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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.
The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening regulation of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic gas used to sterilize medical devices. The agency is trying to balance the interests of the health care industry supply chain with those of communities where the gas creates airborne health risks.
Casinos in several states are fighting efforts to ban smoking, and trying to roll back existing anti-smoking laws. One planned facility even moved outside a city’s limits because of voter-approved smoking restrictions.
Abortion restrictions in 18 states have curtailed access to training in skills that doctors say are critical for OB-GYN specialists and others. A new California law makes it easier for out-of-state doctors to get experience in reproductive medicine.
Even in states where laws protect minors’ access to gender-affirming care, malpractice insurance premiums are keeping small and independent clinics from treating patients.
Thousands of people shared their experiences and related to the financial drain on families portrayed in the “Dying Broke” series, a joint project by KFF Health News and The New York Times that examined the costs of long-term care.
As many states have moved to restrict or ban gender-affirming care for trans people, a few states, including New Mexico, have codified protections. But those laws don’t always mean accessing care is simple or quick, as a surge in new patients in the state collides with limited doctors and clinics.
More than 16 million Americans who buy their own health insurance through state and federal marketplaces have until Jan. 15 to compare prices, change their coverage, or enroll for the first time.
Some Social Security beneficiaries say the government is clawing back benefits after they received covid stimulus payments that were supposed to be exempt from asset limits.
With the community’s help, former co-workers came together to fill gaps in care left by the loss of doctors and departments at a Gallup, New Mexico, hospital.
The first FDA-authorized cigarettes with 95% less nicotine than traditional smokes will go on sale in California, Florida, and Texas starting in early July. Anti-smoking groups oppose greenlighting just one plant biotech’s products and instead urge federal regulators to set a low-nicotine standard for the entire industry.
Though most California counties are experimenting with dispatching health professionals rather than law enforcement to respond to people experiencing mental health crises, powerful police unions fear defunding.
A federal program meant to reduce maternal and infant mortality in rural areas isn’t reaching Black women who are most likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch urges stronger federal and state action to hold hospitals to account for a medical debt crisis that now burdens more than 100 million Americans.
After local leaders in rural Nevada reached an impasse over a proposed Planned Parenthood clinic, an anti-abortion activist pitching local abortion bans across the U.S. arrived at their remote City Hall.
A federally funded program in remote New Mexico has helped hundreds of pregnant mothers stay healthy, but it’s running out of time and money despite a growing national maternity care crisis. The four-year, nearly $3 million grant has provided telehealth, coordinated care, and social services to mothers in need.
Drugmakers, pharmacies, and physicians blame pharmacy benefit managers for high drug prices. Congress is finally on board, too, but will it matter?
Individuals newly released from prison are 40 times as likely to die of opioid overdoses than members of the general population, researchers say. In response, California corrections officials aim to arm departing inmates with an antidote that can be used to reverse the effects of opioid poisoning.
A Donald Trump-appointed federal judge agreed that even the possibility that the father’s daughters might access contraception without his permission violated the tenants of his Christian faith.
Hospitals in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma are among the first to apply for a new rural hospital payment model that shifts the focus of services away from overnight stays to outpatient and emergency care. Still, experts say the law needs to be amended to provide the right mix of care for rural communities.
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