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Could Your Kid Benefit From Counseling? Experts Offer 3 Questions To Help You Decide

Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

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HealthQ’s Cara Anthony and Blake Farmer share know-how for parents navigating the decision to seek out mental healthcare for a child.

(Candice Evers for WPLN and �鶹Ů�� Health News)

Divorce rocked the lives of Marcela Cabay and her daughter, who was a preschooler at the time. But counseling didn’t come until years later, when Cabay noticed her daughter was tensing up every time a storm rolled through or whenever they were preparing to be apart.

“She was experiencing just a lot of anxiety, really starting to think worst-case scenarios all the time, just really struggling in her daily life,” said Cabay, who is a life insurance broker outside Austin, Texas.

At first, Cabay attempted to help her daughter herself. She suggested coping strategies for the 8-year-old to regulate her emotions. She hoped the behavior would pass. But, over time, the anxiety got worse.

“That’s when I finally was like, ‘I think it would be really good for her to talk to a licensed third-party person — that’s not me,’” Cabay said.

Her daughter’s counseling journey started off shaky because she was seeing a counselor weekly for two months with no results, while paying out-of-pocket. So they found a counselor who was a much better fit. Within six months, Cabay’s daughter had made so much progress that Cabay decided to suspend her weekly visits.

Determining when it’s time for professional help can be hard, especially because counseling can require a significant commitment of time and money. Therapists offer three easy-to-remember criteria to help assess challenging behavior: frequency, duration, and intensity.

1. Frequency: Is the behavior happening over and over?

Frequency is the easiest of the three to measure. Say you roll up to the park to find a hive of activity on the playground, but your child refuses to get out of the car because they’re anxious about playing with other kids. If it happens once or twice, it could be because they had a hard day and weren’t ready to be with other kids, said licensed clinical social worker and play therapist Paris Goodyear-Brown. But avoidance behavior that occurs regularly indicates a child may need extra support.

2. Duration: Does the behavior last a long time?

Goodyear-Brown is clinical director of Nurture House in Franklin, Tennessee, where parents often come with concerns when their children start preschool and are anxious about saying goodbye to them, she said. Some amount of separation anxiety is developmentally appropriate. If it regularly lasts hours, however, she generally recommends pulling in professional support.

“The child may be crying, ‘Mommy, don’t leave me,’ but as soon as the parent has departed, they enjoy the day and they’re engaged with their teachers,” she said. “That’s a really different presentation than the child who cries for three hours at school, is inconsolable, and isn’t able to learn.”

3. Intensity: Does the behavior disrupt everyday life?

Intensity can be harder to quantify because it’s less likely to be measured in hours or days. Goodyear-Brown offers obsessive-compulsive behaviors as an example: If a child won’t leave the house without making sure all their toys are lined up just right or checking 10 times to make sure the doors are locked before bed, their behavior signals a need for professional help.

Children can also show intensity in their lack of emotions. “To be numbed out, shut down, dissociated, it’s just as big,” she said. “It’s just quieter.”

Goodyear-Brown said some life events are intense enough to merit counseling even if a child isn’t behaving differently, including those considered one of the 10 “.” ACEs, as they’re more commonly known, include child abuse, neglect, suicide or depression in the household, or divorce.

Guidance, Not Certainty

Ultimately, the three criteria help parents assess whether behavior is overly disruptive to daily life. Becky Evans, a licensed professional counselor supervisor in Fort Worth, Texas, advised being on alert for the times when “you are not able to go and do what you would normally go and do because of whatever is happening with them emotionally.”

But whether the verdict points to counseling also depends on household dynamics and family history.

“It is kind of subjective to the person. What feels frequent? What feels intense? And how long is too long for this to have been going on?” Evans said.

When in doubt, she said, therapy is usually helpful. And parents can also benefit from having a “teammate,” to ensure they’re not inadvertently reinforcing the anxiety, Goodyear-Brown said.

However, some psychologists have raised concerns about or . Parents can be quick to think developmentally appropriate behavior is abnormal, said Christina Confroy, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Nashville, Tennessee. During consultation calls, she’s grown comfortable telling parents when she doesn’t see a need for counseling while also urging them to “trust their sense.”

People and Policy

Like , Confroy has stopped accepting health insurance. For her, the decision hinged on the requirement to make an official diagnosis in order to get paid. The administrative burden and low reimbursement rates have driven many others to leave insurance networks behind.

Paying for counseling out-of-pocket averaged in 2023, according to research published in Health Affairs Scholar. Confroy charges $195 per 50-minute session. She lowers the fee when the need arises, she said.

“People don’t plan for counseling the way they plan for groceries. It’s an enormous responsibility financially and time-wise,” said Confroy, who often recommends school-based counseling and other lower-cost first steps.

“You might not want another podcast to listen to or a book to read,” she said. “But I’m really big on accessing existing support.”

This installment is part of HealthQ’s reporting on caregiving in the Sandwich Generation. For more, check out the series archive.

Katherine Ruppelt and Emily Siner at Nashville Public Radio contributed to this report.

HealthQ is a health series from reporters Cara Anthony and Blake Farmer, approachable guides to an unapproachable healthcare system. It’s a collaboration between Nashville Public Radio and �鶹Ů�� Health News.

�鶹Ů�� Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at �鶹Ů��—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

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Millions of Kids Could Lose Insurance as GOP Healthcare Cuts Start To Bite

Julie Rovner — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

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have lost insurance since President Donald Trump took office in 2025. Another million could lose it amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and new Medicaid eligibility rules. On WAMU’s Health Hub on June 3, �鶹Ů�� Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner explained how fear and confusion complicate access to health coverage.

(Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Last year’s big cuts to federal healthcare programs in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act created an affordability crunch for many Americans. They’ve ushered in higher health insurance premiums and confusion about who’s covered under new Medicaid rules.

Another result has been falling enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans and Medicaid. That’s leaving uninsured, according to an analysis by the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families. �鶹Ů�� Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner appeared June 3 on WAMU’s Health Hub to explain who’s vulnerable to losing coverage and what it all could mean for the prices Americans pay for health insurance next year.

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Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:00:15 +0000

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Jackie Fortiér [FOR-tee-ay] reads this week’s news: Suicide prevention experts argue that improving Americans’ financial well-being could save lives. Plus, the Trump administration proposes looser artificial intelligence safeguards to speed innovation in healthcare.

