Transition to tailored plans: What NC Medicaid members need to know
New tailored Medicaid plans are launching on July 1. Here's what North Carolinians need to know.
Jul
2024
1
HEALTHCARE
Jun
2024
25
Dental office credit cards are pushing people further into debt
With limited coverage for adult dental care and lofty out-of-pocket costs, some patients are turning to dental credit cards—but experts say these cards are “predatory.”
Jun
2024
11
Medical debt would be removed from credit reports under new Biden rule
Roughly 15 million Americans have medical debt on their credit reports. The new rule means that debt will no longer be able to depress their credit scores and make it more difficult for them to get a job, rent an apartment, or secure a mortgage or car loan.
Jun
2024
10
Trump failed to cap insulin costs. Now, he’s mad Biden got it done.
Trump’s time in the White House saw no changes to the staggering cost of insulin for patients, and it was two laws signed by Biden that helped lower insulin costs to $35 per month for millions of Americans.
Jun
2024
10
Doctors dismissed a Black physician’s postpartum heart attack as heartburn. Now she’s helping other women push back.
Dr. Jonisha Brown founded BirthRight to empower Black pregnant women to speak up when doctors seem to ignore their concerns.
Jun
2024
3
We asked, you answered: North Carolinians share thoughts on legalizing marijuana in NC
Veterans, senior citizens, arthritis sufferers, people with mental illnesses: Many of them spoke up when we asked Cardinal & Pine readers what they think about marijuana in NC. Could 2024 be the year legalization finally gets over the hump? North Carolina has...
May
2024
30
Queer doulas make childbirth safer for Black, brown, and LGBTQ+ people, but barriers remain
Queer doulas make childbirth safer for Black, brown, and LGBTQ+ people, but barriers remain. Here's what you need to know.
May
2024
24
Facing backlash, fate of NC Republicans’ proposed ban on public masking is unclear
But during the Covid-19 pandemic, many on the right took issue with mask mandates issued by state and local governments as part of their efforts to minimize transmission of the deadly virus. At the height of the pandemic, Reopen NC was a group dedicated to opposing business and restaurant closures, and even started a ‘Burn Your Mask Challenge,’ where participants would post videos burning masks to social media.
May
2024
23
Black pregnant women say white doctors don’t listen to them. Here’s one NC woman’s story.
Jessica Deas has three children, but doctors in her first two pregnancies, she says, dismissed her serious symptoms, ignored her pain and shrugged away her concerns. Her experience is not unique.
May
2024
20
Opinion: The dangerous consequences of NC Republicans’ public masking ban
We urge the North Carolina House to reconsider this dangerous bill and listen to the voices of those who will be most impacted by it. Public health measures like mask-wearing are not just about individual safety—they are about community protection and solidarity.
NC Medicaid recipients say Republicans’ proposed cuts will ‘doom’ them to ‘early deaths’
| March 12, 2025
House Republicans’ budget proposal could cut over $800 billion from Medicaid, which would have devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians, who could lose access to essential healthcare and medications.
Rose Hoban: Amid flu deaths in N.C., warning signs already for next year
| March 11, 2025
The flu vaccine will never prevent all deaths or severe illness, but it helps reduce a significant amount of disease. But experts worry that without the U.S.’s contribution and coordination, the U.S. will fail the public it is sworn to protect.
Opinion: Will the kind of research that saved my life still be funded in the future?
| March 3, 2025
The research infrastructure that saved my life, and that of countless others, was upended in early February when the Trump administration slashed the amount that research institutions receiving grants from the NIH can claim as overhead, or indirect cost. Now those indirect costs will be capped at 15 percent of the grant total.
North Carolina pediatric flu deaths: A tragic reminder to vaccinate
| February 25, 2025
North Carolina pediatric flu fatalities prompt urgent health warning: Officials stress vaccination as respiratory illnesses surge across the state.
Trump just pulled back a plan to regulate toxic, cancer-causing PFAS. It’s in hundreds of water systems in North Carolina.
| January 28, 2025
PFAS, or “forever chemicals," are linked to cancer, birth abnormalities, and other health ailments. But Trump is pushing back a long-awaited plan to set federal limits on them.
States like North Carolina consider high costs, possible savings of covering weight loss drugs for their workers
| January 22, 2025
State policymakers, including leaders in North Carolina, are choosing between the long-term benefits of weight loss drugs and reducing obesity among public employees, and the short-term costs.