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.
Daily Edition for Thursday, May 4, 2023
Fentanyl, RSV vaccine cleared, Covered California, medical credit cards, hospital moves, weight loss drugs, and more are in the news.
Biden Administration Issues New Warning About Medical Credit Cards
By Noam N. Levey
Americans paid an estimated $1 billion in deferred interest on medical debt in just three years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports. The agency warns against medical credit cards, which are often pitched right in doctors’ offices.
Gun Assault Rates Doubled for Children in 4 Major Cities During the Pandemic, New Data Shows
By Sammy Caiola, WHYY
A study of roughly 2,700 shootings in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia found that racial disparities in gun injuries and deaths widened during the covid-19 pandemic. Researchers looked only at assaults, excluding accidents or incidents of self-harm.
