State Lawmakers Seek Restraints on Wage Garnishment for Medical Debt
At least eight states are considering legislation to curtail wage garnishment over unpaid medical bills, as health care costs rise and more people become underinsured.
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At least eight states are considering legislation to curtail wage garnishment over unpaid medical bills, as health care costs rise and more people become underinsured.
A revolt is afoot in both red and blue states against the use of artificial intelligence in health insurance determinations 鈥 and against efforts led by President Donald Trump to tie states鈥 hands.
Tribal insurance programs give Native Americans access to affordable health care when the Indian Health Service falls short. Those plans are threatened by the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Studies increasingly offer insights into the health risks and burdens faced by people who have had covid infections. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has narrowed covid vaccine recommendations and cut research.
Two Trump administration regulatory rollbacks affect nursing home staffing and home care workers, and a new AI experiment in Medicare has alarmed eldercare advocates and congressional Democrats.
Measles is at a 30-year high in the U.S., but technicalities may stave off the loss of the nation鈥檚 measles elimination status.
Native American women face higher rates of death than other demographics. In response, Native Americans have been working with state and federal officials to boost tribal participation and leadership in maternal mortality review committees to better track and address pregnancy-related deaths.
Every state will receive at least $100 million annually from the federal Rural Health Transformation fund, but some scored millions more based on how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services judged the 鈥渜uality鈥 of their plans and willingness to pass policies embracing "Make America Healthy Again" initiatives.
Programs like Jamboree Housing Corp. have leveraged Medi-Cal funding to offer residents access to social services that experts say are key to keeping them off the streets. California intends to keep it that way, despite federal cuts.
A proposed abortion ban in South Carolina would have allowed the criminal prosecution of women who obtain the procedure. It鈥檚 unlikely to become law, but this bill and other proposals across the country show how some conservative lawmakers are embracing increasingly punitive abortion restrictions.
A session of a vaccine panel dominated by skeptics was chaotically at odds with past practices of the CDC, which HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has described as a 鈥渃esspool of corruption.鈥 His crew voted to end a 34-year recommendation to vaccinate newborns against hepatitis B.
Scientists are conducting genetic analyses to see if the measles outbreak that started in Texas is still spreading from state to state. It鈥檚 a contentious question, because the findings may determine whether America loses its measles-free status.
The Trump administration has championed its Rural Health Transformation Program as an investment in American families who have been left behind. But Native American tribes, whose communities have a significant presence in rural America and have some of the greatest health needs, are ineligible to apply directly for funding.
When a measles outbreak emerged in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in October, health officials announced that most cases were tied to one public charter school, where only 17% of the 605 students enrolled during the 2024-25 academic year provided documentation showing they had received their required vaccinations.
After a total glossectomy and laryngectomy to treat her cancer, Sonya Sotinsky can no longer speak. She searched for a way to sound like herself again and now pays out-of-pocket for an artificial intelligence app that can replicate her old voice 鈥 emotion, inflection, and all.
Local governments have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the opioid settlements to support addiction treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts. Their spending decisions in 2024 were sometimes surprising and even controversial. Our new database offers more than 10,500 examples.
The HHS office that administers the Title X family planning program has been effectively shut down. And with cuts to federal funding for other family health programs, expected Medicaid cuts, and the potential lapse of ACA subsidies, health leaders fear they are seeing the biggest setback to U.S. reproductive care in half a century.
The Trump administration says it鈥檚 developing a digital tool to help people prove they鈥檙e meeting new Medicaid work requirements. 吃瓜不打烊 talked to officials from the two states running pilot programs and found little evidence of new 鈥 or effective 鈥 technology.
A federal probe of Medicare and Medicaid plans run by private insurance companies found that the plan operators often overstated how many mental health providers were available in their networks. In some cases, investigators found providers had never had contracts with plans they were listed on.
As contractors position themselves to cash in on a gush of new business managing Medicaid work requirements, a cadre of senators has launched an inquiry into the companies paid billions to build eligibility systems.
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