Page 37 - Poverty Issues News Today

By Shelby Harris for The Daily Yonder.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for North Carolina News Service Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration Two summers ago, Lee Berger sat in her Macon County, N.C., home hunched over a laptop - pulling the small computer closer to her face. It was Bergers first telehealth appointment, a routine check-up with her primary care physician, and she couldnt hear what the doctor was saying. Berger thought about telling the doctor to spe...

Each year some 68,000 people in Colorado and across the U.S. die from opiate overdoses, largely due to lack of treatment, and federally qualified health clinics in southwestern Colorado are pioneering an effort to give people access to care at the same place they get their annual medical, dental and vision checkups. Jeanne Marotta, a family nurse practitioner with Axis Health System in Pagosa Springs, said getting people onto alternative medications can save lives. ...

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, bringing the spotlight to the countrys deadliest form of cancer. There will be an estimated 130,000 lung cancer deaths in 2022, including more than 8,400 in Oregon, according to the American Cancer Society. Michael Skokan, pulmonary critical-care physician at The Oregon Clinic, said many of these deaths are preventable and the first action people can take is to stop smoking. ...

Its been about a year since Virginia families last received funds from the U.S. Child Tax Credit, and they want it to be reinstated. According to a study from Columbia University, the Child Tax Credit kept more than 3.7 million children out of poverty in December 2021. ...

Community service agencies say many low- and moderate-income homes in the Commonwealth are unprepared for the winter cold and could benefit from a number of free weatherization and heating services, including window sealing, attic insulation, new appliances and repairing or replacing home heating systems. Eva Haynes, who lives in Brockton, said she is grateful for the help she received two years ago, when her furnace stopped working, and she spent nine days at home alone in the cold. &quo...

In educational performance, New Mexico consistently ranks at or near the bottom among the 50 states, but it could change if an influx of dedicated money is approved by voters next month. The states economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas, which also means a roller coaster of boom-and-bust cycles. But the boom times have led the state to accumulate $26 billion in its Land Grant Permanent Fund, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. ...

When families began receiving expanded Child Tax Credit payments during the pandemic, the extra family income lifted almost four-million children out of poverty, but when the payments stopped, child poverty increased by more than 40%. In Utah, just a year after the monthly payments stopped, the number of families with children reporting food insecurity increased by 74%. Gina Cornia, executive director of Utahns Against Hunger, thinks lawmakers should reinstate the $300- to $360-per-child payme...

Some 155,000 Coloradans who signed up for health insurance through Connect For Health Colorado were able to save 900 dollars per year on average through American Rescue Plan Act tax credits. Those credits have been extended by President Joe Bidens Inflation Reduction Act and will be in play as open enrollment begins next week. Kevin Patterson, C-E-O of Colorados marketplace, said competition remains strong among the states insurers, and all counties have at least one option for coverage. ...

A Virginia high school student has found that the CPR training required for graduation is more helpful than she realized. Anjalia Bryant, a junior at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, was at home in September when her grandmother had a medical emergency. After calling 911, she and her father placed her on the floor and Bryant began CPR. ...

In a new survey, most people say they want to take steps to live healthier and longer, but some are unaware of the lifestyle factors that can make the biggest difference. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the life expectancy for an Arkansas resident is slightly less than 74 years. In the survey by the for-profit physician group Medical Doctor Value In Prevention, more than half of the respondents said theyve done more planning for their financial health than their phy...