Millions of Americans mired in medical debt face difficult financial decisions every day — pay the debt or pay for rent, utilities and groceries. Some may even skip necessary health care for fear of sinking deeper into debt. To address the problem, an increasing number of municipal, county and state governments are devising plans to […]
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A bill criminalizing gender-affirming healthcare for minors overwhelmingly passed the Idaho House Thursday, despite warnings from opponents who said it would likely increase suicide rates among teens. The bill, which would subject physicians to felony charges if they provide puberty blockers, hormone treatment or gender-affirming surgeries to transgender youth under 18, […]
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Nearly one-quarter of Oklahomans receiving health care through Medicaid, about 300,000 people, will no longer be eligible by the end of this year, mostly because they or a parent earn too much to qualify, state health officials said Tuesday. Oklahoma Health Care Authority CEO Kevin Corbett outlined the state’s plan to […]
Plumes of smoke, questions about dead animals, worries about the drinking water. A train derailment in Ohio and subsequent burning of some of the hazardous chemicals has people asking: How worried should they be? It’s been more than a week since about 50 cars of a freight train derailed in a fiery, mangled mess on […]
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish mother of seven has successfully given birth to premature quintuplets, hospital officials in southern Poland said Tuesday. The two boys and three girls were born through cesarean section Sunday, in the pregnancy’s 28th week, at the University Hospital in Krakow. Weighing between 710-1,400 grams (25-49 ounces,) they were all […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people with medical debt on their credit reports fell by 8.2 million — or 17.9% — between 2020 and 2022, according to a report Tuesday from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. White House officials said in a separate draft report that the two-year drop likely stems from their […]
A few months after South Dakota banned abortion last year, April Matson drove more than nine hours to take a friend to a Colorado clinic to get the procedure. The trip brought back difficult memories of Matson’s own abortion at the same clinic in 2016. The former grocery store worker and parent of two couldn’t […]
BEIRUT (AP) — Gunmen stormed a Syrian hospital that is caring for a baby girl who was born under the rubble of her family’s earthquake-shattered home, and the attackers beat the facility’s director, a hospital official said Tuesday. The official denied reports on social media that the Monday night attack was an attempt to kidnap […]
ATAREB, Syria (AP) — Draped in a heavy wool shawl against the cold, Ayesha dragged her feet, her toddler granddaughter trailing behind her, as they made the 15-minute walk from her tent to the nearest bathroom in a nearby building, the only place they have to wash. Seven days after the earthquake leveled their home […]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The case of a homeless man who froze to death in Alaska’s second-largest city of Fairbanks has exposed a hole in the safety net of care provided to a vulnerable population in one of the coldest places in the country. The city has no low-barrier shelter to provide help and a […]
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein won’t defend state restrictions on dispensing abortion pills that are being challenged in a lawsuit and instead will argue the restrictions are preempted by federal regulations protecting access to the pills, Stein’s office said Monday. The decision by Stein, a Democrat, means Republican legislative leaders […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are kicking off an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 by requesting documents and testimony for current and former Biden administration officials. The Republican chairmen of the House Oversight Committee and the Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic are seeking information, including from Dr. Anthony Fauci, concerning the idea that the […]
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Nearly two years after Arkansas became the first state to enact a now-blocked ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Republican lawmakers are trying to effectively reinstate the ban with a proposal Monday to make it easier to file malpractice lawsuits against doctors who provide such care. The proposal, which has […]
The pandemic took a harsh toll on U.S. teen girls’ mental health, with almost 60% reporting feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness, according to a government survey released Monday that bolsters earlier data. Sexual violence, suicidal thoughts, suicidal behavior and other mental health woes affected many teens regardless of race or ethnicity, but girls and […]
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The World Health Organization says that Equatorial Guinea has confirmed its first-ever outbreak of Marburg disease, saying the Ebola-related virus is responsible for at least nine deaths in the tiny Western African country. In a statement on Monday, the U.N. health agency confirmed the epidemic after samples from Equatorial Guinea were […]
BEIRUT (AP) — A baby girl born under the rubble of her family’s home in northern Syria after last week’s devastating earthquake was in good health Monday and being breast-fed by the wife of the director of the hospital where she is being cared for, her doctor said. The infant, named Aya — Arabic for […]
LONDON (AP) — Camilla, Britain’s queen consort, has tested positive for COVID-19 after suffering from cold symptoms, Buckingham Palace said Monday. The wife of King Charles III cancelled all her engagements this week “and sends her sincere apologies to those who had been due to attend them.” Camilla, 75, tested positive once before – last […]
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — As a child welfare specialist for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma more than a decade ago, Juli Skinner saw firsthand the impact of the opioid crisis on Cherokee families. Parents who began using the powerful painkillers after a surgery or injury became hooked and were losing custody of their children, babies […]
A 2010 federal law that boosted nutrition standards for school meals may have begun to help slow the rise in obesity among America’s children — even teenagers who can buy their own snacks, a new study showed. The national study found a small but significant decline in the average body mass index of more than […]
RIP Medical Debt has found a working formula to relieve medical debt for millions of people. It still has room to grow. The New York nonprofit uses donations to buy medical debt in bulk from hospitals and debt collectors for pennies on the dollar. It mostly targets the debt of people with low incomes and […]
CAIRO (AP) — She remembers it all: How female relatives held her down when she was 11, legs spread and genitals exposed. The fear that stiffened her body. The stranger in black holding the scissors. And the pain. Like so many others, the 34-year-old Egyptian woman has lived with the psychological and physical repercussions of […]
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Fifteen years after the Australian Parliament’s historic apology to its Indigenous people for past wrongs, the government on Monday announced 424 million Australian dollars ($293 million) in new funding to improve the lives of Australia’s original inhabitants. In 2008, a newly elected center-left Labor Party government apologized to the Indigenous population […]
KATY, Texas (AP) — A shelter-in-place advisory issued in suburban Houston because of a leak of ammonia gas from a refrigeration line at a warehouse was lifted early Sunday afternoon, officials said. Officials said at a news conference that while air monitoring would continue around the 99 Cents Only Store distribution center in Katy, there […]
MADRID (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards flooded the streets of Madrid on Sunday for the largest protest yet against the regional government’s management of the capital city’s health care services. Over 250,000 people rallied in the city center, according to the central Spanish government. Organizers claimed the crowd was bigger by several hundred […]