The crisis is expected to dramatically worsen as the nationwide demand for in-home nursing skyrockets — just as experienced nurses prepare to retire in record numbers.
The initial statistics shocked me. It turns out, I hadn’t seen anything yet.
It's a high-stakes problem lawmakers across the country are increasingly trying to address.
Why does Indiana have so many cases of child abuse and neglect? Only six states had more in 2016, and they all had much higher populations.
At each turn, the people responsible for her safety failed her — her birth parents, relatives, foster parents, the Indiana Department of Child Services, school officials, therapists and others.
States such as Kentucky and Arizona are seeking to change how their Medicaid programs work through new policies that include work requirements, enrollment lockouts and increased cost sharing.
For reporter Giles Bruce, it wasn't until he jettisoned all his preconceived notions about what was driving Indiana's high infant death rate that he found his real story.
This series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism's National Fellowship.
Other stories in the series include:
Fort Wayne, Ind. mom shares tragic story of losing baby
In Indianapolis, a baby dies every 3 1/2 days
"There exists a class of hyper-polluters — the worst-of-the-worst — that disproportionately expose communities of color and low income populations to chemical releases," researchers write in a 2016 paper.
When it comes to getting kids into health coverage, the numbers have never been better. By the first quarter of 2015, the percentage of kids without insurance was less than 5 percent. But despite the gains made in improving children’s coverage, big challenges remain on the horizon.
