Health
Health care and insurance costs frequently top the national policy agenda. The cost of health care remains insurmountably high for many people, but the link between poverty and health goes far beyond the cost of insurance. Poverty is both a cause and consequence of health issues. Education, poverty and neighborhood factors have a major impact on health outcomes. Factors like access to healthy food, health care, clean air and safe housing contribute to the connection between health and wealth gaps. Studies have also found that poverty is correlated with higher rates of mental illness and that the stress poverty causes cannot be ignored. The toll that poverty takes on mental and physical health is apparent in the discrepancies in life expectancy based on income level. This section of the Spotlight website gathers the latest research, news and opinion on health and poverty.
Related News
New Federal Medicaid Work Requirements Mean Less Leeway for States
“When President Donald Trump signed a law adding work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, he may have undercut lawmakers in at least 14 states who were designing their own plans, according to health industry observers.
Six More States Ban Junk Food From SNAP Benefits
Six more states have banned junk food purchases from being bought with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced.
States Move to Exclude Soda From SNAP Benefits
$50B Rural Health 'Slush Fund' Raises Questions, Concerns
Tracking Medicaid Patients' Work Status May Prove Difficult For States
"States must begin verifying millions of Medicaid enrollees’ monthly work status by the end of next year — a task some critics say states will have a hard time carrying out. A provision in the tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law July 4 will require the 40 states plus Washington, D.C., that have expanded Medicaid to check paperwork at least twice a year to ensure those enrollees are volunteering or working at least 80 hours a month or attending school at least half time. The new law provides states $200 million for fiscal year 2026 to get their systems up and running. But some experts say states will have difficulty meeting the deadline with that funding and worry enrollees might lose their health benefits as a result. A year and a half to comply is likely not going to be enough time for most states, especially since the federal government must craft guidance on how they should implement their programs, said Dr. Benjamin Sommers, a health economist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He predicted it will be difficult to create technology simple enough — such as a phone app — to streamline the process for all enrollees. “Two hundred million [dollars] is not going to cover the 40 expansion states that we have,” he told Stateline. “There is not a silver bullet here, and there isn’t a single app out there that’s going to keep people who should be in Medicaid from losing coverage. That’s just not realistic.”
Eight in 10 U.S. Counties Contain Health Care Deserts
"A growing number of Americans find themselves living in "health care deserts," areas lacking in the specific infrastructure and services needed to ensure timely access to medicine and care, new data suggests. According to new research from health care and prescription price-comparison website GoodRx, 81 percent of U.S. counties—home to more than 120 million Americans—fall under this definition in some way. This includes those which lack proper access to either pharmacies, primary care, hospital beds, trauma centers or community health centers." Read more at Newsweek.
Vance Tries to Sell Trump Budget Bill But Ignores The Costs
"Vice President JD Vance traveled to a crucial swing state on Wednesday to sell the Trump administration’s signature domestic policy legislation as a victory for working American families, despite concerns even among some Republicans over its cuts to the safety net in service of benefiting the rich. In what amounted to an attempted brand relaunch of legislation that Democrats have framed as an attack on the middle class, Mr. Vance traveled to a machine shop in eastern Pennsylvania to spotlight provisions in the package that would cut taxes, preserve overtime pay and create $1,000 savings accounts for newborns. Left unmentioned by Mr. Vance were the cuts to Medicaid and the nutritional assistance programs that many of Mr. Trump’s own supporters rely on. “I think this will be transformational for the American people,” Mr. Vance said in front of signs that read “No tax on tips” and “America is back.” The vice president appealed to those in attendance to help the administration sell the package ahead of next year’s midterm elections, arguing that it would benefit Americans like those working in the manufacturing facility serving as his backdrop."
A New Era of U.S. Hunger Has Begun
Parts of Easthampton, an old mill town in western Massachusetts, look like relics of industrial New England — the old workers’ rowhouses, for instance. In other parts, it seems like a place in renaissance, with converted factory buildings spruced up and reinhabited by art galleries, restaurants, shops. Pedestrians fill the sidewalks on Friday and Saturday nights, especially during monthly art walk evenings. But on Monday mornings, when the downtown feels shuttered, another sort of crowd, one in search of food, not art and entertainment, gathers on a side street outside a 19th-century brick building. A sign out front identifies it
Scott Amendment Would Dramatically Limit Medicaid Expansion
“Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R) and several Republican allies have unveiled an amendment to President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that would reduce Medicaid spending by another $313 billion by limiting the expansion of Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.
