State efforts to rein in misconduct have triggered financial crises for legitimate providers, cutting services for seniors and people with disabilities.
The nine hospitals in the system increasingly find themselves short on beds and staff, with seven of the hospitals routinely exceeding 95 percent bed capacity. At least 20 percent of staff in the system did not believe their facility was a safe space for patients.
Health insurance premiums in the state have risen 49 percent in the last decade, which may be a result of industry business mergers. More than 80 percent of residents are worried about affording health care in the future.
Seattle neighborhoods within two miles of Amazon’s “last mile” facilities were exposed to twice as much traffic from trucks and other delivery vehicles than other communities, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.
A group of state lawmakers, advocates and parents are working to change a Medicaid rule that limits psychiatric hospital stays to 15 days a month, but the change would need $7.2 million annually and federal approval.
The state has dropped more than 130,000 of its 500,000 Medicaid beneficiaries since April and about 30 percent of those disenrolled were left uninsured, which could be a bad sign for the rest of the nation.
When Arkansas expanded Medicaid in 2014, it used expansion dollars to buy private insurance for uninsured residents, making thousands more eligible for coverage. Georgia is considering a similar idea as a way to roll back hospital regulations.
The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record globally as was the 12-month period ending Oct. 31. Nationally, 1,784 people have died from heat-related causes so far this year, almost double the amount in 2018.
One scholar thinks we have carried our penchant for urban tree-worship a bit too far, giving nature too much credit for city-dwellers’ mental health.
City officials have successfully shut down the lime-green tents that were advertising “Free COVID Testing” and were offering $5 cash to individuals in exchange for personal information and test samples.
Heat and flood warnings mixed with mounting political pressure make life for the city’s unhoused population especially challenging. Earlier this year, a grand jury found the city’s homelessness solutions ineffective.
The question is whether this is a one-year blip or part of a more concerning shift, but it reflects hard truths about the state of our infant and maternal health care.
Lack of human connection is bad for your health. Responding to an advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General that a loneliness epidemic is affecting half of all Americans, San Antonio has been pushing out resources to help build bonds between community members.
There’s no sensible reason to keep doing it. States could opt out, but most do not. Congress should act, and there’s a 30-minute solution.
Questions linger about the city's other public health crises as federal pandemic dollars begin to dry up. But Brandon Johnson is boosting mental health spending by $15 million.
User fees in particular have the potential to fund a variety of programs, from traditional services like disease intervention to new initiatives dealing with social determinants of health, such as housing and food insecurity.
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