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Festering Infections to Untreated Cancer: ICE Detainees Describe Medical Neglect Across US

Rae Ellen Bichell — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:00:00 +0000

An Albanian man’s pain grew so unbearable, he said, he pulled out his own tooth as he languished for months in a New Mexico immigration detention center. A Honduran mother of two said she was hospitalized for a heart problem after she was denied blood pressure medications while held in Florida. A said his leg grew purple and swollen from flesh-eating bacteria when staffers at a Vermont facility did not bring him to a scheduled doctor appointment.

Hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege in federal suits that immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care, an investigation by �鶹Ů�� Health News and The Associated Press found. Detainees say they didn’t get medications on time — or at all — for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and HIV. Requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugars rose. Infections festered. Cancers remained untreated. Detainees collapsed and had seizures.

U.S. jails and immigration detention centers have to meet the medical needs of the people in their charge. But the system is sagging under an influx of detentions since President Donald Trump returned to office: More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , up from around 40,000 a year earlier.

�鶹Ů�� Health News and AP analyzed thousands of court cases filed since Trump’s second inauguration that use a legal route known as habeas corpus to argue people are being held illegally by ICE. The records offer a rare window into how those detained say, often under penalty of perjury, ICE is handling their medical needs. Reporters also interviewed more than 50 detainees, family members, and lawyers.

The investigation revealed that medical neglect is alleged across the sprawling detention system, including in offices not designed to house people, county jails, and quickly staged sites with nicknames such as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

ICE custody is deadlier than it has been in two decades, researchers wrote in April. The Department of Homeland Security reported 51 people had died in detention since the start of Trump’s second administration — with suicides .

�鶹Ů�� Health News and AP asked DHS to respond to the findings six days before publication, but it did not provide comment. The department’s acting chief medical officer, Sean Conley, has “it is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody” and that the agency recruits healthcare professionals to maintain high standards. “This is better, more responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives,” he has said.

Individual facilities and private prison companies contracting with DHS that responded to requests for comment said they follow ICE standards and detainees receive medical care when it is required. Some said they were unfamiliar with the allegations outlined in court documents; others blamed some detainees for lapses in their medical care.

“I have never seen such disregard or medical neglect like this anywhere,” Vardan Gukasian, a political dissident and former paramedic who spent years behind bars in Armenia, wrote in in March to contest his detention in Henderson, Nevada, as it stretched to 13 months despite health problems.

Madeleine Skains, a spokesperson for the city of Henderson, said medical care is always available at the facility and that the court had not ordered changes to his care.

Last June, as Gukasian experienced the symptoms of uncontrolled high blood pressure — dizziness, a nosebleed, and a headache — his cellmate banged on their door for help.

“When it did not arrive, the rest of the block banged on their doors,” he wrote. Gukasian was hospitalized that day.

‘Brazen Indifference to Really Obvious Problems’

The administration’s mass deportation effort has swept up during routine immigration check-ins, at traffic stops, at their homes, and in hospitals.

About have no criminal conviction. Their immigration proceedings are civil, not criminal.

“I couldn’t understand why they treated me so harshly,” said a father of six in Georgia. He said he was injured while shackled in custody when the vehicle transporting him to an Atlanta facility jolted, throwing him out of his seat and into a metal armrest. His wound became infected with E. coli, he said, because he had to sleep on a dirty concrete floor amid leaking toilets.

Like other detainees interviewed, he spoke on the condition of anonymity; they said they fear for their safety, for the safety of their families, or that speaking out would jeopardize their immigration cases. The AP and �鶹Ů�� Health News are not naming anyone identified in court documents without their consent.

Staffers at Stewart Detention Center in rural Lumpkin, Georgia, didn’t adequately respond to that man’s request for medical help, , until he passed out and was taken to a hospital about an hour away. There, he said, a doctor told him he’d narrowly escaped amputation of his left leg. Medical staff found no records of a case matching this description, according to Brian Todd, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, which runs the facility.

The 48-year-old, who moved to the U.S. from Guatemala more than two decades ago, was released in October and is now a legal permanent resident. But he is unsure if he’ll be able to return to his job in construction because, he said, he can no longer lift heavy things due to his injury.

A man in the Atlanta area was injured while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and developed an E. coli infection. “I couldn’t understand why they treated me so harshly,” says the father of six U.S. citizens, who is now a legal permanent resident but did not want to be named to avoid potential retaliation against his family. (Brynn Anderson/AP)

Some detainees or their lawyers said even basic care was denied: gauze to protect an open foot wound, prenatal care for a high-risk pregnancy, a pillow to ease the pain of sleeping with advanced stomach cancer, sanitary pads for postpartum bleeding.

“I would like to believe the government has the best interest of those it holds in detention for whatever period of time,” Judge Benita Pearson, a federal judge in Ohio, said during a hearing in October concerning a 70-year-old who alleged the government lost her glasses during her arrest. “If one is unable to see due to the loss of glasses when detained, that should be fixed.”

, who worked for ICE and now serves as a special adviser to the American Bar Association, said case law requires the government to treat people in immigration detention with the same care it affords those in traditional jails awaiting trial. But administrators are granted discretion and medical care standards vary.

Detainees are frequently moved across the country, often without warning, interrupting treatment. A woman from El Salvador said she missed a week of HIV medication when she was transferred from Colorado to a county jail in Wyoming.

A Russian man wrote that, while detained in Texas, he saw a gastroenterologist about his painful gallstones and scheduled an appointment with a surgeon. “Unfortunately, I never got to see him, due to my being moved around various detention centers.”

Advocates say that even obvious disabilities, like legal blindness, are ignored.

A detainee who lost one eye and had severe glaucoma in the other required twice-daily drops to maintain what vision remained. But, he said, some days the drops never came.

“Now I can only see a little bit straight in front. It now often looks like I’m seeing through gauze,” the man wrote in a court declaration. “This makes me very afraid that one of these times I am going to open my eyes and not be able to see anything at all.”

He wrote that he was scared he wouldn’t be able to see his infant son grow up.

“It’s just sort of brazen indifference to really obvious problems, things you would have thought absurd a decade ago — like the fact that you can’t see,” the man’s attorney, Brian Hoffman, said. “Before, you could attempt to work with folks on the government side and maybe shame them into doing the right thing. Now, it’s sort of like anything you want done you have to go to court and sue over.”

Even court orders aren’t always enough. One California judge ordered the government to take a man showing signs of prostate cancer to a specialist for diagnosis and treatment. Records show they did not take him.

Lawyers representing ICE told the judge that officials missed the appointment because of an “internal scheduling error.” CoreCivic, which runs that facility, said it was unable to comment on active litigation.

