The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Laura Ungar was a Midwest editor/correspondent for Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News until April 2021.
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In 470,000 American homes spread across every state, washing hands to prevent COVID-19 may not be as easy as turning on a faucet. They don’t have showers or toilets or, in some cases, even water piped into their homes. Nearly a million U.S. homes don’t have complete kitchens and millions more are overcrowded, making it much tougher for people to shelter in place and avoid infection.
COVID-19 is changing medical care, not only for vulnerable elders but also for pregnant women and their babies entering the world.
The Capital Senior Living chain of assisted living communities and others like it were struggling financially before coronavirus suddenly appeared. Now their situation is really getting tough.
Doctors sent an impassioned, desperate letter to Congress describing the lack of protective equipment across the country — from masks to respirators to gowns to goggles. They're using equipment from construction sites and home-repair stores or wearing the same mask from patient to patient. And they worry about what exposure without sufficient protection means for them and their families.
The COVID-19 outbreak has spawned confusion among health officials, doctors and the public, especially for people who fall into the gray area for testing and deciding whether they need to quarantine themselves. Where to turn for answers about isolation and quarantine varies by locale. All this means agencies are sometimes delaying needed advice and giving people incorrect information.
Congress passed legislation Wednesday reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, which provides for home-delivered and group meals. Although proposed funding increases are substantial, they still don’t keep up with the nation’s growing senior population.
In February 2015, an unprecedented HIV outbreak fueled by intravenous drug use hit the small city of Austin, Indiana. Under pressure, then-Gov. Mike Pence reluctantly allowed a syringe exchange. Five years later, HIV is undetectable in most of the outbreak patients. Still, the lessons haven’t been learned nationwide. Fewer than a third of the 220 counties deemed by the federal government as vulnerable to similar outbreaks have active syringe-exchange programs.
St. Louis trauma surgeon Dr. Laurie Punch is on a mission to stop the bleeding of her patients and the violence-plagued communities around her. But the single mom worries she and her 7-year-old will have to move from their home, where bullets buzz in her backyard.
While the U.S. continues to focus mainly on the opioid crisis, cocaine is quietly making a comeback and has become one of the biggest overdose killers of African Americans when tainted with fentanyl.
She spent five days in the hospital undergoing psychiatric care. The bill she got is about the same price as a new Honda Civic.
State borders can highlight Medicaid’s arbitrary coverage. On the Missouri side of the Mississippi River, low-income people struggle with untreated health issues. But on the Illinois side, people in similar straits can get health care because their state expanded its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.
As schools begin a new year, more districts will test students as young as 11 for illicit drug use even as other drug prevention efforts are scaled back. More than 1 in 3 school districts nationwide give students drug tests.
One out of every 13 older Americans struggles to find enough food to eat while the federal program intended to help hasn’t kept pace with the graying population.
In the wake of the opioid crisis, the highly communicable hepatitis A virus is spreading in more than half the states and making its way into the general public. Underfunded health officials are valiantly trying to fight it with vaccines.
A national trend of boozeless bars is cropping up nationwide to create social spaces without the hangovers, DUIs and alcoholism culture. It’s part of a new push for sober options.
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