Drops in COVID masking, testing and vaccination are continuing to create the perfect conditions for a new variant to emerge. Experts warn that a new variant could cause significant mortality. The U.S. is experiencing its highest levels of influenza hospitalizations...
Getting a diagnosis of cancer when you are uninsured is a harrowing event. Many times the options depend on your sex, your type of cancer, and where you live. Federal legislation provides that female patients diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer qualify for...
Staffers at the Social Security Administration gathered in Washington, D.C. this summer to protest a staffing and funding crisis at the agency. Employees contend more Americans will be denied benefits due to decades of low funding by Congress. Field office employees...
This July and August offered record-breaking heat waves with temperatures reaching at 99 degrees over week-long periods. Middle and South Georgia experienced temperatures reaching up to 100 degrees. The National Weather Service defines any heat index of 105 degrees...
During the period of the public health emergency of COVID-19, states were required to keep individuals on Medicaid rolls without annual reviews. In May of this year, the Biden administration removed the public health emergency. Now states have from April 2023 to...
U.S. residents under 40 are dying of accidental overdoses. Death rates in this age group rose 21% from last year. Overdose deaths took 177,000 lives nationwide. In 37 states, overdose deaths are the number one cause of death in this age category, higher than deaths...
In 2020, Congress passed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act which sought to address a crisis nationally in mental health. The bill created a national crisis hotline: 9-8-8, an easy number to remember in a time of crisis. The hotline is a direct line to...
Reports of Long Covid diagnoses and symptoms in patients have dropped since the beginning of the pandemic. The percentage of people who have had COVID and currently report long COVID symptoms declined from 19% in June 2022 to 11% in January 2023. That...
Recently House Republicans, specifically The Freedom Caucus, proposed capping discretionary spending to 2022 levels and remaining at that level for the next decade in an effort to balance the federal budget in 10 years without raising taxes. The plan involves...
Abortions are banned in Georgia after six weeks. Exceptions to this rule are to save the mother’s life; if the fetus is not expected to live; if the preganancy threatens the mother’s physical health and/or if the pregnancy arose from rape or incest. Patients are...