A Surge in Cases

When immigrants file habeas corpus petitions, they exercise a right to challenge unlawful imprisonment that dates to .

More than 40,000 such petitions have been filed during Trump’s second term, fueled by decisions last year to deny bond to many people held on immigration charges. Judges are split on whether that’s legal; the question appears headed to the Supreme Court.

Many habeas claims , but judges typically cite reasons unrelated to the medical neglect described in the petitions, such as detainees’ being held too long before being deported.

The more than 300 medical neglect claims found in this investigation represent a fraction of the problem. The details of habeas corpus cases are often hidden due to a federal rule barring the public from viewing such documents online. �鶹Ů�� Health News and AP obtained some documents from courthouses and received records on 4,400 cases from , a project of the nonprofit Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative. But tens of thousands more remain largely inaccessible.

Some judges have written that the habeas process is not how to raise allegations of medical neglect and have declined to release detainees over those claims. Not every detainee who believes they experienced medical neglect files a habeas petition or cites their medical issues if they do.

Jose-Antonio Segismundo’s petition made no mention of being unable to see an oncologist for the cancer in his abdomen while detained for more than seven months at the Florida detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz and Folkston D Ray ICE Processing Center in Georgia. Medical records in his court filings show he was arrested about five weeks before his scheduled appointment with a cancer specialist.

His wife, Maria Jose Gonzalez, said he didn’t receive any treatment even though she sent his medical records and explained his condition to officials at Folkston. When his stomach pain erupted, often suddenly and intensely, she said, they gave him Tylenol.

Geo Group, which runs Folkston, follows ICE standards and provides healthcare and access to off-site medical specialists when needed, spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said.

This spring, Segismundo, 48, was deported to Mexico, a country he left nearly 30 years ago, Gonzalez said. Now, she said, he will have to restart his search for care in the Oaxacan village where he grew up.

Maria Jose Gonzalez of Wimauma, Florida, holds a photo of her husband, Jose-Antonio Segismundo, who was detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for more than seven months in Florida and Georgia before being deported to Mexico. Medical records show he was arrested about five weeks before his scheduled appointment with a specialist to treat his abdominal cancer. (Chris O'Meara/AP)

Watching Loved Ones Deteriorate

Detainees receiving inadequate healthcare have little recourse. The Department of Homeland Security last year gutted the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. In early May, it shut the office entirely, arguing that Congress didn’t fund it.

Previously, ombudsman staffers could help facilitate medical care or look into complaints of neglect, according to Matt Boles, an immigration attorney in Georgia. Now, he said, there’s no one to call.

Meanwhile, detainees’ families said they feel helpless, making desperate calls to facilities, the government, and their legislators while watching their loved ones deteriorate.

Riya Khan saw her mother get sicker at the California City Detention Facility, which is owned by CoreCivic. When she visited a week after her mother arrived at the facility in the Mojave Desert, Riya said, the 64-year-old woman stumbled into her seat. She was shaking and her breathing was labored.

Masuma Khan came to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 1997. She has no criminal history, her records say, and was detained in October when she showed up for her regular ICE check-in.

For the month she was detained, according to her daughter, she only intermittently received her medications for conditions including high blood pressure, hypothyroidism, and prediabetes. CoreCivic treats chronic conditions in line with applicable medical standards, Todd said.

“Nothing matters more to CoreCivic than the health, safety and well-being of the people in our care,” Todd said.

Khan said she got her asthma medication for the first time two days before she was released and that her eye drops for glaucoma never arrived. Staffers told Khan she needed to buy some of her medications from the commissary but it didn’t stock them, her daughter said.

Before ICE detained Masuma Khan, she made friends with everyone, her daughter said. She had worked for years at Lucky Boy, an iconic Pasadena fast-food restaurant, and in her free time fed birds and left out fruit for bees that visited her apartment’s balcony.

Now she’s too scared to go outside. She still must regularly check in with ICE, and she’s terrified each time.

Masuma Khan (center) waits in line with her attorney Laboni Hoq (left of Khan) to enter a federal building in Los Angeles for an appointment on April 21. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Khan (second from right in the front row) and her daughter, Riya (fourth from right in the front row), pose with supporters outside a federal building in Los Angeles on April 21. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Khan (right) came to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 1997 and was detained for a month after she showed up for a regular check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in October. Here, she hugs her daughter, Riya (left). (Jae C. Hong/AP)

A “Welcome Home” balloon that was left at the front door of Khan’s apartment in Altadena, California, after she was released from an immigration detention facility. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Khan’s daughter says that her mother has nightmares and is scared to go outside after being held at an immigration detention facility for a month in 2025. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

A Stroke on a Video Call

Previously, detainees with serious medical needs would likely have been released on humanitarian parole, in part to avoid the cost of their care, Vermont attorney Andrew Pelcher said.

In fiscal year 2023 — before the detained population soared — ICE spent more than $390 million on healthcare for detained noncitizens, according to its to Congress. In May, Todd Lyons, then acting director of ICE, said at a conference that the agency had already spent “almost half a billion dollars” on detainee healthcare this year.

Now, under “mandatory detention,” people are staying locked up with serious — and expensive — conditions.

A Romanian citizen underwent several heart surgeries, including an emergency triple bypass in April 2025, before he was arrested in July. As part of his recovery, the 52-year-old was required to take 16 daily medications. While at an ICE field office in Baltimore, his court filings allege, he went two days without any medication before officials moved him to a facility in New Jersey.

He was hospitalized three times while detained, complaining of chest pains — in part, medical records and court documents say, because despite “countless requests,” the detention center did not provide all his medications. Hospital discharge papers cited by his lawyer show he received only eight of the 16 medications after his second release from the hospital.

“Can you please talk to the ICE facility to make sure they give him his medications?” his treatment providers wrote in medical records included in his court filings. “He was admitted last week for chest pain and today he was readmitted again for chest pain secondary to non compliance for medications.”

Several weeks later in August, he had a stroke while on a video call with his daughter, according to court filings. “He was struggling to breathe, and was pointing at his chest where he was again experiencing pain, and suddenly stopped speaking.” His daughter screamed for help through the video monitor, according to his petition. “Eventually an officer came in to assist him and cut the feed.”

The man lost his ability to speak for four days, the document says. He was returned to detention, where he remained until a federal judge ordered his release in November.

Khan holds medication she takes daily. While detained, she says, she only intermittently received her medications for multiple conditions including high blood pressure, hypothyroidism, and prediabetes. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Impossible Choices

Cassandra Amador waits for the phone to ring every morning, desperate to ask her husband the question that’s woken her up every night for months: “Did you get your medicine?”

