alabama Reflector. The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) on Thursday approved a set of rules that would require birthing centers to have oversight by a physician or medical director at its State Committee of Public Health meeting in Montgomery. The rules proposed would also require birth centers to […]

A woman at a podium.

Hospitals block much-needed birth centers in the South

BY: - August 11, 2023

When Katie Chubb announced in 2021 she was planning to open a freestanding birth center in Augusta, Georgia, it seemed like everybody in town was excited about it. She met with local physicians and nurses who said they would welcome her Augusta Birth Center as a provider of midwifery services for low-risk pregnancies. Hundreds of […]

Doctor stock image

‘Conscience’ bills let medical providers opt out of providing a wide range of care

BY: - August 10, 2023

This story was produced by KFF Health News. A new Montana law will provide sweeping legal protections to health care practitioners who refuse to prescribe marijuana or participate in procedures and treatments such as abortion, medically assisted death, gender-affirming care or others that run afoul of their ethical, moral or religious beliefs or principles. The […]

Embryologist looks through a microscope.

Few states extend fertility treatment coverage to Medicaid recipients

BY: - August 10, 2023

As more states require private insurers to cover fertility-related health care, many efforts to extend similar protections to Medicaid patients this year have foundered over cost concerns. Only two states provide significant fertility coverage through Medicaid: New York, which offers fertility medications, and Illinois, where Medicaid will cover the storage of sperm or eggs for those […]

Women speaking about abortion.

Lawsuit over Texas abortion ban could be a model in other states

BY: - August 1, 2023

Read more Stateline coverage on how states are either protecting or curbing access to abortions. AUSTIN, Texas — A lawsuit in Texas asserting that the state’s abortion ban imperils women by dissuading doctors from ending dangerous pregnancies could provide a template for similar challenges across the country. Texas is one of 14 states that banned abortion after […]