RAPID CITY, S.D. — Echo Kopplin wants South Dakota’s leaders to know that money from a new $50 billion federal rural health fund should help residents with limited transportation options. Kopplin, a physician assistant who works with seniors, low-income people, and mental health patients in the rural Black Hills, shared her thoughts at a meeting…
When President Donald Trump posted a satirical music video on social media in early October depicting his budget director, Russell Vought, as the Grim Reaper lording over Democrats in Congress, public health workers recognized a kernel of truth. Vought has exerted extraordinary control over government spending this year, usurping congressional decisions on how the nation’s…
SACRAMENTO, California. — La iniciativa del presidente Donald Trump de eliminar un programa federal de preparación ante situaciones de desastre ha generado preocupación entre funcionarios de salud estatales, tanto en Texas —gobernado por republicanos— como en California, bastión demócrata. El Programa de Preparación Hospitalaria (HPP) fue creado hace más de dos décadas tras los ataques…
John Cleveland is ready to pay a lot more for his health insurance next year. He hasn’t forgotten the pile of hospital bills that awaited him after he had a seizure while tending to customers in his Austin, Texas, barbershop four years ago. Once doctors hurriedly removed the dangerous tumor growing on his brain, a…
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate a federal disaster preparedness program threatens a fund used by state health systems from Republican-led Texas to the Democratic stronghold of California. The Hospital Preparedness Program was created more than two decades ago in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City’s…
A large study from Massachusetts has found that babies whose mothers had covid-19 while pregnant were slightly more likely to have a range of neurodevelopmental diagnoses by age 3. Most of these children had speech or motor delays, and the link was strongest in boys and when the mother was infected late in pregnancy. The…
Cuando hay un brote de una enfermedad prevenible con vacunas, los funcionarios estatales de salud pública habitualmente toman ciertas medidas para alertar a los residentes y difundir actualizaciones sobre la amenaza creciente. Esa es la práctica estándar, según expertos en salud pública y enfermedades infecciosas consultados por KFF Health News y NPR. El objetivo es…
When there’s an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, state health officials typically take certain steps to alert residents and issue public updates about the growing threat. That’s standard practice, public health and infectious disease experts told KFF Health News and NPR. The goal is to keep as many other vulnerable people as possible from getting…
In the heart of Appalachia, law enforcement is often seen as being on the front line of the addiction crisis. Bre Dolan, a 35-year-old resident of Hardy County, West Virginia, understands why. Throughout her childhood, when her dad had addiction and mental health crises, police officers were often the first ones to respond. Dolan calls…
Officials in Irvington, New Jersey, had an idea. To raise awareness about the dangers of opioid use and addiction, the township could host concerts with popular R&B artists like Q Parker and Musiq Soulchild. It spent more than $600,000 in 2023 and 2024 to pay for the shows, even footing the bill for VIP trailers…