health care
People’s Power Coalition demands more state funding for essential services
The NC People’s Power Coalition demanded more funding for hospital workers, schools, and environmental protections at a news conference Wednesday. The coalition, representing more than 75 organizations across the state, is asking lawmakers to invest “in our children, funding healthcare, keeping your bands off our bodies, uprooting racism, creating an economy for all, defending freedom […]
Who’s on the guest list for the State of the Union speech?
WASHINGTON — While members of Congress may not be able to speak during the State of the Union address, they often get their message across through the guests they bring. This year is no exception. Lawmakers through their invitees attempted to signal their approval or disapproval of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, or […]
Weekend humor from Celia Rivenbark: Buccal up, y’all! It’s time for a new look
Everywhere I turn someone’s talking about buccal fat removal. Pronounced “buckle,” the cosmetic surgery removes cheek fat leaving you with gloriously defined cheekbones. I’m not sure, but I believe the popular procedure was invented by Republican Congressman George Santos of New York. Or at least that’s what he said. I’ve never had cosmetic surgery (obviously) […]
More states are doing what they can to cap insulin costs
This report was first published by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. North Carolina lawmakers have yet to take action to protect consumers In her early 20s, Karisa Hunt learned the hard lesson of what happens when someone rations life-preserving medication. Hunt was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a 4 year old […]
ER doctors call private equity staffing practices illegal, seek to ban them
Physicians call on Attorney General Stein to investigate growing national trend A group of emergency physicians and consumer advocates in multiple states are pushing for stiffer enforcement of decades-old statutes that prohibit the ownership of medical practices by corporations not owned by licensed doctors. Thirty-three states plus the District of Columbia (including North Carolina) have rules on their books against the so-called corporate practice of medicine.
Millions of workers are dealing with long COVID. Advocates call for expanding social safety net.
Emily Withnall caught COVID-19 from her teenager in July 2020. In the more than two years since, the 40-year-old has suffered from debilitating fatigue, spinal pain and heart palpitations. In addition to her primary care doctor, she regularly sees a cardiologist and says her acupuncturist and craniosacral therapy help relieve her pain and the trouble […]
The best editorial of the weekend: A physician explains the “desperation” NC’s Medicaid expansion blockade has caused
If you haven’t already, be sure to catch the extraordinary essay that veteran Rockingham County physician Steve Luking penned for the Greensboro News & Record over the weekend. In “As lawmakers wait; people are dying,” Luking makes plain in straightforward human terms what statistics have shown repeatedly over the last decade as Republican legislators have […]
Hampered by opposition from doctors’ groups, nurse practitioners want to change state law to give them more freedom to treat patients
Cindy Cross was diagnosed with breast cancer about 15 years ago and found compassionate medical care when she first visited Michelle Taylor Skipper’s office in Laurinburg. Cross has been a patient of Skipper’s ever since, and her two adult daughters see her, too.
No more baby steps: It’s past time for full Medicaid expansion
The landmark Affordable Care Act (ACA) is still young at ten and a half years old and it has been challenged and bullied by conservative politicians across the country. Today, however, it’s clear that the law is here to stay and that many of those same politicians who opposed it now realize how much the […]
New state-by-state scorecard gives NC failing marks for racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare
Researchers at the Commonwealth Fund released a new national report this morning (“Achieving Racial and Ethnic Equity in U.S. Health Care”) that looks at how each U.S. state is performing in providing access to healthcare to people of different races and ethnicities. The disappointing, but unsurprising, conclusion: just about everyone is doing a lousy job. […]
Virginia report sheds troubling light on problem of understaffing at chain pharmacies
[Editor’s note: Last year, in a story that referenced worrisome examples from North Carolina, the New York Times reported on how insufficient staffing has brought about big problems at American chain pharmacies that are endangering public health. This morning, in a new report for the Virginia Mercury, reporter Kate Masters relates similarly troubling developments from […]