Her husband, Pedro Javier Amador Gutierrez, 36, has high blood pressure and depends on the state-run facility in Florida nicknamed “Deportation Depot” to administer the prescriptions that have kept him alive for years. Many mornings, he tells his wife he did not get them.

When she talks to him, she said, he sounds weaker and more scared every day, not like the upbeat man who would take her kids out for ice cream.

“You can hear in his voice how he feels,” she said.

Now, she said, he’s considering returning to Cuba, which he fled because of political persecution, out of fear that he will die in detention without his medicines. Amador and her children would go with him, she said, even though she was born in New Jersey, has never been to Cuba, and doesn’t speak much Spanish.

But he’s already collapsed twice at the Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Florida, his wife said. She’s terrified that the next time, he won’t get up.

Methodology

�鶹Ů�� Health News and The Associated Press sifted through thousands of immigration habeas corpus claims to find allegations of medical neglect from people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the second Trump administration.

Without a comprehensive, publicly available dataset of medical complaints by those in ICE custody, we used immigration habeas corpus claims to identify detainees’ healthcare-related allegations raised in federal court. Although the intended purpose of habeas corpus is to challenge the legality of a petitioner’s detention — rather than conditions of their confinement — these filings sometimes include detainees’ claims of inadequate healthcare.

But habeas corpus filings are not always publicly available. Federal rules restrict how members of the public can access habeas petitions filed by people in immigration detention. For most of these cases, court websites publish only court orders and dockets describing other filings. The initial petitions are available only through in-person visits to federal courthouses across the country. Habeas Dockets, a project of the nonprofit Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative, coordinates a nationwide network of volunteers to gather these petitions and make them available online.

�鶹Ů�� Health News and AP analyzed the dockets of roughly 33,000 cases filed by detainees from Jan. 20, 2025, through March 2026. The vast majority of cases had only basic procedural information, like dates of court filings and rulings. Only about 4,400 included the original petitions.

We also gathered a few dozen case files from courthouses, lawyers, and the Massachusetts federal district court website, which posts most petitions under a unique standing order.

We ran keyword and semantic searches of court records, including petitions, motions, and orders, for terms and phrases potentially related to medical neglect, such as surgery, medications, inadequate medical care, and treatment for chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

We found about 500 cases potentially alleging medical neglect. At least two reporters reviewed each case manually, yielding more than 300 cases containing specific allegations in sworn filings of delayed, denied, or deficient healthcare.

To be conservative, we excluded dozens of cases that alleged inadequate medical care but lacked specifics, for example a petitioner writing, “I have been sick and don’t get proper treatment,” or a judge noting a petitioner “complains that ICE is ignoring his medical problems.” We also excluded cases in which petitioners claimed only that they were denied special diets, exercise, or other accommodations that they said were key to managing their health conditions, such as a petitioner writing, “I suffer from Parkinson’s and cannot properly exercise,” or claiming that the food provided was unfit for a person with diabetes.

The cases we analyzed were neither randomly selected nor representative of immigration habeas filings nationwide. The claims were not independently verified. Many filings are not publicly available, and not all detainees raise medical concerns in court, so our account of cases represents a limited window into the landscape of claims, rather than a comprehensive picture.

Associated Press journalists Garance Burke, Valerie Gonzalez, and Tim Sullivan as well as �鶹Ů�� Health News correspondent Kate Wells contributed to this report.

This report is a collaboration between The Associated Press and �鶹Ů�� Health News.

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Focused on Work, Needed at Home: A Federal Caregiving Policy Might Help

Katherine Ruppelt, Nashville Public Radio — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

(Candice Evers for WPLN and �鶹Ů�� Health News)

Jill Woodrow reached a tipping point as a caregiver when her mom began struggling to communicate information about her latest doctor appointments.

Woodrow’s mother, a uterine cancer survivor, was seeing specialists to get to the bottom of several new, concerning symptoms. “When she would try to tell us about what happened or what the conversation was, she couldn’t remember,” Woodrow said.

So Woodrow, a school therapist, started taking her mom to medical appointments. Woodrow was able to ask doctors questions and explain their answers. But it was difficult to juggle her mom’s medical care while working, raising three daughters, and coordinating with her husband’s work schedule.

“I was having to leave work early, take sick time, personal time,” she said. “All of a sudden, my best friend said to me, ‘Jill, have you ever thought about taking FMLA?’ And honestly, I never did.”

FMLA refers to leave protected by the , a federal law that guarantees employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for their own serious health condition or to care for a parent, spouse, or child with a serious medical condition.

During eight weeks away from work, Woodrow helped with her mom’s medical care, cooked meals, and helped with housework. Her mom was later diagnosed with breast cancer and died in 2023.

“Taking FMLA really helped me focus on my family and my mom, and it was honestly the best thing that I could have ever done,” she said. “I have no regrets.”

But navigating the intricacies — logistical and emotional — of this federal policy can be challenging. Here’s what to know.

1. Read the fine print.

When FMLA was passed in 1993, it was groundbreaking, said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. Before then, there were no federal protections for employees who needed to take time off for medical reasons.

Roughly 60% of workers in the U.S. , according to the Department of Labor. To be eligible, people must have worked for a company with 50 or more employees for at least a year. Within that time, employees must have worked at least 1,250 hours, which translates to working full-time for about seven months.

Keep in mind, FMLA applies only to caregiving if your child, spouse, or parent is facing a “serious medical condition,” like inpatient care or continuing treatment. If you need to take time from work to care for someone with a short-term illness or routine medical care, you will likely need to use sick leave or some other kind of paid time off. And FMLA generally does not apply to caring for in-laws, siblings, or close friends.

2. Getting paid on FMLA is possible — but far from guaranteed.

The federal law requires employers only to provide unpaid leave, which limits how many people consider FMLA. According to the Department of Labor, two-thirds of eligible employees said they wouldn’t take FMLA because they to go without pay.

However, some people can still get a paycheck while taking FMLA. now require employers to provide paid family leave programs. Alternatively, you can apply another form of paid time off, like paid vacation or sick leave, to the time you take away from work. This is called concurrent leave. Some employers require employees to apply any available leave they have during the time they’re taking FMLA, which in practice ensures that employees do not take more than the protected 12 weeks of leave within a year.

So why use FMLA instead of just taking PTO or stringing together sick days? Under the federal requirements, FMLA protects an employee’s job and healthcare, which is not the case for other kinds of leave.

