Author: Al Cross
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Newspapers big and small tackle Kentucky’s opioid epidemic
The opioid epidemic, and the growing concern about stronger and more lethal painkillers, is getting plenty of coverage by major news outlets in Kentucky, one of the states most troubled...
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As Republicans wait to address Obamacare, Democrats and supporters of the law appear to gain new footing
This story has been updated. “Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare could help Democrats do what they have been unable to for seven years: sell the American people on the benefits...
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Pharmacies dispensing opioids thrive in Clay County, which leads Kentucky in doses of hydrocodone per person: 150 a year
Pharmacies dispensing opioids are thriving in an impoverished, coal-depressed county in Eastern Kentucky, Phil Galewitz reports for Kaiser Health News. In Clay County (Wikipedia map) the unemployment rate is 8.4 percent,...
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Comparing national ratings that compare Kentucky hospitals
A federal agency, magazines and a consulting group have compiled ratings that allow comparison of hospitals. Now Dr. Kevin Kavanagh of Somerset-based Health Watch USA has compiled the ratings, allowing...
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Republican senators scale back statewide smoking-ban efforts to schools, where local officials ‘don’t want to be tobacco police’
Two Republican state senators who couldn’t make progress toward a statewide smoke-free law are shooting for a lesser goal: a ban on use of tobacco products on public school property...
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Head lice spread in Hopkins County elementary schools; committee of school staff and parents formed to tackle problem
Head lice are becoming a greater problem in elementary schools in Hopkins County, reports The Messenger, which published the numbers of cases reported at each school in the last four...
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Did Medicaid expansion make people move from non-expansion states to Kentucky? A study suggests it did not
When Kentucky expanded Medicaid and Tennessee and Virginia didn’t, did that prompt some people to move from Tennessee and Virginia to Kentucky? A study suggests that it did not. There...
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Ky. still pursuing Medicaid waiver; Obamacare repeal could convert the program to block grants, giving states more flexibility
Kentucky will continue pursuing its proposed changes for the expanded Medicaid program even if Congress repeals and replaces the law that authorized the expansion, state Health Secretary Vickie Yates Brown...
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McConnell: ‘If the goal was to expand Medicaid, that could have been done alone.’ But he won’t say what’s next for it
.mcclatchy-embed{position:relative;padding:40px 0 56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%}.mcclatchy-embed iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%} U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell “has a particularly thorny road” in guiding Republicans’ repeal and replacement of Obamacare because of the program’s success in Kentucky, David Lightman...
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Supporters of Obamacare rally in Ky. and protest repeal plans
“The event was billed as a public forum on the consequences of repealing the [Patient Protection and] Affordable Care Act and Kentucky Medicaid expansion. But at times it seemed more...