By Rose Hoban Now that Gov. Roy Cooper has checked expanding Medicaid off his gubernatorial to-do list, he has shifted his health care focus to the needs of North Carolina’s most vulnerable — the young, the old and the disabled — in his proposed spending plan for the coming fiscal year. One big-ticket item in his $34.5 billion recommendation to lawmakers is $630 million in grants for child care as federal pandemic funds used to help keep centers and preschool facilities open dry up in the coming months.  The governor also suggests setting aside more funds for people with disabilities ..read more

By Anne Blythe There’s an old saying that age is just a number. But when you look at the state demographer’s projected growth of the 65-and-older population in North Carolina over the next decade, that’s more than just a number. It’s an eye-opening statistic. From 2021 to 2041, the state’s older population is expected to grow from 1.8 million people to 2.7 million. If you focus on the 85-and-older population, a 114 percent increase is projected — going from 198,000 people three years ago to 423,000 in 17 years. By 2031, state demographers predict, there will be more people in North Carolina ov ..read more

By Will Atwater Seven months after a provision added to the 2023-24 North Carolina state budget prohibited municipalities from establishing single-use plastic bag ordinances, a group of Western North Carolina environmental advocates is pushing back. On Earth Day, against the scenic backdrop of a clear blue sky and the majestic French Broad River, nearly 60 people gathered at Silverline Park in Woodfin, north of Asheville, for an event they called the Planet vs. Plastics: Earth Day Press Conference. Among those present were the French Broad Riverkeeper, local mayors, state policymakers and memb ..read more

By Michelle Crouch When it comes to growth, it seems like hospitals can’t get enough of it. Across the country, a tidal wave of hospital mergers and acquisitions in recent years has created multi-billion-dollar hospital giants that serve large swaths of the population. For example, just in North Carolina: Atrium Health’s massive combination with Advocate Aurora in 2022 formed the country’s third-largest public health care system. The system’s $28 billion footprint now stretches south to Georgia and across the country to Illinois and WIsconsin. HCA Healthcare’s controversial 2019 purchase of M ..read more

By Will Atwater The organizers of the first Earth Day event in 1970 wanted to raise awareness of the environment in the collective consciousness. Now, a half-century later, environmentalists are looking to give nature personhood status.  Many contend that environmental protections like the Clean Water Act have proven insufficient to shield wetlands from growing developmental pressures. Nor have laws been sufficient to prevent waterways from being polluted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), microplastics and other contaminants as climate change exacerbates the problem. “We are ..read more

By Jaymie Baxley Small purple boxes have become a promising tool in Wilson County’s fight to lessen the deadly toll of the opioid epidemic.  ONEbox is a first aid-like kit that contains doses of naloxone, a nasal spray that can rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdose. When the kit is opened, a screen embedded in the lid plays a video of a paramedic giving step-by-step instructions for administering the drug. “Let’s take a deep breath,” says the woman in the video, speaking in either English or Spanish, depending on the language selected. “Step No. 1 is to check to see if somebody r ..read more

By Jennifer Fernandez Guilford County has been tracking infant deaths for decades, yet officials there continue to struggle with high death rates and no answers. Jean Workman and Leandra Vernon with Every Baby Guilford hope to change that with the formation of North Carolina’s only Fetal and Infant Mortality Review program. “As time goes on, the more we learn, the better we can change things and learn what’s affecting our families,” Vernon told NC Health News. Fetal and Infant Mortality Review programs exist in more than two dozen states. While they are not all set up the same, one aspect is k ..read more

By Rachel Crumpler Almost six years ago, Tomeka Isaac said she came very close to joining a list no one wants to be part of — the tally of Black women who have died related to pregnancy. In May 2018, Isaac’s pregnancy took a turn at 35 weeks when she passed out. She was rushed to a small hospital in Pineville, North Carolina, and admitted to the emergency room. Tomeka Isaac, executive director at Jace’s Journey, shares her personal experience of losing her son and nearly losing her life which turned her into a fierce advocate working to spread awareness and eliminate disparities in maternal an ..read more

By Rachel Crumpler “Daddy, look at what I painted.” “You need to watch Stranger Things.” “Dad, I made the honor roll.” These are pretty run-of-the-mill things kids tell their dads at the dinner table, on the couch or during a car ride from place to place. But on a recent Saturday, the setting for these comments was not all that ordinary: Parent Day at Orange Correctional Center, a state-run minimum security prison in Hillsborough.  The event allowed five fathers and one grandfather to spend four uninterrupted hours with their children and grandchild. It was a rare opportunity to play boar ..read more

By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez In Matthew Roach’s two years as vital statistics manager for the Arizona Department of Health Services, and 10 years previously in its epidemiology program, he has witnessed a trend in mortality rates that has rural health experts worried. As Roach tracked the health of Arizona residents, the gap between mortality rates of people living in rural areas and those of their urban peers was widening. The health disparities between rural and urban Americans have long been documented, but a recent report from the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research ..read more