Maine
Hit the snooze button: States debate later high school start times
California and Florida have become the first states to require later public school start times, a response to reams of research showing significant advantages for high school students who can get more sleep by beginning their day at 8:30 a.m. or later. But such changes come with difficult ripple effects — upended bus schedules, later starts […]
Drug decriminalization stumbled in Oregon. Other states are taking note.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Just before Portland’s city council approved a ban on public drug use last week, Mayor Ted Wheeler described what he’d observed on his way to work that afternoon: “The last time I saw somebody consuming what I believe to be fentanyl publicly on our streets was less than five minutes ago, three […]
You might need an ambulance, but your state might not see it as ‘essential’
When someone with a medical emergency calls 911, they expect an ambulance to show up. But sometimes, there simply isn’t one available. Most states don’t declare emergency medical services (EMS) to be an “essential service,” meaning the state government isn’t required to provide or fund them. Now, though, a growing number of states are taking […]
Few states extend fertility treatment coverage to Medicaid recipients
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 […]