Takeaways from interviews with families forever changed by diseases that vaccines can prevent
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — In the time before widespread vaccination , devastating infectious diseases ran rampant in America, killing millions of children and leaving others with lifelong health problems.
Over the next century, vaccines virtually wiped out long-feared scourges like polio and measles and drastically reduced the toll of many others. Today, however, some preventable, contagious diseases are making a comeback as vaccine hesitancy pushes immunization rates down. And well-established vaccines are facing suspicion even from public officials, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist , running the federal health department.
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Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Senate bill's Medicaid cuts draw some GOP angst
The Senate's deep cuts to Medicaid in the tax and spending megabill are setting off alarm bells among some Republicans, complicating leadership's effort to get the legislation passed by July 4. It seeks to clamp down on two tactics states use to boost Medicaid funding to hospitals: state-directed payments and Medicaid provider taxes. The restrictions are a major concern for rural hospitals, a key constituency for senators. Republicans have set an ambitious July 4 deadline to pass the bill and send it to President Trump to be signed into law. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has been warning his colleagues about making cuts to Medicaid for weeks, said the changes took him by surprise. 'I had no idea that they were going to completely scrap the House framework with this. I mean, this totally caught me by surprise. And I've talked to other senators, and that's what I've heard consistently from everybody I've talked to, that no one was expecting this entirely new framework,' Hawley told reporters Tuesday. States impose taxes on providers to boost their federal Medicaid contributions, which they then direct back to hospitals in the form of higher reimbursements. Critics argue it's a scheme for states to get more federal funding without spending any of their own money. But provider taxes have become ingrained into states' Medicaid financing systems. States and provider groups say the taxes provide a steady source of financing for hospitals that operate on thin margins and would otherwise face closure. 'The draconian Medicaid cuts contained in the Senate bill would devastate health care access for millions of Americans and hollow out the vital role essential hospitals play in their communities,' said Bruce Siegel, president and CEO of America's Essential Hospitals, an organization that represents hospitals that serve low-income patients. The legislation would effectively cap provider taxes at 3.5 percent by 2031, down from the current 6 percent, but only for the states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The cap would be phased in by lowering it 0.5 percent annually, starting in 2027. Nonexpansion states would be prohibited from imposing new taxes, but as was true in the House-passed version, their rates would be frozen at current levels. The lower cap would not apply to nursing homes or intermediate care facilities. All states except for Alaska finance part of their share of Medicaid funding through health care provider taxes, and 38 states have at least one provider tax that exceeds 5.5 percent. When asked if his concerns were enough to make him vote against the bill if it were brought to the floor as written, Hawley hedged. 'It needs a lot of work, so I would say maybe we could, I guess, try to fix it on the floor, but it'd be better to do it beforehand,' he told reporters. Republicans can afford to lose only three votes in the Senate and still pass their bill if Democrats remain united in opposition. Sen. Jim Justice ( said he was also surprised by the Senate's change. If provider tax changes are on the table, he said he wants leadership to keep the House version. Justice wouldn't say how he would vote if the provision was left unchanged but expressed some unease about the July 4 deadline. 'I promise you, I won't rubber-stamp anything,' Justice said. 'I want this thing to come out and come out quickly, but when it really boils right down to it, you may have to hold your nose on some things that you just absolutely don't like because we can't like everything.' Similarly, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) indicated he would also prefer the House-passed freeze on provider taxes but was still analyzing the impact on his state. Louisiana expanded Medicaid in 2016. Senate Republican leaders huddled with members Tuesday during a closed-door caucus lunch to talk through the details of the bill. Speaking to reporters afterward, Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said leadership was listening to members' concerns, especially about provider taxes. 'We think [the changes] rebalance the program in a way that provides the right incentives to cover the people who are supposed to be covered,' Thune said. 'We continue to hear from members specifically on components or pieces of the bill they want to see modified or changed, and we are working through that.' Members were also briefed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, who downplayed the impact of a lower provider tax cap. 'We do not believe that addressing the provider tax effort is going to influence the ability of hospitals to stay viable,' Oz told reporters. Without weighing in on the exact details, Oz said some changes to provider taxes and state-directed payments should be included. 'The framework of addressing the legalized money laundering with state-directed payments and provider taxes must be in this bill, it should be in this bill,' Oz said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chicago man leads bi-monthly meetups to give men a safe space to heal
