Midwest Bureau
51Ƶ Health News covers health care in the Midwest, with a bureau headquartered in St. Louis and staff reporters based in Iowa, Michigan, and South Dakota.
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Abortion Clinics — And Patients — Are on the Move, as State Laws Keep Shifting
Clinics in states where most abortions are legal, such as Kansas and Illinois, are reporting an influx of inquiries from patients hundreds of miles away — and are expanding in response. Despite the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal protections in 2022, abortions are now at their highest numbers in a decade.
Hush, Fix Your Face
Episode 2In Episode 2 of the “Silence in Sikeston” podcast, host Cara Anthony speaks with Sikeston, Missouri, resident Larry McClellon, who grew up being told not to talk about the 1942 lynching of Cleo Wright. He is determined to break the cycle of silence in his community. Anthony also unearths a secret in her own family and grapples with the possible effects of intergenerational trauma.
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Watch: New Documentary Film Explores a Lynching and a Police Killing 78 Years Apart
The “Silence in Sikeston” documentary film explores how the nation’s first federally investigated lynching and a police killing 78 years apart haunt the same rural Missouri community. The film from 51Ƶ Health News and Retro Report explores the lasting impact of such trauma — and what it means to speak out about it.
By Cara Anthony -
Decades of National Suicide Prevention Policies Haven’t Slowed the Deaths
Despite years of national strategies to address the suicide crisis in the U.S., rates continue to rise. A chorus of researchers and experts say the interventions will work — but that they’re simply not being adopted by state and local governments.
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Perspective
No One Wants To Talk About Racial Trauma. Why My Family Broke Our Silence.
Every family has secrets. I spent the past few years reporting about racial violence in Sikeston, Missouri. Interviewing Black families there helped me uncover my family's traumatic past, too.
By Cara Anthony Racism Can Make You Sick
Episode 1The "Silence in Sikeston" podcast explores what it means to live with racism and violence, then charts the toll on health — from hives and high blood pressure to struggles with mental health. The deaths of two Black men killed nearly 80 years apart in the same Missouri community anchor a conversation about the public health consequences of systemic bias.
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Thanks to Reddit, a New Diagnosis Is Bubbling Up Across the Nation
Social media has helped spread the word about a treatment that involves getting Botox in the neck. It’s for a condition that’s gaining awareness but still often dismissed: the inability to burp.
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Errors in Deloitte-Run Medicaid Systems Can Cost Millions and Take Years To Fix
As states wait for Deloitte to make fixes in computer systems, Medicaid beneficiaries risk losing access to health care and food.
By Samantha Liss and Rachana Pradhan -
Patients Suffer When Indian Health Service Doesn’t Pay for Outside Care
The Indian Health Service has a program that can pay for outside appointments when patients need care not offered at agency-funded sites. Critics say money shortages, complex rules, and administrative fumbles often block access, however.
By Arielle Zionts and Katheryn Houghton -
Public Voices Often Ignored in States’ Opioid Settlement Money Decisions
In many places, victims of the opioid epidemic are silenced in decision-making about how to use opioid settlement money, a first-of-its-kind survey conducted by 51Ƶ Health News and Spotlight PA found.
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Her Life Was at Risk. She Needed an Abortion. Insurance Refused To Pay.
Insurance coverage for abortion care in the U.S. is a hodgepodge. Patients often don’t know when or if a procedure or abortion pills are covered, and the proliferation of abortion bans has exacerbated the confusion.
By Sarah Varney -
Disability Rights Activist Pushes Government To Let Him Participate in Society
Garret Frey won a U.S. Supreme Court case as a teenager who needed assistance to attend high school. Now, he’s gained concessions under Iowa’s Medicaid program to help him live at home instead of in a care facility.
By Tony Leys -
Harris-Walz Ticket Sharpens Contrast With Trump-Vance on Health Care
As Democrats convene in Chicago to make official their presidential and vice presidential nominees, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz together are raising the prominence of health care as a 2024 election issue.
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Amid Medicaid ‘Unwinding,’ Many States Wind Up Expanding
The end of pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections coincided with changes in more than a dozen states to expand coverage for lower-income people, including children, pregnant women, and the incarcerated.
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Kids Who Survived Super Bowl Shooting Are Scared, Suffering Panic Attacks and Sleep Problems
Six months after the Feb. 14 parade, parents of survivors under 18 years old say their children are deeply changed. In this installment of “The Injured,” we meet kids who survived the mass shooting only to live with long-term emotional scars.
By Bram Sable-Smith and Peggy Lowe, KCUR -
Watch: How Patients Get Charged Hospital Prices for Doctor’s Office Care
This installment of InvestigateTV and 51Ƶ Health News’ “Costly Care” series digs into patients' getting charged hospital prices for doctor’s office care. For five years, a patient got the same injection from the same office. Then it changed how it billed and she owed more than $1,100 for one treatment.
The Walz Record
Episode 359Vice President Kamala Harris this week officially became the Democratic nominee for president and named Minnesota governor and former U.S. congressman Tim Walz as her running mate. Meanwhile, a new study finds the number of abortions taking place since the overturn of “Roe v. Wade” continued to rise into early this year, despite the imposition of abortion bans around the country. Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join 51Ƶ Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
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Social Media Bans Could Deny Teenagers Mental Health Help
Congress and state legislatures are considering age bans and other limits for Instagram and TikTok out of concern that they harm kids’ mental health. But some researchers and pediatricians question whether there’s enough data to support that conclusion.
By Daniel Chang -
Native American Public Health Officials Are Stuck in Data Blind Spot
For decades, state and federal agencies have restricted or delayed tribes and tribal epidemiology centers from accessing public health data, a blackout that leaves health workers in Native American communities cobbling together information to guide their work, including tracking devastating disease outbreaks.