KFF Health News Weekly Edition: Aug. 9, 2024

Medi-Cal’s Dental Care Gap: Getting a Tooth Pulled Is Easy — Much Harder To Get an Implant
By Molly Castle Work California is among a growing number of states that offer dental benefits to low-income residents, but some lawmakers want the state to go further by covering more cleanings and costlier implants. Dentists and health experts worry the approach doesn’t address the root of the problem: Many providers don’t accept Medicaid.

‘Scared to Death’: Nurses and Residents Confront Rampant Violence in Dementia Care Facilities
By Jordan Rau Clashes between residents — verbal, physical, and sexual — can be spontaneous and too unpredictable to prevent. But the chance of an altercation increases when memory care homes admit and retain residents they can’t manage, according to a KFF Health News examination of inspection and court records and interviews with researchers.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': The Walz Record
Vice President Kamala Harris this week officially became the Democratic nominee for president and named Minnesota governor and former U.S. congressman Tim Walz as her running mate. Meanwhile, a new study finds the number of abortions taking place since the overturn of “Roe v. Wade” continued to rise into early this year, despite the imposition of abortion bans around the country. Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

The Politics Holding Back Medicaid Expansion in Some Southern States
By Drew Hawkins, Gulf States Newsroom Ten states have not expanded Medicaid, leaving 1.5 million people ineligible for the state and federal insurance program and also unable to afford private insurance. Seven of those states are in the South, where expansion efforts may have momentum but where lawmakers say political polarization is holding them back.

How Little Denmark Got Homegrown Giant Novo Nordisk To Lower Ozempic Prices
By Arthur Allen As Congress pushes for Medicare to cover payment for anti-obesity drugs, Denmark — Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk’s home — has limited coverage of the drug after cost overruns “emptied all the money boxes in the entire public health system.”

Social Media Bans Could Deny Teenagers Mental Health Help
By Daniel Chang Illustration by Oona Zenda Congress and state legislatures are considering age bans and other limits for Instagram and TikTok out of concern that they harm kids’ mental health. But some researchers and pediatricians question whether there’s enough data to support that conclusion.

Small-Town Patients Face Big Hurdles as Rural Hospitals Cut Cancer Care
By Charlotte Huff For rural patients, getting cancer treatment close to home has always been difficult. And now chemotherapy deserts are expanding across the United States as hospitals winnow services to save money, creating financial and logistical hurdles for people seeking lifesaving care.

Harris’ California Health Care Battles Signal Fights Ahead for Hospitals if She Wins
By Bernard J. Wolfson and Phil Galewitz Kamala Harris fought health care consolidation during her tenure as California’s attorney general, and she could escalate the fight nationally if she wins in November. Still, the pace of mergers has accelerated.

‘I Feel Dismissed’: People Experiencing Colorism Say Health System Fails Them
By Chaseedaw Giles Illustration by Oona Zenda Colorism — a form of prejudice and discrimination in which lighter skin is favored over darker skin — has been associated with mental health conditions such as depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety. But skin tone often goes unaddressed with therapists and clinical specialists.

Shingles Vaccine May Stall Dementia, and Vaccine Mandates Save Lives, Studies Suggest
KFF Health News senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health Céline Gounder discussed vaccines in a couple of recent media appearances.

Inside Project 2025: Former Trump Official Outlines Hard Right Turn Against Abortion
By Stephanie Armour Former President Donald Trump has distanced himself from a Heritage Foundation document that outlines positions on abortion and a range of other social issues. But Democrats view it as a window into the far right’s to-do list and a clear opening for political attack.

Native American Public Health Officials Are Stuck in Data Blind Spot
By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez 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.

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