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FILE - Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 8, 2022, on youth mental health care. Widespread loneliness in the U.S. is posing health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they've experienced loneliness, Murthy said in a new, 81-page report from his office.

Surgeon general: Loneliness poses risks as deadly as smoking

FILE - Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 8, 2022, on youth mental health care. Widespread loneliness in the U.S. is posing health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they've experienced loneliness, Murthy said in a new, 81-page report from his office.

May 2, 2023, 11:52am Health

Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. Read story

Vermont allows out-of-staters to use assisted suicide law

May 2, 2023, 9:53am Health

Vermont on Tuesday became the first state in the country to change its medically assisted suicide law to allow terminally ill people from out of state to take advantage of it to end their lives. Read story

U.S. to lift most federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates next week

May 1, 2023, 2:13pm Health

The Biden administration will end most of the last remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements next week when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends, the White House said Monday. Read story

FILE - Buildings at the University of Kansas Hospital are seen on March 9, 2020, in Kansas City, Kan. A first-of-its-kind federal investigation has found that two hospitals, Freeman Health System in Joplin, Mo., and University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, put a pregnant woman's life in jeopardy and violated federal law by refusing to provide an emergency abortion when she was experiencing premature labor at 17 weeks. The findings are revealed in documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Feds: Hospitals that denied emergency abortion broke the law

FILE - Buildings at the University of Kansas Hospital are seen on March 9, 2020, in Kansas City, Kan. A first-of-its-kind federal investigation has found that two hospitals, Freeman Health System in Joplin, Mo., and University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, put a pregnant woman's life in jeopardy and violated federal law by refusing to provide an emergency abortion when she was experiencing premature labor at 17 weeks. The findings are revealed in documents obtained by The Associated Press.

May 1, 2023, 9:55am Health

Two hospitals that refused to provide an emergency abortion to a pregnant woman who was experiencing premature labor put her life in jeopardy and violated federal law, a first-of-its-kind investigation by the federal government has found. Read story

FILE - Adderall XR capsules are displayed on Feb. 24, 2023. Drug shortages are growing in the United States, and experts see no clear path to resolving them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last fall a shortage of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder treatment Adderall due to a manufacturing problem.

What’s behind shortages of Adderall, Ozempic and other meds?

FILE - Adderall XR capsules are displayed on Feb. 24, 2023. Drug shortages are growing in the United States, and experts see no clear path to resolving them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last fall a shortage of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder treatment Adderall due to a manufacturing problem.

April 30, 2023, 12:53pm Health

Shortages of drugs like Adderall are growing in the United States, and experts see no clear path to resolving them. For patients, that can mean treatment delays, medication switches and other hassles filling a prescription. Read story

U.S. officials want to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. Many stakeholders think they won’t

April 30, 2023, 6:10am Health

In 2018, Mike Ferraro was living on the street and sharing needles with other people who injected drugs when he found out he was HIV-positive. Read story

FILE - Fake pill bottles with messages about OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma are displayed during a protest outside the courthouse where the bankruptcy of the company is taking place in White Plains, N.Y., on Aug. 9, 2021. Purdue Pharma is expected to ask a federal judge Wednesday, March 9, 2022, to approve a nationwide settlement that will transform the company into a public trust and contribute up to $6 billion from members of the Sackler family, with most of the money going toward efforts to abate the nation's ongoing overdose and addiction crisis.

The Biden administration vowed to be a leading voice on opioid settlements but has gone quiet

FILE - Fake pill bottles with messages about OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma are displayed during a protest outside the courthouse where the bankruptcy of the company is taking place in White Plains, N.Y., on Aug. 9, 2021. Purdue Pharma is expected to ask a federal judge Wednesday, March 9, 2022, to approve a nationwide settlement that will transform the company into a public trust and contribute up to $6 billion from members of the Sackler family, with most of the money going toward efforts to abate the nation's ongoing overdose and addiction crisis.

April 30, 2023, 6:02am Health

Early in President Joe Biden’s tenure, his administration promised to play a key role in ensuring opioid settlement funds went toward tackling the nation’s addiction crisis. Read story

Alicia Celaya, David Cardenas and their son Adrian, 3, are shown at their home, Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Phoenix. Celaya and her family will lose their medicaid coverage later this year, a result of a year-long nationwide review of the 84 million Medicaid enrollees that will require states to remove people whose incomes are now too high for the program. Advocacy groups say beneficiaries are finding the process confusing and at times riddled with errors, leaving some of the country's poorest people suddenly without health insurance and unable to pay for necessary medical care.

Error, confusion plague review kicking millions off Medicaid

Alicia Celaya, David Cardenas and their son Adrian, 3, are shown at their home, Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Phoenix. Celaya and her family will lose their medicaid coverage later this year, a result of a year-long nationwide review of the 84 million Medicaid enrollees that will require states to remove people whose incomes are now too high for the program. Advocacy groups say beneficiaries are finding the process confusing and at times riddled with errors, leaving some of the country's poorest people suddenly without health insurance and unable to pay for necessary medical care.

April 30, 2023, 5:53am Business

Days out from a surgery and with a young son undergoing chemotherapy, Kyle McHenry was scrambling to figure out if his Florida family will still be covered by Medicaid come Monday. Read story

Christina Wood sits beside her cat, Miss Kitty, in her home in Salem, Ore., Friday, April 21, 2023. For most of her life in New Mexico, Wood felt like she had to hide her identity as a transgender woman. So six years ago she moved to Oregon, where she could access the gender-affirming health care she needed to live as her authentic self.

Cosmetic to critical: Blue states help trans health coverage

Christina Wood sits beside her cat, Miss Kitty, in her home in Salem, Ore., Friday, April 21, 2023. For most of her life in New Mexico, Wood felt like she had to hide her identity as a transgender woman. So six years ago she moved to Oregon, where she could access the gender-affirming health care she needed to live as her authentic self.

April 30, 2023, 5:46am Health

For most of her life in New Mexico, Christina Wood felt like she had to hide her identity as a transgender woman. So six years ago she moved to Oregon, where she had readier access to the gender-affirming health care she needed to live as her authentic self. Read story

General Mills issues flour recall after salmonella discovery

April 29, 2023, 1:46pm Health

General Mills has issued a nationwide recall of its bleached and unbleached flour after discovering salmonella during a sampling of a 5-pound (2.3-kilogram) bag. Read story