Photo by Janko Ferlič Over the past decade, the cost of giving birth in a hospital has skyrocketed, leaving many new families burdened with medical debt on top of the stress of caring for a newborn. On average, hospital births cost $18,865, encompassing pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care. Even with private insurance, families can expect […]
Texas woman denied care while experiencing ectopic pregnancy
Earlier this month, 25 year old Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz was denied a life saving surgery in Texas after experiencing an ectopic pregnancy, a pregnancy complication in which a fertilized egg attaches itself to a fallopian tube, ovary, or somewhere else outside the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies are very dangerous complications and can be fatal, where […]
Crossing State Lines: The Vital Role of Telehealth Shield Laws in Reproductive Healthcare Access
Telehealth has emerged as a transformative force in healthcare, breaking down barriers to access and revolutionizing the way patients connect with their healthcare providers. Particularly in the realm of reproductive healthcare, telemedicine has become an indispensable tool, offering a lifeline to individuals facing obstacles in accessing vital services. From the convenience it offers patients to […]
V.A. Will Provide Gender Confirmation Surgery to Transgender Veterans
On Saturday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that they plan to add gender confirmation surgery to their existing healthcare services. V.A. Secretary Denis McDonough made this announcement at a Pride event in Orlando, Florida. The new directive will reverse a 2013 ban on gender confirmation surgery, in which the V.A. refused to provide the […]
Arkansas Passes Bill Banning Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth
This week, Arkansas passed legislation that bans access to gender-affirming care for minors. The bill now goes to Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson to be signed into law. If signed, Arkansas will become the first state to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. The bill, misleadingly called the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, would prohibit […]
Trump Signs Order Aimed at Strengthening Telehealth and Rural Healthcare
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at empowering rural healthcare providers and expanding access to telehealth services. Medicare has greatly expanded its coverage of telehealth services as part of its coronavirus emergency response, but that expansion is set to expire once the public health emergency is over. The executive order calls […]
Claire Rezba Documents Deaths of Healthcare Workers as U.S. Government Ignores Them
Claire Rezba, an anesthesiologist, has been working at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia for years. As the pandemic hit the United States, elective surgeries have been canceled and rescheduled, giving her time to worry about her peers. Her sister is a nurse practitioner, her husband a physician, many of her friends work alongside her. As […]
Women Experiencing COVID Symptoms Are Disbelieved & Disregarded by Medical System
The story of one woman, Ailsa Court of Portland, Oregon, illuminates an issue that has existed far before the COVID-19 pandemic – disbelieving women’s pain. Court’s symptoms began in early March, and she is still experiencing “shortness of breath, achiness in her lungs, and a strange tingling in her calves”. Throughout her struggle, numerous doctors […]
After Weeks of Negotiation, Health Care Workers Win Pay Increase in France
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, French healthcare workers have been demanding higher pay, increased funding for hospitals, and more staff. France has been one of the hardest hit countries in Europe, with over 200,000 infections and 30,000 deaths. This year, after seven weeks of tense and fraught negotiations with trade unions, the French government finally gave […]
Lack of Access to “Non-Essential” Healthcare Severely Impacts Marginalized Communities
As COVID-19 cases surge in the United States, many states have shifted healthcare policies to place a greater focus on those who have been infected. In order to do this, states must determine what is essential and non-essential healthcare, impacting marginalized people, such as poor people, communities of color, and women in severe ways. In […]
SCOTUS Ruling Could Upend Trump Administration’s Attacks on the Trans Community
Monday’s Supreme Court ruling to protect LGBTQ+ individuals from discrimination in the workplace could derail the Trump administration’s latest restrictions on transgender rights in healthcare. In the Trump administration’s most recent attack on the LGBTQ+ community, the anti-discrimination policies that protect transgender people in healthcare settings have been reversed. Under the Affordable Care Act, healthcare […]
Kentucky Governor Pledges Universal Health Care Coverage for Black Residents
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) announced plans to provide healthcare coverage to 100 percent of Black and African American Kentuckians in an effort to address racial inequalities in health care on Monday morning. The governor made the announcement during his daily COVID-19 press briefing. Beshear began the briefing by acknowledging the racial disparities in Kentucky’s […]
Coronavirus Cases Among Health Care Workers Tops 62,000
More than 62,000 front-line doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers have been infected with COVID-19, the Center for Disease Control reported on Tuesday. At least 291 healthcare workers have died from coronavirus complications. The previous CDC analysis, released April 17, reported that there were only 9,888 documented cases of coronavirus among healthcare workers. At […]
New Report Shows Gaps in Coverage for Abortions in Employer Insurance Plans
Ten percent of people on employer-sponsored health insurance work at firms that have opted to exclude abortion coverage from its health plans, a Kaiser Family Foundation reported revealed on Tuesday. As the most popular source of health insurance, employer-sponsored plans cover 153 million Americans. For more than 15 million people whose plans do not cover […]
Medical Professionals Ask For Advance Medicare Payments During Pandemic
For many healthcare professionals who own medical practices during the coronavirus outbreak, concerns have grown over how to pay rent. Private practices, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities have faced a massive influx of patients, though revenue has dropped because appointments are now generally over the phone or computer. This loss of revenue makes it difficult to pay […]
Equal Pay Day: Healthcare Workers Deserve Equal Pay (And Then Some)
Women in healthcare are on the frontlines of the response to COVID-19 and are risking their safety every day to save the lives of those who are critically ill right now. Women make up 78% of the healthcare field overall, but consistently make less than their male counterparts across the board. This national Equal Pay Day we […]
Coronavirus Threatens Rural Hospitals Already On The Brink of Closure
Hospitals across America are rapidly losing profits as they prepare for COVID-19. With normally lucrative services like elective surgeries and routine visits cancelled or delayed and the price of basic medical supplies like masks and ventilators soaring, more and more hospitals are being pushed towards the red zone. For already strained rural hospitals, coronavirus might […]
New Report by Doctors for Choice Asserts That Abortion Access is Healthcare
Tomorrow there will be a report released by Doctors for Choice, a worldwide pro-choice group of medical providers, regarding their stance on abortion being a healthcare issue and that bans on abortion would risk the lives of women. Doctors for Choice previewed its paper by describing their position with “the complete ban on abortion is […]
Healthcare Tops List of Iowa Voter Concerns
An exit poll from NBC News, CNN, and the Associated Press shows that healthcare is a top voter concern among Iowan Democrats; ranking ahead of issues like climate change or foreign policy. However, healthcare policy may not be the deciding factor of who people are going to vote for. According to Kimberly Leonard, senior healthcare […]
U.S. Healthcare Spending Exceeds Most Other Countries According to the OECD
In comparison to the twenty countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)- Australia, Chile, Germany, and France, just to name a few- the United States is grossly overspending on basic healthcare. While the median country in the OECD spends roughly nine percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare, […]
