healthcare

The open enrollment period to buy health insurance through the federal government ends Dec. 15. With the enrollment window cut in half and Trump administration limitations on the budget, more Texans could go uninsured.

From The Texas Tribune:

According to a new study, Oklahoma has shown some improvements in smoking rates and obesity rates.

But, as The Tulsa World reports, the state still ranks last in percentage of uninsured residents. The figures come courtesy of the annual America’s Health Rankings report by the United Health Foundation.

If you don’t have health care, this week marked the beginning of the open enrollment period on Healthcare.gov. If you plan to get care on the Healthcare.gov exchanges, you only have until Dec. 15 to find coverage.

Retired Teachers in Texas will soon take a big hit when it comes to healthcare costs, reports WFAA.

Beginning in September, educators who have reached retirement in Texas will pay double or even triple their current healthcare premiums.

Hundreds of people in Amarillo are now receiving health care who normally would not be able to afford it reports Madison Alewel for NewsChannel 10.

Heal the City is a free clinic in the San Jacinto neighborhood.  It’s open every Monday evening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The clinic is the brainchild of Dr. Alan Keister. After making several medical missions to Central America, Keister knew there was a mission to complete right here in Amarillo.

The V-A has begun mailing cards to veterans who may need medical care outside the V-A health care system. The cards are called Veterans Choice Cards.  They’re intended for veterans who live more than 40 miles from the nearest V-A health care facility—or who have faced excessive wait times for appointments reported Bryan Thompson for Kansas Public Radio.

Overuse of antipsychotic drugs in some Kansas nursing homes endangering patients
Powerful antipsychotic drugs are used too much and inappropriately to manage the behavior of elders with dementia in under-staffed care facilities, according to reporting by the Kansas Health Institute. Kansas ranks 47th worse for use of these drugs. The drugs carry serious side-effects, and reports say as many as 1 in 12 elders taking antipsychotics die from use of the drugs for dementia.

The Kansas Department of Corrections, KDoC, is working with local law enforcement officials to help county jail keepers bill Medicaid for part of their inmates’ health care costs according to the Kansas Institute of Health.  

A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times.