12 States Promised To Open the Books on Their Opioid Settlement Funds. We Checked Up on Them.
To discover how millions in opioid settlement funds are being spent in Idaho, you can visit the state attorney general’s website, which hosts 91 documents from state and local entities getting the money. What you’ll find is a lot of bureaucratese. Nearly three years ago, these jurisdictions signed an agreement promising annual reports “specifying the…
Paid Sick Leave Is Up for a Vote in Three States
ST. LOUIS — Voters in Missouri, Nebraska, and Alaska will soon decide whether workers in those states should be entitled to paid sick leave. If approved, the ballot measures would allow many workers to accrue paid time off, a benefit supporters say means workers — especially those with low-paying jobs — would no longer have…
What’s at Stake: A Pivotal Election for Six Big Health Issues
In the final days of the campaign, stark disagreements between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump over the future of American health care are on display — in particular, in sober warnings about abortion access, the specter of future cuts to the Affordable Care Act, and bold pronouncements about empowering activists eager…
For People With Opioid Addiction, Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Raises the Stakes
CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — It was hard enough for Stephanie to get methadone treatment when she moved to Florida from Indiana last year. The nearest clinic was almost an hour’s drive away and she couldn’t drive herself. But at least she didn’t have to worry about the cost of care. As a parent with young…
How a Proposed Federal Heat Rule Might Have Saved These Workers’ Lives
On a sweltering afternoon in July 2020, Belinda Ramones got a call that her brother was in the hospital. The call was from a woman at the Florida landscaping business that he had joined that week, the Davey Tree Expert Co., Ramones said. By the time she arrived, she said, “My brother was swollen up…
Black Americans Still Suffer Worse Health. Here’s Why There’s So Little Progress
KINGSTREE, S.C. — One morning in late April, a small brick health clinic along the Thurgood Marshall Highway bustled with patients. There was Joshua McCray, 69, a public bus driver who, four years after catching covid-19, still is too weak to drive. Louvenia McKinney, 77, arrived complaining about shortness of breath. Ponzella McClary brought her…
Exclusive: Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases of Bird Flu
Bird flu cases have more than doubled in the country within a few weeks, but researchers can’t determine why the spike is happening because surveillance for human infections has been patchy for seven months. Just this week, California reported its 15th infection in dairy workers and Washington state reported seven probable cases in poultry workers.…