吃瓜不打烊 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.
One woman’s narrative has been used to support state legislation that aims to protect infants that survive an abortion. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made reference to it during the first Republican primary presidential debate, held this week in Milwaukee.
Teens share photos or videos of themselves with guns and stacks of cash, sometimes calling out rivals, on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. When posts go viral, fueled by 鈥渓ikes鈥 and comments, the danger is hard to contain.
As chatter and images about guns and violence slip into the social media feeds of more teens, viral messages fueled by 鈥渓ikes鈥 can lead to real-world conflict and loss.
Patient advocates have long alleged the Medical Board of California is ineffective at policing doctors. But a proposal to beef up its budget and overhaul procedures faces stiff resistance from the doctors鈥 lobby.
California鈥檚 new lending program for distressed hospitals will provide Madera Community Hospital with interest-free loans of up to $52 million if it can agree on a viable reopening plan with Adventist Health. The state will offer an additional $240.5 million in interest-free loans to 16 other troubled hospitals.
Though health policies in general got little airtime, the discussion of whether candidates support a federal abortion ban underscored how Republicans, in a post-Roe environment, face political challenges on the issue.
The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 cycle took place without front-runner Donald Trump 鈥 and with hardly a mention of health issues save for abortion. Meanwhile, in Florida, patients dropped from the Medicaid program are suing the state for not giving them enough notice or a way to contest their being dropped from the program. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, and Victoria Knight of Axios join 吃瓜不打烊鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥 the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
Studies show that high rates of Black fetal and infant deaths are largely preventable 鈥 and part of systemic failures that contribute to disproportionately high Black maternal mortality rates.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services backed off from a plan that could have curtailed access to a type of reconstructive surgery known as DIEP flap. Breast cancer patient advocates are relieved.
Mental health is being talked about more openly than ever, but the word 鈥渟uicide鈥 has remained largely taboo when describing how someone died. See why that鈥檚 slowly changing, what it means for people who grieve those deaths, and how candor can help prevent additional suicides.
Mandy Cohen, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, earned praise for her leadership and communication as the face of North Carolina鈥檚 response to covid-19. People in the state鈥檚 most vulnerable communities tell a more complicated story.
Prior authorization is a common tool used by health insurers for many tests, procedures, and prescriptions. Frustrated by the process, patients and doctors have turned to social media to publicly shame insurance companies and elevate their denials for further review.
No local hospital and anemic ambulance services mean residents in rural Pickens County, Alabama, are thrown into perilous situations when they have medical emergencies. It鈥檚 a kind of medical care roulette that has become a fact of life for rural Americans who live in ambulance deserts.
Chagas disease, caused by a parasite, affects people primarily in rural Latin America. But an estimated 300,000 residents of the U.S. have the disease, which can cause serious heart problems. Patient advocates call for much more aggressive efforts to fight it.
A new poll from KFF shows many Americans aren鈥檛 willing to embrace misinformation 鈥 but aren鈥檛 willing to reject it either. And they don鈥檛 know whom to trust.
Community health workers, who often help patients get to their appointments and pick up prescriptions for them, have increasingly been recognized as an integral part of treating chronic illnesses. But state-run Medicaid programs don鈥檛 always reimburse them equally, usually excluding those who work on tribal lands.
In early 2020, U.S. public health labs received covid-19 tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that were flawed, as a result of poor design and contamination. Now the CDC is overhauling its lab operations, but efforts to be better prepared for future threats won鈥檛 be easy, observers say.
The federal government is proposing having Medicare pay professionals to train family caregivers how to perform tasks like bathing and dressing their loved ones, and properly use medical equipment.