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Ask the Pediatrician: Pool dangers and drowning prevention when it's not swimming time

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Swimming pools can have a powerful pull on little children ― even when it's not swimming time. Those glistening turquoise-blue ripples may look especially inviting to an active toddler or an overly confident preschooler.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends several ways parents can help keep children safe around swimming pools and ...Read more

Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Editorial: Democrats for waste, fraud and abuse in health care

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A slew of Democratic attorneys general has sued the Trump administration over changes to Obamacare enrollment policies intended to minimize fraud. Shocker alert: Nevada AG Aaron Ford is among the litigants.

The new rules make modest reforms to the health insurance marketplaces established in response to the Affordable Care Act. Among the ...Read more

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$50B rural health 'slush fund' faces questions, skepticism

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A last-minute scramble to add a $50 billion rural health program to President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending law has left hospital and clinic leaders nationwide hopeful but perplexed.

The Rural Health Transformation Program calls for federal regulators to hand states $10 billion a year for five years starting in fiscal year 2026.

...Read more

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Fact check: Are 5 million nondisabled Medicaid recipients watching TV all day? That's unsupported

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

“Almost 5 million able-bodied Medicaid recipients ‘simply choose not to work’ and ‘spend six hours a day socializing and watching television.’”

Scott Jennings on “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip” on July 1

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Republicans defended the GOP megabill’s Medicaid changes as targeting a group of people they believe shouldn’t ...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Changes to federal student loans leave aspiring medical students scrambling to cover costs

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

CHICAGO — Twenty-year-old Eric Mun didn’t want to believe it: Only one kid in the family could make it to medical school — and it wasn’t going to be him.

Mun had done everything right. He graduated high school with honors, earned a scholarship at Northwestern University and breezed through his biology courses.

He immigrated to Alabama ...Read more

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Biologists are tracking Jamestown Canyon virus, detected in Pennsylvania mosquitoes

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

While West Nile remains the greatest mosquito-borne threat in Pennsylvania, state officials are monitoring another virus that has begun popping up in mosquito populations.

Jamestown Canyon virus, discovered in a Colorado town of the same name in 1961, was added to the state Department of Environmental Protection's West Nile Virus Mosquito ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

When is a sunburn cause for concern?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Jul. 27—Sunburns are common — about a third of Americans get at least one each year — and are, most of the time, mild or treatable. But some burns are more severe than others.

More than 33,000 sunburns requiring emergency room consultation are reported each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Here's what to know and when to...Read more

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Serious liver disease is up among heavy drinkers, even without more drinking

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — Serious liver disease is becoming more common among Americans who drink heavily, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC.

It's not that more people are partying with alcohol. And it's not that the drinkers are having more drinks. It's that more of the people who drink regularly are becoming sick.

Over the last two ...Read more

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US health, tech officials to launch data-sharing plan

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Top Trump administration health officials are expected to bring tech companies to the White House this week to roll out a plan to encourage more seamless sharing of health care data, according to people familiar with the matter.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ...Read more

Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News/TNS

Tribal health officials work to fill vaccination gaps as measles outbreak spreads

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Cassandra Palmier had been meaning to get her son the second and final dose of the measles vaccine. But car problems made it difficult to get to the doctor.

So she pounced on the opportunity to get him vaccinated after learning that a mobile clinic would be visiting her neighborhood.

“I was definitely concerned about the...Read more

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Measles cases just reached 30-year high in the US. How bad is California surge?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Measles cases in California and the United States are climbing to levels the country hasn’t seen in years.

So far in 2025, the disease has infected 1,319 people nationwide, leading to 29 outbreaks and 165 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Three people have died as a result ...Read more

These Texas counties have some of the highest STD rates in US, new report says

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Sexually transmitted infections are on the rise in Texas. And in some parts of the state, the numbers are climbing higher than the national average.

A new report from online healthcare service Invigor Medical based on CDC data offers a closer look at the counties with the highest reported cases and sheds light on what’s driving the trend.

...Read more

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Health officials confirm more measles cases in Michigan

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DETROIT — Two measles cases were confirmed in Kent County last week, bringing its total count to four, officials said.

The Kent County Health Department announced the new cases in a press release Wednesday but did not provide any additional details.

"Because neither case involved public exposure sites or posed a risk to the general public, ...Read more

Brianna Soukup/KFF Health News/TNS

Amid PFAS fallout, a Maine doctor navigates medical risks with her patients

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Lawrence and Penny Higgins of Fairfield, Maine, first learned in 2020 that high levels of toxic chemicals called PFAS taint their home’s well water, they wondered how their health might suffer. They had consumed the water for decades, given it to their pets and farm animals, and used it to irrigate their vegetable garden and fruit trees. ...Read more

(Gabe Brison-Trezise/KFF Health News)/KFF HEALTH/TNS

Georgia shows rough road ahead for states as Medicaid work requirements loom

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Every time Ashton Alexander sees an ad for Georgia Pathways to Coverage, it feels like a “kick in the face.”

Alexander tried signing up for Pathways, the state’s limited Medicaid expansion, multiple times and got denied each time, he said, even though he met the qualifying terms because he’s a full-time student.

Georgia is one of 10 ...Read more

Halle Parker/KFF HEALTH/TNS

Louisiana upholds its HIV exposure law as other states change or repeal theirs

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

SHREVEPORT, La. — When Robert Smith met his future girlfriend in 2010, he wanted to take things slowly. For Smith, no relationship had been easy in the years since he was diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. People often became afraid when they learned his status, even running away when he coughed.

The couple waited months...Read more

Renuka Rayasam/KFF Health News/TNS

Cuts to food benefits stand in the way of RFK Jr.'s goals for a healthier national diet

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ALBANY, Ga. — Belinda McLoyd has been thinking about peanut butter.

McLoyd, 64, receives a small monthly payment through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps.

“They don’t give you that much to work with,” she said. To fit her tight budget, she eats ramen noodles — high on sodium and ...Read more

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Commentary: Courts can protect trans health care by recognizing patient-physician privilege

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Information, in the second Trump administration, is a currency of power and fear. Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced sweeping subpoenas targeting physicians and medical providers who offer care for transgender youth. The aim is not to initiate prosecutions: Indeed, the legal theories upon which such prosecutions might rest are ...Read more

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

With COVID cases rising this summer, what to know about the Paxlovid treatment

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

COVID-19 is rising in prevalence in many states nationally following the July 4 holiday week, but the role of the main therapy to treat it — the antiviral drug Paxlovid — is less clear.

Research studies over the past year found the drug less effective in real-world use than it was in clinical trials during the race in 2020 and 2021 to find ...Read more

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Kennedy's mental health drug skepticism lands at FDA panel

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration, making good on a Trump administration promise to examine usage of antidepressants, on Monday convened a panel largely of antidepressant skeptics to discuss the health impacts of taking such medicine while pregnant, though several panelists have no particular expertise on pregnancy research.

The ...Read more