On Disabilities

A provision in the bill proposed by the GOP Senate would permit Medicaid to pay for longer stints of inpatient psychiatric care. But other parts of the bill would strip $772 billion from Medicaid — the single-largest funder of care for people who have s

Senate Health Bill Could Both Boost And Undercut Mental Health Funding

5:00am July 08, 2017

by Liz Szabo

The draft health care bill has a provision meant to increase the availability of inpatient psychiatric care. But overall cuts to Medicaid could actually lead to even fewer psychiatric beds nationwide.

Some states seek to require Medicaid participants to work, get drug-tested or recertify their eligibility more frequently.

States Move To Tighten Medicaid Enrollment, Even Without A New Health Law

7:17pm July 06, 2017

by Charles Ornstein

Some states are seeking to make major changes in their Medicaid programs that would end coverage for millions of people, even if the Affordable Care Act isn't repealed.

The porches of the 1890s Allison Buildings, shown above in 1910, were later enclosed to provide more space for patient beds.

'Architecture Of An Asylum' Tracks History Of U.S. Treatment Of Mental Illness

11:54am July 06, 2017

by Susan Stamberg

Founded in 1855, St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., grew from 250 patients to 8,000. A new exhibit at the National Building Museum explores the links between architecture and mental health.

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Cairo, a physical therapist, says wheelchair basketball has been a game changer for his patients. "Rehab is painful. Learning how to use artificial limbs is painful, too. For the first time with this sport, we were able to give only fun, only joy."

Hoop Dreams: Wheelchair Basketball Is Changing Lives In Afghanistan

7:00am July 02, 2017

by Malaka Gharib

The head of the Red Cross orthopedic program wasn't sure a basketball team was a good idea. The players proved him wrong.

Overlapping cards representing the various health laws and proposals â ACA, AHCA and BCRA

CHART: CBO Weighs Who Wins, Who Loses With Senate Health Care Bill

1:29pm June 27, 2017

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 22 million people would lose coverage with the Senate bill. That includes 15 million people on Medicaid, and others who could no longer afford insurance.

Medicaid pays the costs for about 62 percent of seniors who are living in nursing homes, some of the priciest health care available.

From Birth To Death, Medicaid Affects The Lives Of Millions

12:23pm June 27, 2017

by Alison Kodjak

Medicaid has become a prime target of Republicans in Congress who want to rein in the program's costs, which totaled $350 billion in 2015. We take a look at what all that money pays for.

Pemiscot Memorial, the public hospital in one of Missouri's poorest counties, depends on Medicaid funding to survive, its CEO says.

Republicans' Proposed Medicaid Cuts Would Hit Rural Patients Hard

9:18am June 22, 2017

by Bram Sable-Smith

Hundreds of rural hospitals are on the brink of closing. The House Republican health plan drastically reduces one of their key sources of funding and the Senate bill is expected to do the same.

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Sonia Vallabh lost her mother to a rare brain disease in 2010, and then learned she had inherited the same genetic mutation. She and her husband, Eric Minikel, went back to school to study the family of illnesses — prion diseases — in the hope of find

A Couple's Quest To Stop A Rare Disease Before It Takes One Of Them

4:33pm June 19, 2017

by Rae Ellen Bichell

Twenty years. That's how long two grad students, Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel, think they have before a deadly disease envelops Sonia's brain. The Massachusetts couple is now racing to find a cure.

Justine Orr (right), program manager for Our Place Day Services, helps David Breuer chop tomatoes during a cooking class at the center north of Milwaukee. Nearly all the center's clients pay for services with funds from Medicaid.

Medicaid Cuts In Wisconsin Would Undermine Training For Adults With Disabilities

5:38pm June 14, 2017

by Alison Kodjak

Job-coaching and other support services that enable many adults to live in the community instead of institutions will likely be curtailed if the GOP plan to shrink Medicaid becomes law.

When the neurons that release the neurotransmitter dopamine die, people develop Parkinson's disease.

Brain Cell Transplants Are Being Tested Once Again For Parkinson's

5:06pm June 13, 2017

by Jon Hamilton

In 2003, researchers declared a moratorium on the use of transplanted brain cells to treat Parkinson's disease. Now, armed with better cells, they're giving the approach another try.

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