Stores like Walmart and Shopko opened pharmacies in small towns, either buying out the local pharmacy or driving it out of business. What happens when those chains later withdraw, leaving communities with no pharmacy?
More than 1,000 independent rural pharmacies have closed since 2003, leaving 630 communities with no retail drugstore. As 41 million people stuck in pharmacy deserts make do, the remaining drugstores struggle to survive.
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.
As coronavirus cases surge, state officials can’t afford to wait for a new president to take office before taking action. But some governors’ initiatives seem to be little more than policy tweaks or symbolic gestures.
In less than six years, Sen. Joni Ernst has gone from being a rising star in the Republican Party to running neck and neck against a political newcomer. A poll last month showed more than 1 in 3 Iowa voters think Ernst’s relationship to President Donald Trump is “too close,” and her comments about the coronavirus death toll sparked a backlash.
Sarah and Andy fell in love while working to keep drug users from overdosing. But when his own addiction reemerged, Andy’s fear of returning to prison kept him from the best treatment.
How “noncompete” clauses in contracts between doctors and hospitals or clinics prevent patients from seeing their longtime doctors.