All posts tagged: Healthcare

House Democrats demand answers from Trump’s VA on vets struggling to access mental healthcare

House Democrats demand answers from Trump’s VA on vets struggling to access mental healthcare

Published by Sam Flores

What Happened: More than 60 House Democrats are pressing Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins for answers about how the agency’s mental healthcare has been increasingly strained under President Donald Trump’s second administration. The lawmakers sent the secretary a letter last week asking questions about the state of VA care, citing a ProPublica investigation from this spring that revealed the agency’s mental health workforce has been plummeting and veterans have been left in the lurch. What They Said: The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Judy Chu, who is a psychologist and represents a district in Southern California. “Caring for our nation’s Veterans is a fundamental responsibility,” the letter says. “That includes ensuring access to high-quality mental health care.” The lawmakers demanded that the VA disclose details about its shortage of mental health providers and the impact on veterans. It also pushed the agency to lay out how long veterans have to wait for care. As ProPublica has detailed, while the VA has long had a shortfall of mental health providers, the situation has gotten …

The Luigi Mangione Murder Trial Will Not Be Televised—And the Jurors Will Be Anonymous

The Luigi Mangione Murder Trial Will Not Be Televised—And the Jurors Will Be Anonymous

Published by Sam Flores

The defense wanted an overflow room—a separate courtroom where the proceedings would be played via video feed—and for the trial to be livestreamed. (New York state law bans cameras from most criminal proceedings, and come Tuesday, some of the need to incorporate independent journalists had ostensibly dissipated: No one who wanted a seat at the hearing appeared to have been turned down, and two of the Mangionistas, a trio of Mangione supporters who became tabloid sensations in May after acquiring city press credentials, were among the court-approved press corps.) Their allegation that prosecutors and the court had collaborated in “hand-choosing the reporters permitted to attend the proceeding” was a fairly eye-popping one, and the government responded in kind, offering a glimpse of the temperature around the looming trial. “The defense’s baseless accusation…appears to be nothing more than an attempt to spread misinformation about this case and delegitimize the proceedings,” prosecutor Joel Seidemann wrote in a response filing. (Seidemann previously worked under Mangione’s attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo when she served as chief assistant district attorney of …

The community healthcare model transforming lives across West Africa

The community healthcare model transforming lives across West Africa

Published by Jenni Sidey

In parts of West Africa, getting sick used to mean navigating a maze of barriers — distance, cost, time spent away from work — before ever seeing a health worker. Muso set out to change that. Working hand-in-hand with governments, they built a model where professional community health workers bring care directly to patients’ doors within 24 hours, at no cost. And because these health workers are from the communities they serve, trust in the new process is already built in; they’re not strangers showing up at the door. In addition to the community health worker program, a big part of Muso’s work includes upgrading primary care clinics — through rehabilitating infrastructure and training clinic staff — to better accommodate patient referrals when home care is too complex.  The impact has been historic, resulting in an over 90% drop in infant mortality rates in Mali alone. Today, governments across the region are funding and scaling the model themselves, bringing it to over 12M people and growing. This video The community healthcare model transforming lives across …

Yemen’s collapsing healthcare forces the sick to seek alternative medicines | Health News

Yemen’s collapsing healthcare forces the sick to seek alternative medicines | Health News

Published by Sam Flores

Taiz, Yemen – Jaleelah Abdul Hameed, a woman in her 50s, grew up in a village 85km (53 miles) from Taiz city. She remembers how her ancestors relied on herbal medicine to treat various illnesses, but also her mother dying when Jaleelah was just a child due to a lack of proper healthcare. “Herbal medicine was the treatment of our ancestors because there was no modern healthcare at the time. It was the only medicine available to everyone, whether rich or poor,” Jaleelah told Al Jazeera. Recently, Jaleelah began to suffer from chest pains, but doctors failed to diagnose her illness accurately, initially telling her she had a colon ailment. She took medication for this diagnosis until she was rushed to hospital in critical condition a year ago, only to be told that it wasn’t a colon disorder but liver cancer. “The doctors who failed to diagnose my illness couldn’t prescribe effective treatment for my liver cancer,” she told Al Jazeera. “I took the prescribed medicine for four months, but there was no improvement.” As …

