Ballot Measure on New Medi-Cal Spending Has Broad Support, But Opponents Flag Pitfalls
By Bernard J. Wolfson
Proposition 35, which would use revenue from a tax on managed-care plans to raise the pay of health care providers who serve Medi-Cal patients, has united a broad swath of California’s health care, business, and political establishments. But a newly formed, smaller group of opponents says it will do more harm than good.
Tennessee Tries To Rein In Ballad’s Hospital Monopoly After Years of Problems
By Brett Kelman
Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system with the nation’s largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly, serves patients in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Industrial Chemical Found In Illegal Fentanyl Supply: A chemical used in plastic products has been cropping up in illegal drugs from California to Maine, a sudden and puzzling shift in the drug supply that has alarmed health researchers. The chemical, BTMPS, was found in roughly a quarter of drugs tested in a recent sampling. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Watch: New Documentary Film Explores a Lynching and a Police Killing 78 Years Apart
By Cara Anthony
The “Silence in Sikeston” documentary film explores how the nation’s first federally investigated lynching and a police killing 78 years apart haunt the same rural Missouri community. The film from KFF Health News and Retro Report explores the lasting impact of such trauma — and what it means to speak out about it.
Fighting Staff Shortages With Scholarships, California Bill Aims To Boost Mental Health Courts
By Molly Castle Work
A new bill would create a scholarship program for students who agree to work with specialized courts in California to get patients into treatment, but some people argue the state shouldn’t restrict scholarship aid to a new, untested program given broader behavioral health workforce shortages.
Silence in Sikeston: Hush, Fix Your Face
By Cara Anthony
In Episode 2 of the “Silence in Sikeston” podcast, host Cara Anthony speaks with Sikeston, Missouri, resident Larry McClellon, who grew up being told not to talk about the 1942 lynching of Cleo Wright. He is determined to break the cycle of silence in his community. Anthony also unearths a secret in her own family and grapples with the possible effects of intergenerational trauma.
Historic Numbers of Americans Live by Themselves as They Age
By Judith Graham
Longer life spans, rising rates of divorce, widowhood, and childlessness, and smaller, far-flung families are fueling a “gray revolution” in older adults’ living arrangements. It can have profound consequences for their health.
La vejez en soledad, así vive un número histórico de estadounidenses
By Judith Graham
Más de 16 millones de estadounidenses viven solos mientras envejecen. Sorprendentemente, se sabe muy poco sobre sus experiencias.
Daily Edition for Monday, September 16, 2024
Bird Flu Cases Keep Growing In California Dairy Herds: The number of California dairy herds reported to have outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu has grown to eight. Read more from the Los Angeles Times. Plus, a top health official says the U.S. should be doing more about bird flu.
California May Regulate and Restrict Pharmaceutical Brokers
By Don Thompson
California lawmakers are moving to rein in the pharmaceutical middlemen they say drive up costs and limit consumers’ choices. The bill sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom would require pharmacy benefit managers to be licensed in California and would ban some business practices. Newsom vetoed a previous effort three years ago.
