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States are battling for their piece of $50 billion in federal rural health funding, but it鈥檚 not just hospitals vying for the money. Tech startups and policy demands are raising the stakes as Medicaid cuts loom.
As contractors position themselves to cash in on a gush of new business managing Medicaid work requirements, a cadre of senators has launched an inquiry into the companies paid billions to build eligibility systems.
President Donald Trump called the Digital Equity Act unconstitutional, racist, and illegal. Then the $2.75 billion program for rural and underserved communities to gain internet access disappeared.
Amid concerns that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining trust in vaccines and public health science, some states are seeking new sources of scientific consensus and changing how they regulate insurance companies, prescribers, and pharmacists. Colorado has been at the front of this wave.
People who maintained the nation鈥檚 land-based nuclear missile arsenal are coming down with similar cancers. The Air Force is wrapping up a large study of the health risks they may have faced.
Health care providers and debt collectors are biting from people鈥檚 paychecks to cover old medical bills. A 吃瓜不打烊 investigation in Colorado shows that this aggressive collection practice is widespread even in a state considered to have strong consumer protections.
Some injured patients say they wish they had tried harder to check the backgrounds of doctors and clinics they trusted, but those records are hard to find.
States are taking aim at chemicals and additives in foods as Republicans and Democrats alike embrace at least one aspect of the Trump administration鈥檚 鈥淢ake America Healthy Again鈥 push. It鈥檚 a shift for Republicans, who had vilified past Democratic efforts to impose government will on what people eat and drink.
Some states are enacting medical debt laws as the Trump administration pulls back federal protections. Elsewhere, industry opposition has derailed legislation.
Even if people qualify for financial help with their hospital bills, the care they receive may not be covered.
Deborah Buttgereit knew piecing together the broken bone in her elbow would be expensive. But complications the doctor deemed a surprise, midsurgery, drove the total bill tens of thousands of dollars above the original estimate.
Despite billions of tax dollars and two decades of effort invested in improving health care data sharing, Americans鈥 medical records often remain siloed, leading to duplicate testing, increased costs, and wasted time for patients and doctors.
North Carolina and Idaho are cutting their Medicaid programs to bridge budget gaps, raising fears that providers will stop taking patients and that hospitals will close even before the brunt of a new federal tax-and-budget law takes effect.
Doctors need to know when to screen for tick-borne diseases in their communities. But it鈥檚 getting harder for local health departments to get funding for tick surveys as federal public health grants from agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dry up.
Montana has a waitlist for people with disabilities who need vocational training, even as schools and disability advocates are concerned about how federal cuts will affect those programs.
Tens of millions of people face sticker shock enrolling in Affordable Care Act insurance for 2026. To save money, the Trump administration wants them to consider less generous coverage.
While patients wait to hear back from their doctors about test results, many turn to AI assistants for answers despite cautions over privacy and accuracy.
Buoyed by a Montana court ruling upholding state residents鈥 right to a 鈥渃lean and healthful environment,鈥 nearly two dozen people ages 7 to 24 hope to block the Trump administration鈥檚 executive orders on energy.
The GOP said its overhaul of Medicaid was aimed at reducing fraud and getting more adult beneficiaries to work. Among the likely side effects: fewer services and doctors for treating sick children.
The Trump administration has pushed a significant amount of health costs to states, whose budgets may already be strained by declining state tax revenues, a slowdown in pandemic spending, and economic uncertainty. State and local governments now face difficult decisions.
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