Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Black Americans Still Suffer Worse Health. Here’s Why There’s So Little Progress.
The United States has made almost no progress in closing racial health disparities despite promises, research shows. The government, some critics argue, is often the underlying culprit.
How a Proposed Federal Heat Rule Might Have Saved These Workers’ Lives
Laborers have suffered in extreme heat triggered by climate change. Deaths aren’t inevitable, researchers say: Employers can save lives by providing ample water and breaks.
Los trabajadores están sufriendo, y muriendo, cada vez más, a medida que los veranos se vuelven progresivamente más calurosos debido al cambio climático.
California Mental Health Agency Director To Resign Following Conflict of Interest Allegations
Toby Ewing, executive director of California’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, is resigning amid an investigation into his conduct and revelations that he traveled to the U.K. courtesy of a vendor as he sought to protect state funding for its contract.
Exclusive: Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases of Bird Flu
Emails show how health officials struggle to track the bird flu, partly in deference to the agricultural industry. As a result, researchers don’t know how often farmworkers are being infected — and could miss alarming signals.
PBM Math: Big Chains Are Paid $23.55 To Fill a Blood Pressure Rx. Small Drugstores? $1.51.
Criticism of prescription drug middlemen has intensified recently in the wake of a federal agency’s actions and legislative reform attempts. Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, though, vetoed a related bill that would have helped independent pharmacies, citing the unfunded cost of the move.
A California Official Helped Save a Mental Health Company’s Contract. It Flew Him to London.
The director of a California state mental health agency traveled to the U.K. courtesy of Kooth, a digital mental health company with a $271 million contract to build a therapy app for the state’s youth. Weeks earlier, he pressed key legislative staffers to restore a proposed cut to Kooth’s funding.
Crackdown on Homeless Encampments Raises Public Health Questions
As states turn to the health-care system to help address homelessness, experiments with housing and other social services aimed at getting people healthier and off the streets are running up against new, aggressive crackdowns — with some cities ratcheting up enforcement of existing anticamping laws and others passing new restrictions. From Florida to California, elected […]
Marylanders To Vote on Expansive ‘Right to Reproductive Freedom’
The Right to Reproductive Freedom amendment would enshrine in the state constitution a right “to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”
Residentes de Maryland votarán por un amplio “derecho a la libertad reproductiva”
En Maryland, donde el aborto es legal, una enmienda propuesta consagraría en la constitución estatal un derecho “a tomar y hacer efectivas decisiones para prevenir, continuar o terminar el propio embarazo”.
Mothering Over Meds: Docs Say Common Treatment for Opioid-Exposed Babies Isn’t Necessary
Amid what has been called the fourth wave of the opioid epidemic, doctors and researchers are walking back medication-heavy methods of treating babies born experiencing opioid withdrawal symptoms, replacing the regimen with the simplest care: parenting.
Beneficiarios de Medicare gastarán menos en medicamentos en 2025
El período de inscripción anual para que los beneficiarios de Medicare renueven o cambien su cobertura de medicamentos, o elijan un plan Medicare Advantage, comenzó el 15 de octubre y se extiende hasta el 7 de diciembre.
Watch: ‘Silence in Sikeston & The Effects of Racial Violence’
KFF Health News Midwest correspondent Cara Anthony talks about how racism affects health on Nine PBS’ “Listen, St. Louis with Carol Daniel,” stemming from her reporting for the “Silence in Sikeston” multimedia project, on the impact of a 1942 lynching and a 2020 police killing on a rural Missouri community.
Medicare Drug Plans Are Getting Better Next Year. Some Will Also Cost More.
Every year, Medicare officials encourage beneficiaries to shop around for their drug coverage. Few take the time. This year, it might be more important than ever.
California Continues Progressive Policies, With Restraint, in Divisive Election Year
This legislative cycle, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bills affirming reproductive rights and mandating insurance coverage of in vitro fertilization, but the Democrat was reluctant to impose new regulations and frequently cited costs for vetoing bills.
Mountain Town Confronts an Unexpected Public Health Catastrophe
Flooding wrought by Hurricane Helene devastated communities around Asheville, North Carolina. A host of government programs are helping restore water, food, and medicine.
Helene and CVS Land Double Whammy for 25,000 Patients Who Survive on IV Nutrition
A Massachusetts woman ended up stranded in the hospital because CVS stopped providing the IV nutrition she needs to survive at home. Without it, she’d starve.
Patients Are Relying on Lyft, Uber To Travel Far Distances to Medical Care
Uber and Lyft have become a critical part of the nation’s infrastructure for transporting ailing people from their homes — even in rural areas — to medical care sites in major cities such as Atlanta.
Super Bowl Rally Shooting Victims Pick Up Pieces, but Gun Violence Haunts Their Lives
Eight months after the Feb. 14 shooting, people wounded at the Kansas City Chiefs parade are wary of more gun violence. In this installment of “The Injured,” survivors of the shooting say they feel gun violence is inescapable and are desperately seeking a sense of safety.
Esa incesante oleada de violencia con armas de fuego —desde incidentes puntuales hasta tiroteos masivos— ha terminado aniquilando la sensación de seguridad de quienes sobreviven.
