Resources
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Opioid Treatment Is Used Vastly More in States That Expanded Medicaid
August 21, 2019
States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have seen a much bigger increase in prescriptions for a medication that treats opioid addiction than states that chose not to expand the program, a new study has found. The study, by researchers at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research group, adds to the evidence that the 2010 health […]
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Missouri Doctors, Advocates Want Voters To Decide Whether To Expand Medicaid
August 4, 2019
Proponents of a Medicaid expansion in Missouri want to allow voters to override the state’s Republican leaders, who have refused to extend coverage to more people. The Healthcare for Missouri coalition is collecting signatures on a petition that would place a Medicaid expansion on the November 2020 ballot. If approved by voters, Missouri would expand […]
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As Anti-Vax Movement Grows In Missouri, Families With Sick Children Fear For Their Lives
July 17, 2019
Vaccinations not only protect your health, they protect the health of the community by slowing or stopping the spread of illness. But Missouri now has some of the lowest measles vaccination rates in the nation, and that’s especially troubling for families with children who can’t get the shots for medical reasons. When Izzy Lightle of […]
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Missouri Ranks 43rd In A New State-By-State Health Care Scorecard
June 11, 2019
Missouri’s health system is the eighth-worst among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, a New York-based policy foundation said in a report released early Wednesday. The No. 43 ranking means Missouri fell two spots on the list since last year’s state-by-state health care scorecard published by the Commonwealth Fund. Commonwealth study authors crunched the most recently available […]
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‘Who’s going to take care of these people?’ – As emergencies rise across rural America, a hospital fights for its life
May 11, 2019
The hospital had already transferred out most of its patients and lost half its staff when the CEO called a meeting to take inventory of what was left. Employees crammed into Tina Steele’s office at Fairfax Community Hospital, where the air conditioning was no longer working and the computer software had just been shut off […]
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Obesity Epidemic Is Led More By Rural Than Urban Populations
May 8, 2019
As the rate of obesity around the world has climbed steadily for decades, public health efforts to combat it have largely focused on people in cities. With growing numbers of people living in cities, the assumption by public health officials was that urbanization — with its sedentary lifestyle and easy access to highly processed foods […]
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Support Rural Health In Missouri
May 3, 2019
Nearly 40% of Missouri residents live in rural areas. This year, Governor Parson announced a rural agenda that would improve access to health care in rural parts of the state. More than 40 Missouri hospitals adopted resolutions in support of Governor Parson’s rural agenda. Join them in support by signing this petition. Hospitals That Adopted […]
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CDC Reports Largest U.S. Measles Outbreak Since Year 2000
April 24, 2019
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 695 measles cases in 22 states. “This is the greatest number of cases reported in the United States since measles was eliminated from this country in 2000,” says a CDC statement issued late Wednesday. The agency attributed the high number of cases primarily to a few large outbreaks — […]
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Suicide risk great after Missouri Medicaid kids shifted to managed care, hospitals say
March 30, 2019
After more than 2,000 Missouri children diagnosed with mental illness were shifted from traditional Medicaid into three for-profit managed-care companies, the state’s hospitals noticed an alarming trend: a doubling in the percentage who had thoughts of suicide or attempted suicide. Additionally, the average length of stay for these children in psychiatric hospitals dropped from 10 […]
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HIV Remains Persistent Problem In Missouri — Especially In Rural Areas
March 22, 2019
The number of new HIV cases in Missouri is on the rise — and a disproportionately large number are in rural counties. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified Missouri as one of seven states with a “substantial rural burden” — noting that it has more than 75 cases and 10 percent or more of […]
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