Left Behind: Medicaid Patients Say Rides to Doctors Don’t Always Come

States are required to set up transportation to medical appointments for adults, children and people with disabilities enrolled in the Medicaid program, and contracts can be worth tens of millions of dollars for transportation companies. But patients say the companies that deliver those rides are showing up late — and sometimes not at all — leaving them in bad weather, disrupting their care and even causing injuries.

South Dakota Voters to Decide Medicaid Expansion

Despite state Republican leaders’ rigid opposition to expanding the health program designed for low-income residents, advocates successfully gathered enough signatures to get the measure on the fall ballot.

As Covid Hits Nursing Homes’ Finances, Town Residents Fight to Save Alzheimer’s Facility

Fear of covid has kept some adults from moving to nursing homes, and many facilities are in trouble financially. When Nevada, Missouri, officials announced they were planning to close a home specializing in dementia care, members of the community rose up in protest.

Deep Roots Help This Chicago Pharmacist Avoid Creating Another Drugstore Desert

Predominantly Black and Hispanic urban areas are more likely than white neighborhoods to see local pharmacies close and are more likely to be pharmacy deserts. In Chicago, one pharmacist is bucking the trend, operating the drugstore his father opened in the 1960s in a Black neighborhood.

Local Pharmacists Fill Rx Void as Big Brands Pull Out of Rural Areas

Stores like Walmart and Shopko opened pharmacies in small towns, either buying out the local pharmacy or driving it out of business. What happens when those chains later withdraw, leaving communities with no pharmacy?

A Tale of Two Medicaid Expansions: Oklahoma Jumps In, While Missouri Lags

Voters in Missouri and Oklahoma approved Medicaid expansion to begin in 2021. But while Oklahoma has enrolled over 200,000 people so far, Missouri has enrolled fewer than 20,000. Why are two such similar states handling the public insurance rollout so differently?

Quarantine and Tracing Rules Are All Over the Map for Students

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers guidance but calls for localities to set quarantine rules for unvaccinated children exposed to someone with covid-19. That’s led to a pandemic patchwork of rules.

As Big Pharma and Hospitals Battle Over Drug Discounts, Patients Miss Out on Millions in Benefits

The number of pharmacies dispensing 340B discounted drugs soared to more than 31,000 this year. Drugmakers struck back by halting some discounts. Hospitals say they are losing millions of dollars — and cutting back services to patients — as a result.

Missouri’s Thin Dental Safety Net Stretched Amid Medicaid Expansion

An estimated 275,000 Missouri adults can get dental insurance now as the state has expanded who is eligible for Medicaid. But with so few dentists participating in the program, the state’s already-backlogged dental clinics are facing a glut of new clients.

How Rural Communities Are Losing Their Pharmacies

More than 1,000 independent rural pharmacies have closed since 2003, leaving 630 communities with no retail drugstore. As 41 million people stuck in pharmacy deserts make do, the remaining drugstores struggle to survive.

How One Health Center Is Leading Chicago on Kid Covid Shots

A health center with clinics on Chicago’s southwest side that serves mostly Hispanic patients has provided the most covid shots to kids in the city by being accessible, (literally) speaking the language of the community and setting up pop-up clinics at schools and parks. It provides a few lessons as the nation gears up to vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds.

‘Drinking Through a Lead Straw’ — $15B Approved to Fix Dangerous Water Pipes

The infrastructure bill passed Friday funnels $15 billion into lead pipe remediation. Water quality experts say the cost of getting rid of all lead pipes could ultimately cost $60 billion. Still, some health advocates say the new funding will be transformative in allowing communities such as Houston’s Fifth Ward to fix its pipes.

If Congress Adds Dental Coverage to Medicare, Should All Seniors Get It?

Health equity advocates see a once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide a dental benefit to millions of older Americans as Congress considers expanding Medicare services. But complicating that push is a debate over how many of the more than 60 million Medicare recipients should receive dental coverage.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Biden Social-Spending ‘Framework’ Pulls Back on Key Health Pledges

President Joe Biden unveiled a compromise “Build Back Better” framework shortly before taking off for key meetings in Europe, but it’s unclear whether the framework can win the votes of all Democrats in the House and Senate, and it leaves out some of the party’s health priorities, notably significant provisions to lower prescription drug prices. Meanwhile, younger children may soon be eligible for covid vaccines. Joanne Kenen of Politico and Johns Hopkins, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachana Pradhan of KHN join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.