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As Medicaid Purge Begins, ‘Staggering Numbers’ of Americans Lose Coverage
More than 600,000 Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended on April 1. And a KFF Health News analysis of state data shows the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork.…
Health Care Coalition Jockeys Over Medi-Cal Spending, Eyes Ballot Initiative
SACRAMENTO — Influential health care interests are jockeying over a potential infusion of $19.4 billion into Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, while also angling for a 2024 ballot initiative to permanently lock in that…
How a Medical Recoding May Limit Cancer Patients’ Options for Breast Reconstruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhL7IaQMrEg
The federal government is reconsidering a decision that breast cancer patients, plastic surgeons, and members of Congress have protested would limit women’s options for reconstructive…
Readers and Tweeters Weigh Marijuana’s Merits Against Those of Alcohol or Opioids
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names.
On Alcohol Abuse: Seeing a Double Standard
I have done quite a bit of…
California Governor and Democratic Lawmakers at Odds Over Billions in Health Care Funds
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Gov. Gavin Newsom took office four years ago, the Democrat went after Republicans on the national stage as they sought to gut the Affordable Care Act. Key to his ambitious health care agenda: reinstating…
Many People Living in the ‘Diabetes Belt’ Are Plagued With Medical Debt
Robert Benincasa, NPR and Nick McMillan, NPR
Delores Lowery remembers vividly the day in 2016 when she was working in a weaving plant near her home in Bennettsville, South Carolina, and the world around her seemed to go dim.…
Mammograms at 40? Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines Spark Fresh Debate
Ronnie Cohen
While physicians mostly applauded a government-appointed panel’s recommendation that women get routine mammography screening for breast cancer starting at age 40, down from 50, not everyone approves.
Some…
Cardiovascular Disease Is Primed to Kill More Older Adults, Especially Blacks and Hispanics
Cardiovascular disease — the No. 1 cause of death among people 65 and older — is poised to become more prevalent in the years ahead, disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic communities and exacting an enormous toll on the…
A Catch-22 for Clinics: State Bans Limit Abortion Counseling. Federal Title X Rules Require It.
Rachana Pradhan
State abortion bans in Tennessee and beyond, which constrain women’s health care, have put family planning clinics at risk of losing their federal funding.
The conflict involves the Title X family planning…
Denials of Health Insurance Claims Are Rising — And Getting Weirder
Millions of Americans in the past few years have run into this experience: filing a health care insurance claim that once might have been paid immediately but instead is just as quickly denied. If the experience and the insurer’s…