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After 9/11, as our defenses against international and bioterrorism hardened, our defenses against infectious diseases shrank. By the time a deadly virus arrived on our shores last year, nearly two-thirds of Americans were living in counties that spend more than twice as much on policing as they spend on public health.
Philanthropies are funding studies of cheap, existing medications like the antidepressant fluvoxamine as covid treatments. But early hype about hydroxychloroquine and other repurposed drugs leaves researchers leery of hasty conclusions.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio were set to roll out a bill Friday that could help unknown thousands of service members who are sick from toxic substances they were exposed to from burning garbage in Afghanistan, Iraq and other war zones.
The underfunding of public health and political backlash destabilized Missouri’s vaccine rollout, creating racial inequity and forcing some residents to drive hours to get shots.
A Texas federal judge, who previously ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, has signaled his openness to ending the law’s popular coverage requirement for preventive services.
Same building. Same procedure. Same doctor. But now you’re charged a hospital facility fee. For one Ohio Medicare patient, the copay for a shot that used to cost her about $30 went up to more than $300.
The little-used Congressional Review Act allows a new administration and Congress to fast-track the repeal of regulations and other executive actions of the previous administration. But neither lawmakers nor the president are making any attempt to use it now.
In his campaign, President Joe Biden promised to undo policies, particularly health policies, implemented by former President Donald Trump. Yet, despite immense executive power, reversing four years of action takes time and resources.
After a bruising confirmation process, Xavier Becerra was sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Services this week. The Senate also confirmed the nominations of former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to return to the post he held in the Obama administration, and former Pennsylvania health secretary Rachel Levine as assistant secretary for health. Levine is the first openly transgender person to receive Senate confirmation. Meanwhile, questions continue to swirl around the AstraZeneca covid vaccine, which some public health experts worry will create more hesitancy toward other vaccines.
The Tuskegee syphilis study is often cited as a reason Black Americans might hesitate to take the covid-19 vaccine. But many people say that current racism in health care and lack of access deserve more attention to move more Black Americans toward vaccine protection.
Clinicians at pediatric hospitals are experimenting with “smell training” among children who had covid-19 and have now lost this sense.
Many inmates at Western Missouri Correctional Center, like their peers in prisons across Missouri and the nation, are hesitant about getting vaccinated against covid-19 because they don’t trust prison health care.
Air-cleaning companies with limited oversight are targeting a growing market of schools desperate for covid-19 protection. Donald Trump’s former covid adviser lands with one that built its business, in part, on ozone-emitting technology.
Democrats’ $1.9 trillion covid relief package will offer some of the most significant help for Americans to pay for health insurance in a decade. But the temporary provisions are complicated. KHN offers tips for consumers.
The $1.9 trillion covid relief bill expands subsidies for private insurance plans. That will lighten the burden on consumers, but it locks taxpayers into yet more support for the health care industry.
A Trump administration Medicare rule will push some hospital patients into a Catch-22: The government says several hundred procedures no longer need to be done in a hospital, but it did not approve them to be performed elsewhere. So patients will still need to use a hospital while not officially admitted — and may be charged more out-of-pocket for the care.
Covid vaccinations are ramping up, so “An Arm and a Leg” checked in on the effort in Philadelphia, where capitalism and compassion have clashed.
In Virginia, if you called 1-877-VAX-IN-VA to register for a vaccine and wanted help in a language other than English or Spanish, the system might hang up on you.
Progressive and conservative Democratic lawmakers, as well as President Joe Biden, are in favor of authorizing federal officials to negotiate with drugmakers over what Medicare pays for at least some of the most expensive brand-name drugs and to base those prices on the drugs’ clinical benefits. Such a measure could put Republicans in the uncomfortable position of opposing an idea that most voters from both parties generally support.
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