Republican candidates say they are healthcare champions despite cuts : NPR

Republican candidates say they are healthcare champions despite cuts : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

An ad from Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., highlights affordability challenges for healthcare. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. Republicans campaigning in swing districts are running ads about healthcare after facing criticism of the cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Many of these ads target voters over 35 years old and focus on three topics: Medicaid fraud, rural hospitals and affordability. An NPR analysis looked at video ads on YouTube that ran this midterm cycle, many of which mirror ads on other digital platforms and on television. The analysis includes advertising for candidates in races that are toss-ups or leaning toward one party or the other, as rated by the Cook Political Report. This is a shift for the Republican Party. Jonathan Oberlander, a healthcare policy expert at the University of North Carolina, said repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly called Obamacare, was “target No. 1” for Republican lawmakers after Trump was first elected in 2016. When the Senate …

Healthcare funds are still scarce for the Lumbee Tribe of eastern N.C. : NPR

Healthcare funds are still scarce for the Lumbee Tribe of eastern N.C. : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Angie Lowery grows squash, onions, potatoes, and other produce in her backyard garden in Robeson County, North Carolina. She’s tried to improve her health to be able to be there for her grandchildren. Andrew Jones/KFF Health News hide caption toggle caption Andrew Jones/KFF Health News For stories of life in our changing world, subscribe here to the global health newsletter. LUMBERTON, N.C. — Soybean fields surround Angie Lowery’s home on a plot of rural land in southeastern North Carolina’s Robeson County. Dozens of antique gas station signs, 20 feet tall, dominate her front yard. A framed re-creation of The Last Supper, Lone Ranger posters, and a 3-foot-wide tobacco harvesting basket adorn the walls of her home. A collector, Lowery over the years has amassed remnants of her region’s past. But behind the house, the 44-year-old’s backyard garden showcases her goals for the future, one that involves a long, healthy life with her kids: collard greens, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, red and white potatoes, kale. Angie Lowery’s front yard in rural southeastern North Carolina hosts a …

Politics Home Article | Social Care In England As Unfair As US Healthcare, Says Burnham

Politics Home Article | Social Care In England As Unfair As US Healthcare, Says Burnham

Published by Sam Flores

Andy Burnham set out a roadmap to reforming social care (Alamy) 4 min read1 hr The Prime Minister has said that social care in England is “as unfair as American health care” as he pledged to do what successive governments have failed to do and reform the system. Speaking at a care home in London on Wednesday morning, Andy Burnham said he was willing to take a hit to his own popularity to bring forward changes. “I know this will require me to put what political capital I have on the table. And it might wear down that political capital in some ways,” he said. He added that any reform to social care will “require difficult decisions” and the Labour government would be “honest with people about those”.  “We will put them before the country at the right time, and we will hopefully proceed with people’s consent,” he said. He added that social care is intrinsically linked to pressures facing the NHS and cannot be treated like it “lives in its own silo”. “There is no way we …

Housing, healthcare need less red tape to lower costs: Hickenlooper

Housing, healthcare need less red tape to lower costs: Hickenlooper

Published by Sam Flores

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper delivers a 20-minute campaign speech at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair August 10, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images The housing bill that just became law doesn’t go far enough to bring down U.S. costs, and lawmakers at all levels of governments need to do more, Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., told CNBC. Hickenlooper, a onetime presidential candidate who says he isn’t running again in 2028, spoke with CNBC on the sidelines of an event in Denver. He highlighted housing and healthcare as policy areas where consumers would benefit from governments changing how they interact with the industries. Areas like affordable housing need not only limits on private equity players, as the new law does, but also fewer administrative hurdles and fewer ways for opponents to stop needed development, Hickenlooper said on the sidelines of an event for Su Teatro, a Chicano theater company that’s been in Denver for decades. He lamented that housing opponents have too easy of a road …