CHICAGO — While June marks Men's Mental Health Month, a Chicago businessman is leading a year-round effort to make it easier for men to express themselves and prioritize their emotional well-being. On the fourth Saturday of every other month, Josephine's Southern Cooking on 79th Street opens its doors offering men and boys a safe space to let loose and heal from mental and emotional trauma. 'We gotta be brave enough to tell our story and to share to get the help and the healing,' Victor Love said. Last November, Love started 'Mental Hood Culture,' an organization focused on Black males' mental health, but open to any man looking for an outlet and resources. 'It's been helpful because we find a lot of the guys that come here, they're seeking help, but they don't know where to go, they don't know who to talk to,' Love said. Love wants to normalize men expressing themselves and as he says, getting 'a checkup from the neck up.' During Saturday's conversation at Josephine's, a therapist was on hand to offer support. 'When they get in here, the conversations that are going on and the type of discussions, it just busts wide open. Everybody is sharing and it gets pretty emotional at times,' Love said. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in 2023, more than 49,000 Americans died by suicide and men died by suicide close to four times more than women. Love says something changed for him after the 2022 suicide death of Stephen 'Twitch' Boss, who gained fame dancing and DJ'ing on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. 'When he committed suicide, I don't know what hit me, but I know I couldn't stand by and see another male do that to himself on my watch,' he said. Along with bringing men together as a group, Love says he's also preparing to launch a podcast called 'Let's Go for a Ride.' 'We're going to be talking to different authors and therapists and men going through a ride throughout the city of Chicago, talking about their mental journeys and how getting on the couch has really helped them,' Love said. In addition to his faith, Love says talking to a therapist has been a game changer for him and now he's giving everything he's got to help transform the lives of other men. 'We're just trying to give brothers another alternative before making a permanent decision on a temporary situation,' Love said. The next morning meeting at Josephine's is scheduled for the end of August. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
An Optometrist Shared The One Eye Product We Should All Stop Using
Eye health is often overlooked. Tons of Americans skip their annual eye exams: Of those who are considered to be at high risk for vision loss, which is roughly 4 in 10 Americans, 40% didn't get their eyes checked out in the past year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'It's not until you have [a] problem with your eyes that you really become grateful for your vision,' said Dr. Michelle Holmes, an optometrist at Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California. There's a lot you can do to protect your eye health. You can keep up with your annual eye exams, wear sunglasses to shield your eyes from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, and avoid wearing contacts to bed or in the pool, to name a few. But is there one habit you should never do, even though it may seem like eye care: Don't use eye-whitening, or red-eye relieving, drops. 'My concern with those types of eye drops is that eye-whitening drops can be used by someone to mask redness, and, oftentimes, that redness is a symptom of some more serious underlying condition,' Holmes told HuffPost. Here's why you may want to steer clear of redness relief eye drops. Related: If You Don't Pass This Extremely Easy Hygiene Test, You're Officially Stinkier Than The Average Human Related: It Turns Out That Most People Wipe Their Butts Completely Wrong, But This Doctor Is Here To Teach Us The Right Way When your eye is irritated, as it may be with pink eye or certain allergies, the blood vessels located in the front of the eye will dilate and engorge. 'That's what causes the white part of the eye to look red and angry,' Holmes explained. Those blood vessels serve an important purpose — when inflamed, they indicate something is wrong, Holmes said. This could be due to a mild problem, such as a cold or dust in the eye, or it may be a symptom of a more serious health condition like an infection, glaucoma or a corneal abrasion. 'It's not normal to have a red, angry-looking eye,' Holmes said. Red-eye relieving drops target these blood vessels to constrict and minimize their appearance. Temporarily, this makes the eyes white again, however, these drops could mask the problem at hand. 'It may make you think everything is OK with your eyes when really the can be something quite serious going on,' Holmes said. It's a bandaid, not a fix, she added. That redness can help your eye doctor detect eye diseases. With certain eye conditions, time is of the essence. Left untreated, they can worsen and lead to complications, including infections, and, in serious cases, vision loss. Not to mention, these drops may cause a rebound effect. 'As the eye drops wear off and nutrients and oxygen start to flow back through those blood vessels, they actually will dilate and engorge more than initially,' Holmes said. People can then get trapped in a cycle: their eyes appear red and irritated, they use redness-relieving drops that provide temporary relief, but then the redness comes back — this time, even worse — and they use the drops again. In some cases, people become dependent on red-eye relieving drops and the underlying health issue is never addressed, Holmes said. There are other remedies you can use instead. Whenever a patient tells Holmes they use eye-whitening drops, she recommends they opt for lubricating artificial tears instead. Her advice: use preservative-free drops — 'they're gentler on the eyes,' she explained. These products are generally thought to be the safest type of preservative-free eye drops. The Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning against 26 over-the-counter eye drop products due to the risk of eye infections that may cause partial vision loss or blindness. Finally, if your eye is red and irritated, talk to an eye care provider. Even if you give your local eye clinic a call, the front desk should be able to triage the redness — and determine if you need follow-up care or testing — and recommend safe, effective eye drops. 'Oftentimes, the cause of the redness can be determined and more effectively addressed when the reason why is known,' Holmes article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in Goodful: This Woman Is Going Viral For Begging Women Not To Get Married Right Now, And Personally, I Couldn't Agree More Also in Goodful: People Are Sharing Their Biggest "How Doesn't Everyone Know This?" Facts, And I'm Honestly Embarrassed I Never Realized Some Of These Also in Goodful: "I Thought This Was Normal": People Are Sharing Diagnoses They Received After Someone Else Pointed Out Their Symptoms
