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Some states bar professional midwives from attending home births if they don’t have a nursing license. Their advocates say laws to allow midwife licensing would make home birth safer and more accessible, plus help address a maternity care shortage.
States are rolling out plans for their share of a $50 billion fund meant to improve rural health care. In some states, the money may provoke rural hospitals to cut services.
Across California and the nation, health providers, advocates, local officials, and state legislators are eyeing tax increases to offset a loss of more than $900 billion in federal Medicaid dollars as a result of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In Los Angeles County, community clinics have banded together in support of a half-cent sales tax.
Scientists are cheering California Gov. Gavin Newsom as he builds a public health bulwark against health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine stance and President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Still, federal cuts have sapped morale and left local health departments less prepared for outbreaks.
Mobile crisis units are trained to respond to emergency calls when people are experiencing delusions or hallucinations. But unlike police departments, which are generally funded by local taxpayers, mobile crisis teams don’t have a single, reliable funding source. As a result, some are closing down, despite successful operations and local support.
More than 1,000 American nurses have successfully applied for licensure in British Columbia since April, a massive increase over prior years. Ontario and Alberta have also seen more interest from Americans.
At least eight states are considering legislation to curtail wage garnishment over unpaid medical bills, as health care costs rise and more people become underinsured.
The state recently became the third to offer a public option health plan through its Affordable Care Act marketplace. But researchers said it’s unlikely to fill the gaps left by sweeping changes at the federal level.
Experts say Affordable Care Act sign-up data won’t be clear until people who were enrolled have paid — or haven't paid — their new, often much higher, premiums.
Progressives are assailing Gov. Gavin Newsom for proposing to pull back coverage for some legal residents, such as refugees and asylum-seekers, while conservatives lambaste the California Democrat for using limited state funds on Medicaid coverage for immigrants without legal status.
Two Trump administration regulatory rollbacks affect nursing home staffing and home care workers, and a new AI experiment in Medicare has alarmed eldercare advocates and congressional Democrats.
Native American women face higher rates of death than other demographics. In response, Native Americans have been working with state and federal officials to boost tribal participation and leadership in maternal mortality review committees to better track and address pregnancy-related deaths.
Paid home care is buckling under the surging demands of an aging population. But there are alternatives that could upgrade jobs and improve patient care.
There has been a steep rise in the share of people with severe mental illnesses being sent to state psychiatric hospitals on court orders after being accused of serious crimes. The shift has all but halted patients’ ability to get care before they have a catastrophic crisis.
Columbia Memorial Hospital near Oregon’s coastline planned to add a tsunami shelter, counting on a FEMA grant. After the Trump administration cut the funding, hospital officials are building anyway, saying waiting is too risky. A judge ruled Dec. 11 that the administration unlawfully ended the program without congressional approval.
The Trump administration has championed its Rural Health Transformation Program as an investment in American families who have been left behind. But Native American tribes, whose communities have a significant presence in rural America and have some of the greatest health needs, are ineligible to apply directly for funding.
Federal health authorities have taken the "unprecedented" step of instructing states to investigate certain individuals on Medicaid to determine whether they are ineligible because of their immigration status, with five states reporting they’ve received more than 170,000 names collectively.
The HHS office that administers the Title X family planning program has been effectively shut down. And with cuts to federal funding for other family health programs, expected Medicaid cuts, and the potential lapse of ACA subsidies, health leaders fear they are seeing the biggest setback to U.S. reproductive care in half a century.
Reversing guidance from the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concludes that states cannot bar medical debt from their residents’ credit reports.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have expanded access to hormone therapy, a top priority for the trans community. Advocates say it would have ensured continuity in gender-affirming care amid Trump administration attacks. Analysts say it’s another sign of the Democrat’s move to the center.
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