North Carolina’s Governor Vetoes Bills Aimed At Limiting LGBTQ+ Rights
The AP notes that there is a Republican supermajority in North Carolina, but nevertheless its Democratic governor has blocked bills limiting gender care for minors, restricting trans participation in school sports, and limiting what educators can say about gender and sexuality.
AP:
North Carolina Governor Vetoes Trio Of LGBTQ+ Restrictions In Ongoing Fight With GOP Supermajority
North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed Wednesday a trio of bills aimed at LGBTQ+ youth that would ban gender-affirming health care for minors, restrict transgender participation in school sports and limit classroom instruction about gender identity and sexuality. (Schoenbaum, 7/5)
NBC News:
Barriers To Transgender Health Care Lead Some To Embrace A Do-It-Yourself Approach
Max Adomat considers themself fortunate. Adomat, 26, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, has been on a steady regimen of feminizing hormones for the last six years. They also began their gender transition in New Jersey, a progressive state where clinics offering transition-related medical care are commonplace, and name changes are confidential, they said. (Rosenthal, 7/5)
In Medicaid news —
The Baltimore Sun:
Maryland Medicaid Expands Benefits To Include Community Violence Prevention, Pregnancy Care For Non-U.S. Citizens
Maryland Medicaid will start paying for some community violence prevention services, peer recovery support services in certain settings, and pregnancy and postpartum care for people whether or not they’re a U.S. citizen under benefits expansions announced earlier this week. (Roberts, 7/5)
New Hampshire Bulletin:
NH Adults On Medicaid Now Have Dental Benefits. Many Can’t Get Appointments
Three months after the state agreed to cover basic dental care for adults on Medicaid, less than 15% of the state’s 850 dentists and oral surgeons have signed on. And fewer are actually taking patients. Almost half of those 125 providers in the state’s new New Hampshire Smiles Program have set limits on their participation. Some will take only five patients, and others want more time before taking any. (Timmins, 7/5)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer:
Ohio To Seek Work Requirement (Again) For Medicaid Enrollees
Ohio will again ask the federal government in 2025 whether it can impose a work requirement on residents who get health insurance through Medicaid. Language contained in the state budget, which Gov. Mike DeWine signed Tuesday, requires Ohio to apply to the federal government to impose the new rule. If granted, able-bodied Ohioans 55 and younger would need to either work or study for at least 20 hours per week (with exceptions for the mentally ill and some others) as a term of enrollment for Medicaid, a state and federally funded program that provides insurance for lower-income Americans. (Zuckerman, 7/6)
More health news from across the U.S. —
Minnesota Public Radio:
Drug Makers Sue Over Minnesota's New Prescription Price Controls
A trade association that represents makers of generic medicines sued Wednesday over a new Minnesota law intended to hold down prescription drug price increases. The Association for Accessible Medicines sued in U.S. District Court, claiming the price-control law passed this year violates the federal commerce clause. The law took effect on Saturday. (Bakst, 7/5)
AP:
Bobcat That Attacked A Camper In Connecticut Tests Positive For Rabies
A bobcat that attacked a camper in a hammock at a Connecticut state park has tested positive for rabies. The man was among several adults leading a group of young campers last week in Selden Neck State Park, an island in the Connecticut River in Lyme, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said in a news release Monday. (7/5)
St. Louis Public Radio:
Weekend Storm Deaths Again Put Spotlight On St. Louis’ 911 System
The spotlight is again on St. Louis’ beleaguered 911 system after the deaths of two people during severe thunderstorms over the weekend. Katherine Coen, 33, died Saturday after a tree fell on her car in the city’s Grove neighborhood. In Jennings, a 5-year-old boy, Robert Lawrence, died when a tree fell onto his family’s house. In both cases multiple calls to 911 went unanswered. The responses are now being investigated. (Lippmann, 7/5)
KFF Health News:
Montana Adds Protections For Kids In Private Residential Treatment Programs
As a teenager attending Chrysalis Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls, a private, alternative therapeutic program in Eureka, Montana, from 2001 to 2004, Meg Applegate was subjected to emotional abuse and not given medical care for injuries from physical labor such as baling hay, chopping wood, and moving rocks, she said. Yet she couldn’t communicate what she was going through to her parents because she was not allowed unmonitored phone calls with them for over a year. Applegate, along with her parents, and other students who attended similar alternative, for-profit behavior modification programs in Montana testified about their experiences to help pass a new law that aims to bolster protections for teens in programs that are part of what is commonly referred to as the “troubled teen industry.” (Evans, 7/6)