3. Communicating clearly about leave with your employer is key.

In a 2018 survey conducted by the Department of Labor, one-third of FMLA-eligible employees shared that they avoided taking leave because they feared losing their job or being treated differently at work, or because they considered their work too important.

Woodrow had to navigate her own hesitation. “I have a lot of students on my caseload, and I felt so guilty about leaving them,” she said.

But FMLA advocate Frye said employees should remember that FMLA exists to help them “take the time that they need to support their families — and not feel like they have to pretend like that’s not a natural part of life. Because it is.”

Frye suggests employees be proactive when approaching their manager about planning a leave. “I’d say, ‘I want to work with you to make this work for everybody,’” she said. In that conversation, employees could also offer to support their manager or other co-workers when those colleagues face a caregiving need in the future. Doing so could help shift a workplace culture to be more accepting of caregiving realities and FMLA leave over time, Frye added.

People and Policy

The has had no major updates since it was passed in 1993, although there have been modifications to the leave options available to military service members and their families. A from the Pew Research Center found that 69% of Americans support the federal government requiring employers to provide paid family leave for caregiving for an aging family member.

Emily Siner at Nashville Public Radio contributed to this report.

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Amid Ebola, Hantavirus Outbreaks, Democrats Decry Trump’s Health Cuts

Stephanie Armour — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

The Trump administration’s deep cuts to federal health agencies have become a political liability after a deadly outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship and the spread of an even more fearsome disease, Ebola, in Africa.

At least that’s the way many Democrats see it.

They have seized on the situation to charge that the U.S. is ill prepared to respond to outbreaks — let alone a pandemic — after President Donald Trump and funding for public health infrastructure and pandemic preparedness. Infectious disease specialists have called on the White House to reverse cuts and rejoin the World Health Organization.

The White House, meanwhile, is on the defensive, trying to reassure a pandemic-weary public that the federal government can still mount effective responses to infectious disease outbreaks.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of an effort led by billionaire businessman Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, that also resulted in the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal contracts and grants.

“These outbreaks are unfolding at a time when the U.S. public health infrastructure is under significant strain,” said , an emergency medicine physician and former Baltimore health commissioner. “The CDC currently lacks a director, the FDA lacks a director, there is no surgeon general, and many leaders with outbreak response management experience have left the federal government.”

The U.S. government has and is monitoring potential exposures to hantavirus after an outbreak on a cruise ship. It is also implementing new restrictions for foreign travelers amid an Ebola outbreak in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that has grown to more than . While neither situation is seen as likely to become a global pandemic, Democrats and infectious disease leaders have seized on the outbreaks to criticize the effects of the DOGE cuts and other administration public health policies.

The hantavirus cluster occurred on the , an expedition ship that left Argentina on April 1 for a monthlong sojourn with almost 150 people aboard. The earliest cases, including two deaths, were on May 2. infected passengers have died. Hantavirus is typically spread to people from rodents, but this version, known as the , can be passed person to person.

The Ebola outbreak has captured public attention, though no cases have been confirmed in the U.S. The virus — a rare strain called Bundibugyo, against which there are no proven vaccines or treatments — spread undetected for weeks, prompting WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to say he’s concerned about the “” of the outbreak. , including a doctor exposed to the virus, were evacuated to Germany by the U.S. State Department.

Democrats Criticize Cuts

Some Democrats are pressing the administration to rejoin the WHO and restore funding to federal agencies. A lawsuit is ongoing over the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the primary agency for providing foreign assistance. Core USAID activities included efforts to build local outbreak detection and prevention capacity in vulnerable regions, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted the emerging threats associated with the rising Ebola case count, posting : “We know how to stop outbreaks like this. But Trump chose not to stop it. He destroyed our global health team, deliberately exposing us.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said May 21 on X that the Trump administration’s “sweeping and self destructive foreign aid cuts” left the U.S. and Congo struggling to contain the Ebola outbreak.

“An utterly predictable result from the chaos of DOGE,” he said.

And, in the wake of the hantavirus outbreak, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to rehire fired outbreak-response workers, restore funding at the CDC and Department of Health and Human Services, and rejoin the WHO’s global outbreak warning network.

“The Trump administration’s gutting of America’s public health preparedness has made the recent hantavirus outbreak even more alarming,” Schumer said May 12 on the Senate floor.

Federal agencies pushed back on criticisms about the early response to hantavirus, with officials insisting on social media, at press events, and in TV appearances that their work was appropriate and effective.

The federal government is conducting a coordinated, interagency response, HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said. Claims that federal cuts have imperiled the response or future pandemic preparedness are “completely inaccurate,” she said.

The CDC and State Department say they are ensuring rapid viral testing is available for the Ebola outbreak and are actively deploying resources through State Department country offices in Congo and Uganda.

“I want to assure you that CDC and our federal partners are working around the clock to ensure our information is accurate and that action plans are being implemented immediately,” Satish Pillai, who is leading the CDC’s Ebola response, said in a .

Trouble Spots

The criticism isn’t coming just from Democrats. Public health officials also say that Trump administration actions have hampered the response to both outbreaks and that the cuts to USAID helped set the stage for the spread of Ebola.

The International Rescue Committee, which helps people affected by humanitarian crises, has said funding cuts by the administration in March 2025 prompted a reduction in disease surveillance systems in the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak.

The U.S. had funded the surveillance, as well as outbreak preparedness efforts to prevent infections, with hand-washing stations, showers, latrines, and waste management. The committee said it had to cut programming.

“Years of underinvestment and recent funding cuts have left many health facilities without adequate protective equipment, surveillance capacity, or frontline support needed to respond quickly and safely,” Heather Reoch Kerr, the committee’s country director in Congo, .

The federal government’s overall response to the outbreak, including the decision not to fly Americans exposed to Ebola to the U.S. for treatment, stands in sharp contrast with previous responses to Ebola, some epidemiologists and former health officials say. It also could discourage other medical professionals from traveling to the region to help.

During the 2014-15 outbreak in West Africa, the federal government eventually deployed Army and Navy technicians and other service members to process blood tests, build medical labs, and train local healthcare workers.

USAID emergency response teams also played a key role in the on-the-ground response to that Ebola outbreak, from building treatment rooms to handling burial of the dead, Ron Klain, during the Obama administration, said on NPR.

Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said USAID was “a key support for programs.”

“The infrastructure in Africa has been cut with the cuts at USAID,” he said. “It’s making it more difficult.”

