The American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress in March, provides $130 billion to cities, counties and tribes — with few restrictions on how the money can be spent.
At least 26 states have passed laws to permanently limit public health powers, a KHN investigation has found, weakening the country’s ability to fight not only the current resurgence of the pandemic but other health crises to come.
It’s unclear whether “red flag” laws — which allow the seizure of guns from a person deemed dangerous — help prevent mass shootings or should have been applied to the suspects in recent shootings in Boulder, Colorado, and Indianapolis.
Many state Medicaid programs pay out-of-state providers much less than in-state facilities, often making it hard for families with medically complex children to get the care they seek.
Indiana’s program seeks to give expansion enrollees “skin in the game,” requiring that they pay small monthly premiums and manage health savings accounts.
Many students at Sarah Scott Middle School in Terre Haute, Indiana, deal with poverty, dysfunction and stress. Since the pandemic hit, teachers and administrators have struggled to give kids and families the support they need.
A KHN investigation found covid vaccine registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels are flouting disability rights laws and limiting the ability of people who are blind or visually impaired to sign up for shots.
As President Biden calls for more support to help schools hold in-person classes, public health experts say schools can be relatively safe if they take well-known steps to prevent covid. But a KHN investigation shows many districts and states have ignored health advice or written their own questionable safety rules for schools.
In some parts of the country, the surge in covid cases is overwhelming coroners, morgues, funeral homes and religious leaders. It has required ingenuity and even changed the rituals of honoring the dead.
Nina Porter of Indiana spent most of her adulthood behind bars, even raising an infant daughter in prison. Now out of prison, she’s drawing on her struggles to create a program that helps other moms get by in a sometimes unwelcoming post-prison world.