Native American Public Health Officials Are Stuck in Data Blind Spot
For decades, state and federal agencies have restricted or delayed tribes and tribal epidemiology centers from accessing public health data, a blackout that leaves health workers in Native American communities cobbling together information to guide their work, including tracking devastating disease outbreaks.
Care Gaps Grow as OB/GYNs Flee Idaho
Not so long ago, Bonner General Health, the hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, had four OB/GYNs on staff, who treated patients from multiple rural counties. That was before Idaho’s near-total abortion ban went into effect almost two years ago, criminalizing most abortions. All four of Bonner’s OB/GYNs left by last summer, some citing fears that the state’s ban […]
Idaho’s OB-GYN Exodus Throws Women in Rural Towns Into a Care Void
Idaho’s law criminalizing abortion drove a high-profile exodus of OB-GYNs from the state more than a year ago. Now, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back abortion protections enshrined by Roe v. Wade, patients in rural Idaho are forced to leave their community for gynecological care.
Medicaid Unwinding Deals Blow to Tenuous System of Care for Native Americans
Although Native American and Alaska Native adults are enrolled in Medicaid at higher rates than their white counterparts, many tribal leaders feel they’ve been left in the dark as states roll through the tumultuous Medicaid unwinding that started last year.
Tribal Nations Invest Opioid Settlement Funds in Traditional Healing To Treat Addiction
Hundreds of Native American tribes are getting money from settlements with companies that made or sold prescription painkillers. Some are investing it in sweat lodges, statistical models, and insurance-billing staffers.
Rural Americans Are Way More Likely To Die Young. Why?
Three words are commonly repeated to describe rural America and its residents: older, sicker and poorer. Obviously, there’s a lot more going on in the nation’s towns than that tired stereotype suggests. But a new report from the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service gives credence to the “sicker” part of the trope. Rural Americans ages […]
City-Country Mortality Gap Widens Amid Persistent Holes in Rural Health Care Access
People in their prime working years living in rural America are 43% more likely to die of natural causes, like diseases, than their urban counterparts, a disparity that grew rapidly in recent decades, according to a new federal report.
GOP-Led States Expand Crackdowns on Transgender Care
South Carolina’s legislature is poised to pass a bill prohibiting doctors from offering some health-care services to transgender minors — part of a new wave of anti-trans legislation from Republican-led states. The South Carolina bill, which passed the state House of Representatives in January and is under consideration in the Senate, would bar health-care providers […]
Operating in the Red: Half of Rural Hospitals Lose Money, as Many Cut Services
A recent report finds half of America’s rural hospitals are losing money, and many are struggling to stay open. Researchers and advocates worry the hospitals’ financial spiral will have immediate and long-term health effects on their communities.
Avanzan en varios estados proyectos de ley extremos sobre el uso de baños por género
Al menos uno de los proyectos de ley es tan extremo como para proponer que se considere delito que una persona transgénero entre en una instalación que no coincida con el sexo indicado en su acta de nacimiento.
Bathroom Bills Are Back — Broader and Stricter — In Several States
State lawmakers are resurrecting and expanding efforts to prohibit transgender people from using public restrooms and other spaces that match their gender. Some have sought to ban trans people from “sex-designated spaces,” including domestic violence shelters and crisis centers, which experts say could violate anti-discrimination laws and jeopardize federal funding.
Child Care Gaps in Rural America Threaten to Undercut Small Communities
Deep gaps in rural America’s child care system threaten communities’ stability by shrinking the workforce and inhibiting economic potential. Now that pandemic-era federal aid for child care programs and low-income families has ended, it’s up to state and local leaders to find solutions.
Feds Try to Head Off Growing Problem of Overdoses Among Expectant Mothers
Homicides, suicides, and drug overdoses have driven rising rates of pregnancy-related death in the U.S. This fall, six states received federal funding for substance use treatment interventions to prevent at least some of those deaths.
Con cambios en Medicaid, residentes de zonas rurales se sienten abandonados a su suerte
En las zonas rurales, la falta de acceso a navegadores, las personas que ayudan a los beneficiarios de Medicaid a mantener su cobertura o encontrar otro seguro si ya no reúnen los requisitos, podría agravar estas dificultades.
How Will Rural Americans Fare During Medicaid Unwinding? Experts Fear They’re on Their Own
As states review their Medicaid rolls after the expiration of a pandemic-era prohibition against kicking recipients off the government insurance program, experts say the lack of help available to rural Americans in navigating insurance options puts them at greater risk of losing health coverage than people in metropolitan areas.
Tribal Health Workers Aren’t Paid Like Their Peers. See Why Nevada Changed That.
Community health workers, who often help patients get to their appointments and pick up prescriptions for them, have increasingly been recognized as an integral part of treating chronic illnesses. But state-run Medicaid programs don’t always reimburse them equally, usually excluding those who work on tribal lands.
Familias huyen de los estados que niegan atención de salud a las personas trans
Más de una cuarta parte de los adultos trans encuestados por KFF y The Washington Post a fines del año pasado dijeron que se mudaron a otro vecindario, ciudad o estado en busca de un ambiente más tolerante.
Medical Exiles: Families Flee States Amid Crackdown on Transgender Care
As more states restrict gender-affirming care for transgender people, some are relocating to more welcoming destinations, such as California, Illinois, Maryland, and Nevada, where they don’t have to worry about being locked out of medical care.
Foster Kids in Casino Hotels? It Happened in Rural Nevada Amid Widespread Foster Home Shortages
A nationwide decline in foster home spots has led to dire situations in some rural areas, including northeastern Nevada, where a state social worker has been pleading with community leaders to help address a shortage that left officials housing children in casino hotels.
Pequeñas comunidades rurales se han convertido en campos de batalla por el acceso al aborto
La búsqueda por promulgar prohibiciones locales se ha vuelto particularmente crítica en pueblos pequeños, situados en las fronteras entre estados que han restringido el aborto y estados donde las leyes preservan el acceso.