The United States’ ability to respond to a real pandemic is “a mess” because of the cuts and the administration’s stance on mRNA vaccines, the technology behind covid shots, Osterholm said. The White House last year canceled nearly for mRNA vaccine development despite a lack of evidence of any health risks.

The rapid technology would enable faster worldwide vaccine production in the case of a pandemic compared with more traditional vaccine development, Osterholm said.

have also over the U.S. response to hantavirus. For example, the CDC on May 8 issued a about the cluster of hantavirus cases on the cruise ship in the Atlantic, but the alert came after some passengers had already . in late April on commercial flights.

And the agency’s on the outbreak aboard the took place May 9. The phone briefing with reporters came five days after the WHO had alerted the public about the situation.

“The first press conference was after this was international news,” said Wen, the former Baltimore health official.

The CDC has defended its response to hantavirus. It has required U.S. passengers of the cruise ship to remain in a quarantine facility and has assured the public that the overall health risk here at home is low.

“The country is prepared. The CDC is focused on it,” Mehmet Oz, a physician and head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, on May 11.

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Baffling. Frustrating. Frightening. What It’s Like To Be Sued Over Medical Debt.

Katy Golvala, CT Mirror — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

When Christine Wood received a $12,000 bill from Bristol Hospital, she thought it must be a mistake. It was more than she and her husband made in a month combined.

“I’m freaking out,” said Wood, who lives in a 1,700-square-foot home in Terryville, a village just outside Bristol, Connecticut. “I don’t understand it.”

Wood, 52, had weight loss surgery at Bristol Hospital in 2022, hoping it would help with her sleep apnea and the pain in her knees and back. Before scheduling the procedure, she checked with her insurer, she said, and was told the surgery would cost $5,000 out-of-pocket. She paid in advance.

More than six months later, Bristol sent Wood another bill that pushed the cost of her surgery to more than $17,000. Wood said she tried to dispute the charge. The hospital sued her.

“That’s ridiculous. I was told so many times by Aetna: ‘$5,000 out-of-pocket,’” Wood said. “I never would have had the surgery had I known it was going to cost almost 20 grand.”

Wood is among more than three dozen Connecticut patients the Connecticut Mirror and �鶹Ů�� Health News interviewed over the past year who were sued by their hospital or physician over unpaid bills.

The patients include teachers, small-business owners, a postal worker, a retired nursing home aide, a nurse, and a hotel bellhop. Most had jobs and health insurance. Nearly all said they wanted to pay what they owed.

Patients taken to court described baffling bills, confusing health plan rules, and frustrating and fruitless telephone calls to hospital billing offices and health insurers’ customer-service lines. Even when they tried to resolve their outstanding bills, many said they couldn’t get answers.

Bristol Hospital is part of Bristol Health, one of Connecticut’s most financially strained health systems. (Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

Their experiences encapsulate breakdowns in the healthcare system that trap patients in debt. Health insurance didn’t cover care for reasons they couldn’t understand. Several patients did not qualify for financial assistance from providers, despite modest incomes. If they committed to pay, patients were hit with liens on their homes or interest payments and court fees that piled new debt onto their medical bills.

The industry’s key players blame one another for a broken system. Providers say insurers’ saddle patients with massive bills even when they have coverage. Insurers say at rates that outpace inflation.

Meanwhile, patients are stuck with the fallout. In 2022, about carrying medical or dental debt.

“It’s bad enough that I have bad health and have to pay mountains of medical bills,” said Samantha Mantiera, whom Danbury Hospital sued in 2024 over $10,000 she said she was erroneously charged. “Then to constantly be dealing with incorrect bills and then a lawsuit on top of it took me over the top.”

Mantiera said she spent months trying to explain to the hospital and then a collection agency that her insurance statements indicated she owed just $260. She was sued anyway.

After Mantiera contested the lawsuit, Danbury Hospital withdrew it, court records show.

Mantiera said she and her husband now travel up to an hour from their Brookfield, Connecticut, home to avoid hospitals owned by Danbury’s parent company, now called Northwell Health.

Kathy Holt, who leads the state Office of the Healthcare Advocate, said that in the past several decades healthcare has only gotten harder for patients to navigate. The agency fields thousands of calls every year from residents looking for help with medical billing questions.

“I’ve talked to too many people who have just given up,” Holt said. “The system has been made so hard for them, and I feel like it’s deliberate.”

‘They Would Not Talk to Me’

Debt collection lawsuits against patients have declined in Connecticut since 2019, a CT Mirror-�鶹Ů�� Health News analysis of state court records found. And court records show most Connecticut hospital systems have stopped suing patients, including the state’s two largest systems, Yale New Haven Health and Hartford HealthCare.

Most hospitals stopped suing patients during the covid-19 pandemic as they reevaluated their collection practices, said Sarah Ginnetti, chief revenue cycle officer at UConn Health. The system ceased lawsuits in 2022, records show.

“In some of those circumstances, it just felt misaligned with our mission as an organization,” Ginnetti said. “For the small handful of cases that we might gain some type of legal victory, we really didn’t feel as though that would be our best path forward.”

Yale New Haven Health and Hartford HealthCare would not discuss why they stopped suing patients, instead issuing statements about their financial assistance programs.

Scores of medical providers — including physician groups, dentists, and hospitals — , data shows. The CT Mirror-�鶹Ů�� Health News analysis found more than 1,500 healthcare-related debt cases filed in Connecticut courts in 2024.

This included lawsuits by Bristol Health, an independent local health system that includes Bristol Hospital, and Nuvance Health, a chain of seven hospitals recently acquired by Northwell Health, a multibillion-dollar system based in New York.

Nuvance hospitals filed over 4,000 collection lawsuits from 2019 to 2024, records show. Over the five years, the health system accounted for more than a quarter of the roughly 16,300 medical debt collection lawsuits against patients identified in state court records.

Hospital officials and other medical providers say they try to work with patients who have trouble paying their bills. Nikki Schulz, chief revenue officer for Northwell’s Connecticut hospitals, said in a statement that years ago the system “eased” its collection practices, leading to a “precipitous decline” in medical debt referred to collections.

“We fundamentally retooled our approach to align with industry best practices,” Schulz said. Records show the health system sued about 200 patients in 2024, down from 2,200 in 2019.

Healthcare executives also say they have a responsibility to try to collect.

“I don’t have a choice,” said Bristol Hospital CEO Kurt Barwis. “What we’re trying to do is sustain a mission of taking care of this community.”

Bristol Health is one of Connecticut’s most financially strained systems, and executives are currently in talks with the administration of Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont about an . The proposed deal is, in part, an effort to keep the hospital afloat.

