In recent years, hospitals that serve small rural communities across the nation have closed their doors at a disquieting rate, essentially one per month.
Chronic Disease
Last week, the House narrowly passed the American Health Care Act. We've asked journalists, nonprofit leaders, and health care practitioners to share what they’re hearing from people in their cities and states.
During last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live! the late night host told the emotional story of his newborn son Billy, linking the story to the current debate on pre-existing conditions in Congress.
The Bay Area air district is currently weighing a proposed cap on greenhouse gases and pollutants coming from the five Bay Area refineries. The cap would in effect freeze local refineries at their current levels of production.
"Our health care system remains in a crisis," writes the CEO of Molina Healthcare. "Both the AHCA and the ACA only address the funding of health care and fail to tackle the troubling rate at which health care costs are rising."
There is a bizarre paradox in the culture of medicine: The system generates more data than ever, but questionable priorities are limiting our ability to effectively use it.
"I’ve been startled to see the debate over the AHCA reignite a political philosophy and policy approach that seemed to be have been discredited — and be in sharp decline," writes former health care journalist Michael Millenson.
In California’s Merced County, residents are more likely to be exposed to tobacco, suffer from poor air quality, or die of heart disease. At the same time, the region faces a long-running shortage of doctors.
Black women have twice the risk of developing breast cancer as white women, and three times the mortality rate. They also have far less access to screening.
The shortage of doctors in California’s San Joaquin Valley has long impacted Central Californians in a very real way. Will efforts to combat the shortage make a difference?