Georgia Moves To Limit Public Vaping Like Smoking

AP: Georgia Bill Restricting Vaping In Public Gets Final Passage
Georgia lawmakers gave final passage Tuesday to a bill that would restrict vaping in public spaces. The state House voted 152-14 to pass Senate Bill 47, which would regulate vaping in the same way the state already regulates smoking. The bill goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto. (3/21)

AP: Georgia Senators Send Gender Care Restrictions To Governor
A bill banning most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies in Georgia for transgender people under 18 is headed to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk after senators gave it final passage on Tuesday. Senators voted 31-21 along party lines with Republicans pushing through Senate Bill 140, despite impassioned pleas from Democrats and LGBTQ advocates against what has become the most fiercely contested bill of Georgia’s 2023 legislative session. (Amy, 3/21)

More news about transgender health care in Missouri, Iowa, and Nevada —

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri Senate Votes To Limit Transgender Care For Minors, Allow Current Patients To Keep Treatment
Legislation to limit transgender athletes and restrict gender-related health care for minors won initial approval Tuesday morning in the Missouri Senate over Democratic opposition. After returning from behind closed doors at about 7:15 a.m., lawmakers quickly approved the bills and adjourned. They’ll need one more affirmative vote each before heading to the House. (Suntrup and Erickson, 3/21)

AP: Doctors Question Aspects Of Missouri Transgender Care Limits
Missouri’s attorney general has said he will issue an emergency regulation that at least temporarily puts strict limits on transgender medical treatment for youth. The planned rule comes as legislators in that state and many others seek bans or other restrictions on the treatment. Doctors and advocates for the transgender community contend the planned rule contains misleading or incorrect information straight from the playbook of anti-trans activists. Here’s a look at what the rule does and what’s behind some of its assertions. (Tanner, 3/22)

Des Moines Register: Kim Reynolds Says Iowa Should 'Pause' Gender-Affirming Care To Trans Kids
Gov. Kim Reynolds said a bill that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth is about protecting kids from potential long-term effects. Iowa lawmakers have passed a bill, Senate File 538, that would prohibit Iowa doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries to a transgender person younger than 18. Reynolds has thanked the Legislature for passing that bill, indicating she intends to sign it. (Gruber-Miller, 3/21)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Prisons May Be Required To Create Transgender Policies
The Department of Corrections may soon be required to develop standards for the supervision and care of transgender inmates under a bill heard by lawmakers Tuesday. Senate Bill 153, sponsored by Sen. Melanie Scheible, D-Las Vegas, would require the director of the corrections department to create standards for the “supervision, custody, care, security, housing and medical and mental health treatment” of transgender and gender non-conforming offenders. (Avery, 3/21)

Other news from New Hampshire, California, and Florida —

New Hampshire Public Radio: Five Cases Of Legionnaires’ Disease Linked To Campgrounds In Meredith
At least five guests of a Meredith campground facility were sickened with Legionnaires' disease in the past two years, according to New Hampshire public health officials. Meredith Woods and Clearwater Campground advertise an indoor pool and hot tub. Testing by the state confirmed the presence of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ at several locations within the campgrounds’ water systems. (Bookman, 3/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bill Would Pressure Newsom To Speed Work On Single-Payer Health Care
Gov. Gavin Newsom would face new deadlines on his administration’s work to revamp the state’s health care system under a bill unveiled Tuesday in the state Legislature. Newsom, a Democrat, has said for years that he supports creating a government-run health system in California, including while campaigning for governor, but since taking office has not endorsed specific legislation to do so. (Bollag, 3/21)

KHN: Prescription For Housing? California Wants Medicaid To Cover 6 Months Of Rent 
Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose administration is struggling to contain a worsening homelessness crisis despite record spending, is trying something bold: tapping federal health care funding to cover rent for homeless people and those at risk of losing their housing. States are barred from using federal Medicaid dollars to pay directly for rent, but California’s governor is asking the administration of President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, to authorize a new program called “transitional rent,” which would provide up to six months of rent or temporary housing for low-income enrollees who rely on the state’s health care safety net — a new initiative in his arsenal of programs to fight and prevent homelessness. (Hart, 3/22)

KHN and Tampa Bay Times: A Lot Of Thought, Little Action: Proposals About Mental Health Go Unheeded 
Thousands of people struggle to access mental health services in Florida. The treatment system is disjointed and complex. Some residents bounce between providers and are prescribed different medications with clinicians unaware of what happened. Jails and prisons have become de facto homes for many who need care. These problems and more were identified in a scathing report released earlier this year by the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, a 19-person panel that Florida lawmakers created in 2021 to push for reforms of the state’s patchwork of behavioral health services for uninsured people and low-income families. (Ogozalek, 3/22)