Barwis said the hospital has taken steps to help patients with unexpected bills, including enlisting financial counselors to reach out to patients before elective procedures to discuss cost and financial assistance.

But Wood, who was sued by Bristol, said no one from the hospital talked to her before her surgery. When she called the hospital after receiving the $12,000 bill, she said she was told there was nothing they could do because her insurance had denied the claim.

“They would not talk to me about it,” Wood said. “They wanted their money.”

Bristol spokesperson Albert Peguero also blamed Wood’s insurer and said the hospital worked with Wood as she went through numerous insurance appeals with Aetna.

Wood didn’t fare any better with Aetna. It turned out that her health plan covered only $15,000 worth of bariatric surgery, meaning she was responsible for any bills that exceeded that.

Aetna spokesperson Shelly Bandit said Wood had been notified of this provision, though Wood disputes this.

The back-and-forth with the hospital and the insurer enraged Wood. But after she was sued, she concluded she had no more options. She settled with Bristol, agreeing to pay the full balance on a payment plan of $150 a month, court records show. Under the agreement, it would take Wood almost seven years to pay off the debt.

Last year, Wood faced additional financial challenges after her mother died and her husband lost his job and was unemployed for six months.

Wood said she’s regained about a third of the 100 pounds she lost after her surgery because of the stress. Some months she pays Bristol less than $150. In January, the hospital placed a lien on her home.

“We don’t have savings. We don’t have the extra money. We’re living check by check,” Wood said. “We’re working-class people trying to make a living, trying to do the right thing. And we always get screwed.”

‘I Don’t Have Hours on End’

It’s difficult to know how many medical debt lawsuits arise from disputed bills. But most U.S. adults with healthcare debt say they’ve received a bill in the past five years that they thought contained an error, according to a .

The prevalence of disputed medical bills is one reason many advocates for patients say hospitals and other healthcare providers shouldn’t sue people they treat.

“Understanding insurance to begin with and then navigating denials or bills that are not plainly understood leaves patients stuck in an opaque system where they have the least leverage and power,” said Eva Stahl, a vice president of Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that has worked with states to buy and retire debt — including for more than 150,000 Connecticut residents.

“Patients understandably are left with questions and confusion,” Stahl said.

Last year, a judge dismissed one of Danbury Hospital’s lawsuits against a patient over a $64,000 unpaid bill, citing the hospital’s “failure to prosecute with reasonable diligence,” according to court records. (Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

Timothy Bigham, who owns a construction company and was sued in 2023 by Danbury Hospital, said he never understood why he was billed more than $64,000 after he was hospitalized following a 2019 heart attack.

Bigham, who lives in Danbury, Connecticut, said he was insured at the time. But soon after he got home, Bigham began getting regular calls from the hospital. He was told his insurer wasn’t paying the bill because he refused to “release medical records,” he recalled.

“I had insurance when I had the heart attack, but it’s my job to get the insurance company to pay?” Bigham said. “I’m self-employed. I work in construction. I don’t have hours on end to sit on the phone trying to talk to somebody at an insurance company.”

Bigham said he ultimately “stopped dealing with it” because he didn’t know what else to do.

Then, in 2023, Danbury Hospital sued him. A judge dismissed the case in 2025, citing the hospital’s “failure to prosecute with reasonable diligence,” according to court records. But by then, the alleged debt had devastated Bigham’s credit score, tanking it by over 100 points, he said.

Northwell’s Schulz declined to comment on any specific patient cases, citing privacy laws.

Connecticut barring medical debt from consumer credit reports.

A handful of states have tried to protect patients from lawsuits through limiting when hospitals can pursue legal action. Illinois, for example, prohibits lawsuits against uninsured patients who prove they can’t afford their unpaid bills. Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia prohibit liens and foreclosures for medical debt.

Dominique Jean Pierre was sued by Norwalk Hospital for over $20,000 after being hospitalized. (Joe Buglewicz for �鶹Ů�� Health News)

‘It Was a Nightmare’

Dominique Jean Pierre was equally surprised by the $20,000 bill he got after he was hospitalized at Norwalk Hospital with a urinary tract infection in July 2020.

Jean Pierre, 66, had worked for nearly two decades as a bellhop at a Hilton hotel in Stamford owned and operated by Atrium Hospitality, a Georgia-based company. When he got sick, the hotel was temporarily closed because of covid lockdowns.

What Jean Pierre didn’t realize, he said, was that the hotel had also cut off employee health benefits. He said he was told by the hospital that he’d be responsible for the bill.

“It was a nightmare,” he said.

Jean Pierre said he begged his manager for help but was told there was nothing the company could do. Atrium Hospitality did not respond to requests for comment.

Two years after Jean Pierre’s hospitalization, Norwalk Hospital sued him for more than $20,000, court records show.

Jean Pierre said he tried twice to apply for financial assistance, but the hospital told him he and his wife made too much to qualify, even though his medical bills totaled almost a quarter of their annual income of about $87,000.

With nowhere to turn, Jean Pierre settled with Norwalk Hospital, now part of the Northwell system, in 2025, agreeing to pay the full bill in $100 monthly installments, records show. At that rate, he will be paying off the debt until 2042.

After the settlement, he said, the judge encouraged him to reach out to elected officials to try to get the debt canceled. Jean Pierre was exhausted.

“He says to me, ‘You have to go to your senators. Go to the governor.’ I said, ‘That’s too much. [I’m just going to] let it go.’”

Jean Pierre has left the Hilton and now works as a personal care attendant, as does his wife. But he said it still nags him that businesses and healthcare providers received millions of dollars in government aid during the pandemic, while he was left with $20,000 in medical debt.

“They gave money for the hotel. They gave money for the hospital. They gave money for a lot of stuff,” he said. “But we don’t see none.”

Jean Pierre settled the lawsuit that Norwalk Hospital brought against him, agreeing to pay his bill in $100 monthly installments, records show. At that rate, the debt will be paid off in 2042. (Joe Buglewicz for �鶹Ů�� Health News)

‘I’m Not Trying To Run Away’

Other patients said they felt trapped, even if they tried to do the right thing.

Deneen Brown, who runs a small daycare out of her home in Norwalk, was sued by Norwalk Hospital in 2024 for $7,200 over bills she allegedly incurred “on or about 2019 and 2020,” according to the lawsuit.

Brown said she was stunned by the lawsuit, as she believed she’d had health insurance at the time. But as a small-business owner who took pride in maintaining good credit and staying on top of her finances, she said she committed to taking care of it.

