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Florida hospitals ask immigrants about their legal status. Texas will try it next
Valerie Gonzalez, Gisela Salomon, and Devi Shastri, The Associated Press, Sept. 16
For days, staff of an Orlando medical clinic tried to encourage a woman with abdominal pain to go to the hospital. She was afraid to go because of a 2023 Florida law that requires hospitals to ask whether a patient was in the U.S. with legal permission. While the clinic tried to inform patients that they could decline to answer the question and still receive care, there was still concern. Texas will be the next to try a similar law.
Tossed medicine, delayed housing: How homeless sweeps are thwarting Medicaid’s goals
Angela Hart, KFF Health News, Sept. 16
California is cracking down on people living outside by clearing homeless encampments in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that makes it easier for police to fine and arrest people for living on streets and sidewalks, vehicles, and parks. Health care experts and homeless service providers said the enforcement is undercutting taxpayer investments in evidence-based treatment and housing services. CalAIM, a Medicaid initiative, dedicates $12 billion over five years in part to helping homeless people receive health care, housing, and social services.
Abortion bans have delayed emergency medical care. In Georgia, experts say this mother’s death was preventable
Kavitha Surana, ProPublica, Sept. 16
Amber Nicole Thurman, a healthy 28-year-old medical assistant, died from an infection her Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat. She had taken abortion pills and had a rare complication in which her body did not expel all of the fetal tissue from her body. She needed a routine procedure known as a D&C to clear the tissue from her uterus. However, it had recently become a felony in Georgia for doctors to perform the procedure. An official state committee recently deemed her death preventable. Reports confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state.
US fetal mortality rate reaches ‘historic low,’ but Black mothers still suffer
Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, Sept. 12
A new report found a historic drop in fetal deaths in the United States. However, Black mothers are still twice as likely to lose a fetus compared with white mothers. Experts said the report shows that maternal and prenatal care are improving from the broad health care disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “But babies and moms – pregnant people – are still dying from preventable reasons, so we have lifesaving work to do,” said Dr. Deirdre Lyell, co-chair of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative.
OPINION: No one wants to talk about racial trauma. Why my family broke our silence
Cara Anthony, KFF Health News, Sept. 13
Journalist Cara Anthony writes about the ways racism and the violence that can come with it can impact people’s health. However, she had not talked about her own trauma with family until she started working on her latest project, a documentary and podcast, “Silence in Sikeston.” It is about two killings that happened decades apart in a Missouri city. It led to a conversation with her father about a family member who was killed by police in 1946. As part of Anthony’s reporting, she spoke to a counselor who told her when Black families talk about their wounds, it represents the first step toward healing. Not doing so can lead to mental and physical health problems.