Â鶹ŮÓÅ

Six-year-old Aref Shabaneh is almost entirely blind, able to read only in Braille, walks with a cane, and is so sensitive to light his parents turn them off when he's home. For two years, he was enrolled in a taxpayer-funded health care program that provided specialists to help protect what little is left of his eyesight. In June, Florida health administrators declared in a memo that the little boy was "NOT clinically eligible." His severely detached retina had not been miraculously cured by doctors. Instead, state records show, Aref had been tossed from the program by state health employees looking to cut costs. They made the move after his mother failed to see the trap door hidden in a questionnaire from the Florida Department of Health — a "screening tool" that one judge declared invalid in September, but the Department of Health is fighting to reinstate. (Miller, 12/6)

Surrounded by stacks of packages in a brightly lit room, Michael Palone gingerly folded a box and taped it shut. His eyes averted, he shuffled to the front of the warehouse to retrieve scissors, skirting by people and tables in his path. Palone, 26, has Asperger's and mild autism that makes it nearly impossible for him to socialize with others and adjust to the constant changes of a full time job. Instead, he assembles packages with about 40 others at a Union City, Calif., work center run by The Arc of Alameda County. (Hellmann, 12/4)

More than 88,000 people in the Houston area have lost plans from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas for 2016, potentially cutting off some of the most seriously ill from the top-tier medical care the city has built its reputation on. (Deam, 12/5)

A New Hampshire drug treatment program wants to give people a way to exchange used needles for clean ones, but the plan could require a change to state laws on the possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Jeff DeFlavio, founder of the Lebanon-based Recover Together treatment network, hopes to start piloting a community-based needle exchange service in 2016. DeFlavio is scouting locations for the program, but says he's waiting for more clarity on state law. Proponents argue that the exchanges serve an important public health benefit by reducing the risk for outbreaks of infectious diseases like HIV or Hepatitis C, which can be spread through needle sharing. (McDermott, 12/4)

One word carries a lot of weight in Minnesota health officials' decision to expand its medical marijuana to pain patients: intractable. The state's definition of what qualifies as "intractable pain" has big implications starting in August for how many new people will begin buying via the state program. Here's a look at what that means for the state's struggling program and the people who hope to buy medical marijuana to soothe their pain. (Potter, 12/6)

Jose Campos wakes each morning suspended between present and past. He lies in bed in his San Antonio home as the pain in his body wrenches his mind back to Afghanistan. Campos, 38, has waited more than 30 days for appointments on multiple occasions when seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department. (Kuz, 12/6)