“I’m not trying to run away from something that may be my responsibility,” Brown said. “If you say I owe it, I’m going to figure it out, and I’m going to pay it.”

In January 2025, she agreed to a nearly 13-year payment plan of $50 a month, court records show. Often she pays more, she said.

The following month, the hospital placed a lien on her home. Brown said she never realized the hospital would continue to penalize her, even after she agreed to a payment plan.

“Had I known that, I would have never settled,” she said.

Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut, and other medical providers owned by Nuvance Health, now known as Northwell Health, filed over 4,000 debt collection lawsuits from 2019 to 2024, records show — accounting for more than a quarter of such suits against patients identified in state court records during that period. (Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

This article was produced in partnership with , a statewide nonprofit newsroom that covers public policy and politics.

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Listen to the Latest ‘�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute’

Tue, 26 May 2026 14:00:10 +0000

May 21

Katheryn Houghton reads this week’s news: Some Republican-controlled states require their public health agencies to participate in immigration enforcement. Plus, research finds work requirements for food assistance can drive up unemployment.

May 14

Rachel Spears reads the week’s news: The Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding if hospitals don’t get in line with its new dietary rules. Plus, tips to get the most out of prescription drug coupons.

May 7

Zach Dyer reads the week’s news: Millions of cancer survivors battle mounting medical bills, and Nebraska becomes the first state to enforce a Medicaid work requirement under the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

April 30

This week, Jackie Fortiér shares tips to make the most out of a high-deductible health plan. Plus, some Make America Healthy Again supporters feel betrayed after the Trump administration gave several large companies an exemption from clean air rules.

April 23

Arielle Zionts reads the week’s news: The Trump administration wants to kick off a new baby boom with big changes to Title X. Plus, tips to make sure a life change doesn’t leave you without health insurance.

April 16

Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: Many Americans say it’s hard to pay for the dentist, but putting off care also has its costs. Plus, for some patients, Medicare will start covering GLP-1 drugs for weight loss this year.

April 9

Zach Dyer reads the week’s news: Rising health costs have some middle-aged adults skipping the doctor until Medicare will pick up the tab. Plus, there’s little evidence that immigrants without legal status are using Medicaid, despite White House claims.

April 2

Arielle Zionts reads the week’s news: Scientists say staff losses at the National Institutes of Health could lead to fewer medical breakthroughs. Plus, doctors worry they’ll see more kids with potentially deadly complications from measles, as cases surge.

March 26

Jackie Fortiér reads the week’s news: Consumers know which party they blame after Congress failed to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies. Plus, updated standards say seniors should aim for even lower blood pressure readings.

March 19

Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: Amid federal spending cuts and suspicion of fluoride, tooth problems are sending more kids to the ER. Plus, patients look to health savings accounts to deal with rising medical costs.

March 12

Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: Looming Medicaid cuts could mean states stop covering dental care for adults, and a growing number of U.S. nurses are moving to Canada.

March 5

Zach Dyer reads the week’s news: The Trump administration is calling for sharp restrictions on direct-to-consumer drug ads, and for some people facing skyrocketing health insurance costs, becoming eligible for Medicare because of a new diagnosis is a terrible irony.

Feb. 26

Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: Some places are bringing back house calls to try to fight maternal and infant mortality, and almost all Americans benefit from health care subsidies in different forms.

Feb. 19

Arielle Zionts reads the week’s news: Some health systems are using AI tools to help patients get primary care, and the Trump administration’s new data-sharing rules make going to the hospital more dangerous for people without legal status.

Feb. 12

Jackie Fortiér reads the week’s news: Moves by the Trump administration have slowed cancer research, and more of America’s doctors are working into their golden years.

Feb. 5

Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: American farmers are being hit hard by the end of extra Obamacare subsidies, and hospitals are starting their own Medicare Advantage plans.

Jan. 29

Zach Dyer reads this week’s news: An expensive new gene therapy that can potentially cure people with sickle cell disease will be covered by Medicaid, but only when it works for patients. Plus, community health centers are preparing to help care for millions more uninsured people.

Jan. 22

Arielle Zionts reads the week’s news: Some states are cutting public funding for a type of autism therapy, and older adults are more likely than younger ones to stop taking GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic.

Jan. 15

Jackie Fortiér reads the week’s news: Parents are confused by an overhaul of U.S. childhood immunization guidelines, and while people 65 and older make up the fastest-growing homeless population in the country, traditional homeless shelters often can’t accommodate them.

Jan. 8

Zach Dyer reads the week’s news: Instead of extending extra Affordable Care Act subsidies that would keep monthly premiums more affordable, some Republicans are pushing health savings accounts. Plus, people seeking cheaper health insurance options outside the ACA marketplaces may find some, but they come with downsides.

Jan. 1

Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: AI voices can help patients who have had their voice boxes removed sound like themselves again, and many state-run psychiatric hospitals don’t have enough beds to treat patients unless they’ve been charged with a crime.

The �鶹Ů�� Health News Minute is available every Thursday on CBS News Radio.

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ICE Arrests Are Separating Families. Here’s How To Plan Ahead.

Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez — Thu, 21 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has parents who lack legal residency worried about the welfare of children left behind. Some jurisdictions are taking action. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., allow families to name temporary guardians if a parent is detained or deported.

�鶹Ů�� Health News correspondent Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez appeared on WAMU’s May 13 Health Hub segment to explain why keeping the children of immigrants out of foster care can increase the likelihood of families reuniting and reduce the health impacts of a traumatic separation.

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Watch: The Tug-of-War Over Taxpayer Dollars

Wed, 20 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Julie Rovner, �鶹Ů�� Health News’ chief Washington correspondent and host of the What the Health? podcast, recently spoke with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) about the ongoing fight between President Donald Trump and Congress over control of federal spending.

Baldwin, who is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said lawmakers have been forced to take unprecedented action to ensure the Trump administration properly spends taxpayer dollars.

“In this most recently passed bill that Donald Trump signed into law, we had to put guardrails that we’ve never had to put into our appropriations laws before to enforce our spending bills,” Baldwin said. “And those laws have made it clear that we expect that they must spend what we have appropriated, and not just all of it at the end of the fiscal year, but in a timely manner throughout the year.”

The conversation also addressed the success — and Trump-imposed limitations — of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The resource, which was created through a bipartisan effort, has led to a notable reduction in youth suicide, according to in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“It’s heartwarming to know that this work matters,” Baldwin said.

This interview aired May 14 on Episode No. 446 of What the Health? From �鶹Ů�� Health News: “In Search of a New FDA Commissioner.”

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