Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Minnesota鈥檚 Pioneering Youth Mental Health Corps In Danger Of DOGE Cuts
Minnesota was one of the first states in the nation to launch the Youth Mental Health Corps, with members like Hay serving roughly 1,200 middle and high school students this school year. Others helped about 200 young adults navigate addiction recovery. The corps鈥 work has begun as youth mental health nationally has worsened and as Minnesota has too few mental health professionals and school counselors to meet kids鈥 needs. The state has the third worst student-to-counselor ratio in the country. But the program, comprised in Minnesota of AmeriCorps participants who get eight hours of additional mental health first aid training, could be in jeopardy as the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chopped national grant funding for AmeriCorps. (Van Berkel, 6/1)
Financial pressures on vulnerable households fueled a nearly 14% increase in the number of families experiencing homelessness in the city of Atlanta this year, according to estimates in a new report. However, the overall number of people experiencing homelessness in the city increased by only 1% in 2025, suggesting the homeless population could be reaching a plateau, the report says. (Williams, 6/2)
Attorney General James Uthmeier says the state would not sit on the sideline while many hospitals have "extorted patients who have come in with life-or-death cases and left with crippling debt.鈥 Noting that "we must protect patients," Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Friday opened an investigation into the price transparency and billing practices of Florida hospitals. (Mayer, 6/1)
Jennifer Burch is a second-generation pharmacist who鈥檚 been working at Central Pharmacy in Durham since she was a teen. Some of her current customers have been coming to the store since the days when she still worked with her father. In those days, when they worked with pharmacy benefits managers, they paid a transmission fee 鈥 a simple financial transaction. Now, pharmacy benefit managers 鈥渃ontrol the entire pharmacy benefit very tightly,鈥 she said. They鈥檙e part of the reason it鈥檚 now hard to keep Central Pharmacy in business, Burch said. (Vitaglione, 6/2)
Not long after the Eaton fire displaced her family from their Los Angeles home, 10-year-old Emory Stumme broke down. The tears came during a family dinner, and she struggled to catch her breath. "You just were like, 'I can't pick up this fork, it's too heavy,' " Emory's mother, Becca, told her, recounting the episode. "You started crying and laughing and crying, and then heaving. I was like, 'Oh my God, she's really having a mental break.' " (Bowman, 6/2)
With a tinge of melancholy, more than 2,400 bicyclists gathered Sunday morning to kick off the last AIDS/LifeCycle, bringing to a close more than three decades of fundraising through the annual event for HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support services. Cyclists will travel 545 miles over seven days from the Cow Palace in Daly City to Santa Monica. (Gollan, 6/2)