California Debates Extending PTSD Coverage to More First Responders
By Annie Sciacca
A state Senate bill would extend workers’ compensation coverage of post-traumatic stress injuries for firefighters and police officers. But a separate bill to cover paramedics and EMTs is unlikely to be heard.
On the Night Shift With a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner
By Katheryn Houghton
Montana and other states are trying to increase the number of nurses specially trained to treat survivors of sexual assault.
Walensky to Leave CDC in June as Covid Emergency Winds Down
By Julie Rovner
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director presided over one of the most tumultuous times in the agency’s history, struggling to regain public trust after it was revealed that Trump officials intervened in its pandemic response.
Daily Edition for Friday, May 5, 2023
Flavored tobacco ban, Medi-Cal eligibility, covid variant, hospital loan program, cannabis worker safety, and more are in the news.
California Says New Cigarettes Appear to Violate State’s Flavored Tobacco Ban
By Don Thompson
The attorney general is warning two tobacco companies, R.J. Reynolds and ITG Brands LLC, that their reformulated cigarettes appear to violate the state’s ban on flavored tobacco products, based on marketing materials. R.J. Reynolds said Thursday that its cigarettes comply with the law.
Lead Contamination Surfaces in Affluent Atlanta Neighborhood
By Andy Miller
The Environmental Protection Agency recently confirmed high lead levels in an upscale Atlanta neighborhood. The location stands in contrast to many polluted sites investigated by the federal Superfund program — often in former industrial or waste disposal areas where environmental racism has left marginalized groups at risk.
Medi-Cal Enrollees: Here’s How to Verify Your Eligibility
By Bernard J. Wolfson
California’s safety-net health program has resumed annual eligibility checks after three years, which means beneficiaries will need to provide updated personal information to maintain coverage. Here’s what to watch for.
Can a Fetus Be an Employee? States Are Testing the Boundaries of Personhood After ‘Dobbs’
By Bram Sable-Smith
Laws granting rights to unborn children have spread in the decades since the U.S. and Missouri supreme courts allowed Missouri’s definition of life as beginning at conception to stand. Now, a wrongful death lawsuit involving a workplace accident shows how sprawling those laws — often intended to curb abortion — have become.
Beneficiarios de Medi-Cal: cómo verificar si eres elegible
By Bernard J. Wolfson
Medi-Cal, la versión de Medicaid en California, puso en marcha una iniciativa de 14 meses para reexaminar la elegibilidad de sus casi 15.8 millones de miembros.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Health Programs Are at Risk as Debt Ceiling Cave-In Looms
A warning from the Treasury Department that the U.S. could default on its debt as soon as June 1 has galvanized lawmakers to intervene. But there is still no obvious way to reconcile Republican demands to slash federal spending with President Joe Biden’s demand to raise the debt ceiling and save the spending fight for a later date. Meanwhile, efforts to pass abortion bans in conservative states are starting to stall as some Republicans rebel against the most severe bans. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
