Latest Access to health care News

HISA, Jockeys' Guild partner with mental-health company to offer jockeys access to care and support

Oct. 10, 2024 17:06 PM EDT

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Horse racing’s federal oversight agency and the Jockeys’ Guild are collaborating on an initiative to support jockeys’ well-being with access to mental-health care. The Guild and Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) have partnered with...

Mississippi's Medicaid director is leaving for a private-sector job

Oct. 09, 2024 16:09 PM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The executive director of Mississippi's Medicaid program, Drew Snyder, is stepping down at the end of this month to take a private sector job, Gov. Tate Reeves said Wednesday. Reeves said he has chosen Cindy Bradshaw to lead the program. She has been its...

Harris proposes expanding Medicare to cover in-home senior care

Oct. 08, 2024 15:37 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is proposing to provide federal funding to cover home care costs for older Americans, aiming to help the “ sandwich generation " of adults caring for aging parents while raising their children at the same time. Appearing Tuesday on...

Two Mississippi Delta health centers awarded competitive federal grant for maternal care

Oct. 07, 2024 11:36 AM EDT

Two federally qualified health centers in the Delta will receive a total of $3.6 million over four years from the federal government to expand and strengthen their maternal health services. Federally qualified health centers are nonprofits that provide health care to under-insured...

Figures, Dobson clash in congressional debate

Oct. 02, 2024 16:39 PM EDT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Congressional hopefuls Shomari Figures and Caroleene Dobson clashed in a debate Wednesday punctuated by policy differences and verbal swipes at each other’s resume. Figures, a Democrat, and Dobson, a Republican are running to represent Alabama’s 2nd...

Walmart employees to get expanded cancer treatment options with the Mayo Clinic

Oct. 02, 2024 08:43 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart's employees and their dependents are being offered expanded cancer treatment with doctors at the Mayo Clinic through the retailer's insurance coverage. The nation’s largest private employer said Wednesday that those covered by the insurance and diagnosed...

California expands access to in vitro fertilization with new law requiring insurers to cover it

Sep. 30, 2024 14:29 PM EDT

Having a baby via in vitro fertilization is about to become more accessible for many Californians after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring certain health insurers to cover the fertility treatment. IVF is a process in which eggs are retrieved from the ovaries and fertilized by...

Abortion pills will be controlled substances in Louisiana soon. Doctors have concerns

Sep. 30, 2024 10:28 AM EDT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — On Tuesday, Louisiana will become the first state in the U.S. to categorize two widely used abortion pills as “controlled dangerous substances.” Opponents argue the classification could have catastrophic impacts in a state that already has a near-total...

Medicare Advantage shopping season arrives with a dose of confusion and some political implications

Sep. 28, 2024 09:06 AM EDT

Thinner benefits and coverage changes await many older Americans shopping for health insurance this fall. That’s if their plan is even still available in 2025. More than a million people will probably have to find new coverage as major insurers cut costs and pull back from markets...

Maternal deaths surged in Texas in 2020, 2021

Sep. 19, 2024 11:46 AM EDT

The rate of Texas women who died because of pregnancy or childbirth rose sharply in 2020 and 2021 to the highest since the state started tracking maternal deaths in 2013. Even excluding deaths related to COVID-19, the numbers were worse than usual, reversing two years of progress in driving the...