Charleston Gazette-Mail - I was trying to find a word that sums up the 2021 legislative session, and after much consideration, it came to me: Despicable. Read the full article. Despicable, in that the Legislature committed acts of cruelty for no reason but the sheer pleasure they derived from doing so. They passed a despicable…
Health
Beckley Register-Herald - Our governor and West Virginia’s supermajority Republican legislators, from backbenchers to those wearing the mantle of leadership, ignored too many of the state’s myriad problems to debate, instead, ideological and cultural hot button issues that they believed, we can only imagine, would play well with their base. Read the full op-ed. While…
Just last month, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) celebrated its eleventh birthday. The ACA is the most extensive health care reform law in the United States since the passage of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965. The ACA has granted over 20 million Americans more affordable and accessible health insurance. Beyond that, it has touched the lives of…
Insurance Journal - Treating and addressing drug addiction cost West Virginia an estimated $11.3 billion in one year, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy. Read the full article. The report, written by economist Jill Kriesky, says the state spent that much in 2019 on issues that stem from the addiction…
Public News Service - Advocates for impoverished people are urging West Virginia lawmakers to oppose two bills being heard in a House committee Thursday, that they claim punish low-income people and drug users. Read the full article. Senate Bill 387 would make permanent a pilot program that screens recipients of the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Recently, the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy released “Saving Lives and Saving Money: The Case for Harm Reduction in Kanawha County.” Read the full op-ed. As its author, I uncovered available data on the fatality and nonfatality costs associated with the drug epidemic in Kanawha County. I don’t need to…
Hep Mag, POZ - West Virginia will receive $2.4 million in federal funding to help the state prevent and treat HIV, The Associated Press reports. The money arrives as an HIV outbreak among injection drug users shone a national spotlight on the state’s opioid epidemic and sparked debates about syringe exchanges and the economic burdens that result…
Mountain State Spotlight, Beckley Register-Herald - Six weeks after Gov. Jim Justice began his daily pandemic press briefings, Marion County resident Romelia Hodges was frustrated. Read the full article. It was a month to-the-day after West Virginia had lost its first resident to the virus: 88-year-old Viola York Horton, a Black woman from Fairmont who loved to…
Since its inception in 1965, Medicaid has been one of the most impactful anti-poverty public health initiatives in the United States. Medicaid provides low-income Americans with free or low-cost health insurance, allowing them to receive treatment that may otherwise be inaccessible. The program has expanded significantly since its origin to include more people; today, it…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - West Virginia consistently has one of the worst rates of drug overdose deaths in the nation, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that toll has only been increasing in recent years. The West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy released a report on the economic toll of drug-related deaths and…