Healthcare Systems & Policy

Researchers found that California diabetics who live in low-income neighborhoods are up to 10 times more likely to lose a toe, foot or leg than patients who live in affluent areas. Early diagnosis and proper treatment can prevent many of these amputations, researchers said.

Poverty and Class, Chronic Disease

In Texas, a lot of things really are larger than life – especially the drama in politics. I saw it first-hand while reporting last legislative session on the rhetoric around the Affordable Care Act and the rollout of the federal health insurance marketplace. Even seems fitting that HBO has chosen Te

Health Insurance and Costs, Healthcare Regulation and Reform

Up to a million undocumented immigrants in California are expected to remain uninsured after the ACA is fully implemented in 2019. One California community is trying to meet some of the unmet health needs by partnering with community health centers and hosting a physician’s assistant once a week.

Chronic Disease, Healthcare Regulation and Reform, Immigrant and Migrant Health

We all love firing up our cellphones to write a text or a tweet, or maybe to engage in a quick game of Candy Crush.  But could we turn to the tiny glowing screens to get healthier, too?

Chronic Disease, Healthcare Regulation and Reform

Heroin addiction grabbed the national spotlight recently after famed actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died on Super Bowl Sunday. He was almost certainly not alone that day — about 100 Americans die every day from drug overdoses. Can anything be done to stop this?

Healthcare Regulation and Reform

When Covered California reports its health insurance enrollment figures each month, one worrying statistic consistently jumps out –- the low number of Latinos signing up. This became the top news story out of the exchange in January, overshadowing the overall positive numbers.

Health Insurance and Costs, Immigrant and Migrant Health

I was a bit surprised by how readily this new physician I visited agreed to prescribe more pain medication for me. My previous experience before I was a cancer patient was that doctors were unwilling to prescribe highly addictive drugs — but they weren’t palliative care doctors, like him.

Healthcare Regulation and Reform

For the 47 million Americans dependent on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the bad news keeps on coming. Cuts in November might be followed by billions more as Congress considers legislation.

Chronic Disease, Food and Nutrition

By 2012, when I started my fellowship project, several journalists -- in Philadelphia and nationally -- had written extensively about the “built environment,” food deserts and healthy food access. For my project, I looked to answer the question: “What else in a neighborhood matters to health?”

Environmental Health

The U.S. locks up more individuals per capita than any other country in the world. We have 2.2 million people behind bars – up 500% from 30 years ago. This situation raises important questions for policy makers, and it’s a rich area for journalistic exploration.

Chronic Disease, Health Insurance and Costs, Environmental Health