Kansas won’t have legal medical pot or expand Medicaid for at least another year

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas will remain among the handful of states that haven’t legalized the medical use of marijuana or expanded their Medicaid programs for at least another year. Republican state senators on Friday blocked efforts to force debates on both issues before the GOP-controlled Legislature’s scheduled adjournment for the year Tuesday. Supporters of each … Read more

Idaho group says it is exploring a ballot initiative for abortion rights and reproductive care

BOISE, Idaho — A new Idaho organization says it will ask voters to restore abortion access and other reproductive health care rights in the state after lawmakers let a second legislative session end without modifying strict abortion bans that have been blamed for a recent exodus of health care providers. “We have not been able … Read more

Senior doctors in England agree pay deal with UK government that will end year-long dispute

LONDON — Senior doctors in England have accepted a pay offer from the British government that ends a yearlong dispute with unprecedented strike action. The British Medical Association and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, which represent the senior doctors, who are known as consultants, said Friday that 83% of those casting a vote backed … Read more

Lawsuit says Ohio’s gender-affirming care ban violates the state constitution

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two families of transgender minors filed a constitutional challenge on Tuesday to an Ohio law that severely limits gender-affirming health care for youth under 18. The litigation, brought in Franklin County Common Pleas Court by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Ohio and the global law firm Goodwin, alleges the law … Read more

Biden and Harris team up for health care event in North Carolina

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will promote their health care agenda on Tuesday in North Carolina, a battleground state that Democrats hope to flip in their favor after falling short to Donald Trump in the last two presidential elections. Fourteen years after President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act … Read more

Kenyan doctors strike nationwide. Patients left unattended or turned away at public hospitals

NAIROBI, Kenya — Doctors at Kenya’s public hospitals began a nationwide strike Thursday, accusing the government of failing to implement a raft of promises from a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017 after a 100-day strike that saw people dying from lack of care. The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union said they went … Read more

Mississippi will allow quicker Medicaid coverage during pregnancy to try to help women and babies

JACKSON, Miss. — A new Mississippi law will allow earlier Medicaid coverage for pregnant women in an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a poor state with the nation’s worst rate of infant mortality. The “presumptive eligibility” legislation signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves will become law July 1. It … Read more

GOP lawmakers resist calls to tweak abortion bans. Some say they’ll clarify the laws’ few exceptions

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In Republican-led states across the U.S., conservative legislators are refusing to reevaluate abortion bans — even as doctors and patients insist the laws’ exceptions are dangerously unclear, resulting in denied treatment to some pregnant women in need. Instead, GOP leaders accuse abortion rights advocates of deliberately spreading misinformation and doctors of intentionally … Read more

Insurer delays and denials hamper patients seeking at-home breathing machines

Lou Gehrig’s disease took away Grace Armant’s ability to speak, but the 84-year-old still has plenty to say about her insurance. UnitedHealthcare has rejected several requests from her doctors for coverage of a machine Armant needs to breathe as she deals with the fatal illness. “They are no good,” Armant said, typing slowly into a … Read more

A New York City medical school goes tuition-free thanks to a $1 billion gift

NEW YORK — A New York City medical school will be tuition-free for all students from now on thanks to a $1 billion donation from a former professor, the widow of a Wall Street investor. Ruth Gottesman announced the gift and its purpose to students and faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Monday, bringing … Read more