In a Dusty Corner of California, Trump’s Threatened Cuts to Asthma Care Raise Fears

KFF Health News Original

The Trump administration wants to shutter the CDC’s National Asthma Control Program, which provides millions in funding to state-administered initiatives aimed at fighting the disease. The program’s closure, combined with massive cuts to environmental programs, could put the 28 million Americans with asthma at increased risk.

Ballad Health’s Hospital Monopoly Underperformed. Then Tennessee Lowered the Bar.

KFF Health News Original

Ballad Health, a state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in Tennessee and Virginia, can now be deemed a “clear and convincing” benefit to the public with performance that would earn a “D” on most grading scales, according to Tennessee state documents.

Watch: In a ‘Dead Zone,’ Doctors Don’t Practice and Telehealth Doesn’t Reach

KFF Health News Original

Chief rural health correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble explains how millions of rural Americans live in counties with doctor shortages and where high-speed internet connections aren’t adequate to access advanced telehealth services.

Feds Chop Enforcement Staff and Halt Rules Meant To Curb Black Lung in Coal Miners

KFF Health News Original

The Trump administration has paused implementation of a rule limiting miners’ exposure to airborne silica dust days after a federal court agreed to put it on hold to hear an industry challenge. The protections are meant to head off a surge in cases of black lung disease. Meanwhile, any enforcement of new standards might be meager due to workforce cuts.

In Arizona County That Backed Trump, Conflicted Feelings About Cutting Medicaid

KFF Health News Original

Medicaid plays a vital role in many rural communities that favored President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. But residents still seem open to Republican proposals to cut perceived waste in the program.

Federal Cuts Ripple Through a Bioscience Hub in Rural Montana

KFF Health News Original

The National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, is one of only a few dozen research facilities of its type. The threat of staffing and grant cuts has town leaders worried and has added to long-standing tension around the lab’s presence in this politically conservative region.

Rural Patients Face Tough Choices When Their Hospitals Stop Delivering Babies

KFF Health News Original

More than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies since 2021, including a South Dakota hospital that serves small towns, farming communities, and a Native American reservation. Patients there now travel at least an hour to give birth.

Housing, Nutrition in Peril as Trump Pulls Back Medicaid Social Services

KFF Health News Original

About half of states have broadened Medicaid, the state-federal low-income health care program, to pay for social services such as housing and nutritional support. The Trump administration, however, views these experiments as distractions from the core mission to provide health care.

Los hospitales que atienden partos en zonas rurales están cada vez más lejos de las embarazadas

KFF Health News Original

Más de un centenar de hospitales rurales han dejado de atender partos desde 2021, según el Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. El cierre de los servicios de obstetricia se suele achacar a la falta de personal y la falta de presupuesto.

Mental Health and Substance Misuse Treatment Is Increasingly a Video Chat or Phone Call Away

KFF Health News Original

More Californians are getting mental health or substance use disorder treatment online or over the phone than in person, according to a KFF Health News analysis of UCLA’s latest California Health Interview Survey. But the telehealth experience isn’t always positive.

Flawed Federal Programs Maroon Rural Americans in Telehealth Blackouts

KFF Health News Original

Taxpayers — through federal infrastructure programs — have paid billions of dollars to internet companies to hook up rural Americans. Some communities have nothing to show for it, leaving medically vulnerable rural patients disconnected and without access to telehealth.