For Immediate Release: September 12, 2023 Contact: Sara Whitaker, 304-610-6391 Charleston, WV – Since 2015, West Virginia prisons have sent more than $57.1 million out of state to pay for food served in its prisons. Privatizing prison food has resulted in poorer food quality and worse health outcomes. A 2022 class-action lawsuit filed against the Department of Corrections and…
Health
After months of preparation by the state’s health agency, advocates, and other stakeholders, the COVID-19 continuous coverage rules keeping many children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) ended in April 2023. Between April 2023 and April 2024, the state must unwind (or redetermine eligibility for) all Medicaid enrollees and remove ineligible…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - More than 12 percent of Americans, or 42 million people, need help getting enough food to eat. Listen to the full Us & Them podcast episode. In West Virginia, that number is about 18 percent. That help comes from a federal program called SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,…
West Virginia, alongside the rest of the nation, began rolling some residents off of Medicaid in April upon expiration of the three-year continuous coverage protection triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn. The flexibilities implemented during that time helped keep many West Virginians healthy and economically stable. And while the federally-recognized COVID-19 public health…
Infants and birthing parents are dying at alarming rates in West Virginia. Infant and maternal mortality rates are essential statistics measuring overall societal health. In particular, the disparities in life outcomes between Black and white babies and mothers raise questions about health equity and the ability of our health care system to respond to both…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - Today, Thursday, May 11, the U.S. officially canceled the designation of COVID-19 as a public health emergency in the country. Read the full article. Also this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) removed its designation for COVID-19 as a “global health emergency.” For the first time in more than three…
One of the most significant pieces of legislation passed in West Virginia this year was SB 268, which overhauled the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) to address the program’s solvency and preserve the provider network after years of state inaction following the 2018 teachers’ and service personnel strike and Governor Jim Justice’s promise to freeze…
100 Days in Appalachia, The Good Men Project - The numbers are now frighteningly familiar: More than a million Americans dead from a drug overdose in the past two decades. More than 100,000 of those deaths came in 2021, in the middle of a global health crisis. Read the full article. Americans are now more likely to…
Beckley Register-Herald - When local attorney Todd Kirby was running for the Beckley seat in the House of Delegates last fall – a race he won – he talked about solving the drug overdose death crisis in the state. He wasn’t the first and he won’t be the last. Read the full op-ed. The candidate…
Public News Service, Clay County Free Press - It's been 13 years since more than 156,000 West Virginians gained health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Read the full article. As sweeping and sometimes controversial as the ACA has been, its longer-term effects are still being felt today at the state level. Gary Zuckett, executive director…