After Democrats broke the Republican supermajority in the N.C. House of Representatives and Senate in the 2018 election, State Sen. Terry Van Duyn believes her party colleagues in the General Assembly will have more political clout during the upcoming session.
“During my mother’s stay at a [local] corporate-owned facility, she experienced a frightening array of poor-quality care, to the point where we had to hire a private-duty person to make sure my mother was cared for appropriately. It was a horrible and draining experience.”
Few words have the ability to inspire more fear, frustration and trepidation among older Americans across the country than “nursing home.” But for those confronting the prospect of needing long-term care, a variety of care options and support services across Western North Carolina provides information to help residents find the best care available.
Asheville, N.C.
“Conservatives’ deflection to ‘personal responsibility’ is a cop-out that hides their lack of solutions to this issue.”
Just three days before Monday’s rally in Asheville’s Pack Square Park to oppose the U.S. Senate’s version of a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Lindsay Furst, a local teacher and activist, went to a coffee shop with her fellow organizers who shared her lack of sleep, she told the crowd in front of […]
“This bill is written to help the rich and healthy young, but not the rest of us. This is oligarchy, which Trump and the Republicans want to force on us all. God help us all.”
“Please tell my why it is better for citizens to not have health care? Why must people suffer to assure tax breaks for the very wealthiest Americans?”
“I would like to resurrect an old word that I rarely hear these days to describe the ‘politics of the right.'”
At a recent legislative briefing, Annaliese Dolph, registered lobbyist for the United Way of North Carolina, outlined the status of issues within the United Way’s focus areas of health care, education and financial stability.
Though more Buncombe County residents now have health insurance than ever before, many of the poorest are still falling through the cracks.
In the wake of elections last week that maintained conservatives’ firm grip on state power, Rev. William Barber urged progressives in Asheville not to lose faith in the strength of the Moral Monday movement.
As part of an ongoing effort to speak with North Carolinians about Gov. Pat McCrory’s proposed changes to the way the state’s Medicaid program operates, N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Aldona Wos and N.C. Medicaid Director Carol Steckel will give a presentation about the plan in Asheville on Monday, April 22. This presentation is intended for the provider community, and will be held at 11:30 a.m. at MAHEC Education Center at 121 Hendersonville Road.
On Friday, April 5, the North Carolina Division of Medical Assistance notified the Asheville-based Western Highlands Network that it’s terminating its contract, effective July 31. WHN coordinates mental-health, substance-abuse and developmental-disability services in in Madison, Mitchell, Yancey, Buncombe, Henderson, Transylvania, Polk and Rutherford counties.
It’s a sobering thought: If I live long enough to need nursing-home care, I will probably need Medicaid. I hope not, of course. I have been fortunate to have worked all my life and to earn enough to save for retirement. I have never needed any public assistance except for a FEMA loan for flood […]
With a multi-million dollar deficit still looming over Western Highlands Network, the organization’s board members will have to find another way to balance the budget after they withdrew their most recent budget reduction plan. (Photo of interim CEO Charles Schoenheit by Caitlin Byrd)
A central question for President Barack Obama’s health care reform law will be answered later this month. Namely, will the U.S. Supreme Court strike down the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional? If “Obamacare” stands, North Carolina will have other unknowns to contend with. Specifically, where will the state come up with the hundreds of millions […]
I wish to express my kudos to the wonderful work Project Access is doing to help people gain access to needed medical care [“Wellness,” Jan. 25 Xpress]. I am currently benefiting from the program as I injured my shoulder last summer and it consequently "froze" up to where I became basically disabled and very challenged […]
In this week’s health-and-wellness roundup, the state rejects Mission and Pardee’s request for a new endoscopy center, Carolinas HealthCare launches a mobile app for patients and more.
They say elections have consequences. I believe they may be right. Republicans have chosen, locally and nationally, a social agenda, including: a women’s right to choose, voter ID, cutting programs that benefit working and middle-class Americans, cutting education that will set N.C. back years and wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. I could […]
