Health
Gov. JB Pritzker’s recently unveiled 2026 budget proposal includes a controversial cut. It proposes to get rid of two programs that allow immigrants without legal status to receive healthcare coverage.
“We started this program with a simple premise: In a healthy and functioning society, no one should fall into financial ruin simply because they got sick,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a news conference announcing the latest round of medical debt relief.
Lawmakers are considering legalizing a controversial medical practice that proponents say could ease suffering for the terminally ill. It’s sometimes called “assisted suicide,” although physicians and advocates for the practice prefer the term “medical aid in dying.”
Researchers at Boston University’s CTE Center found that Hull had stage 2 CTE when he died in 2023. He was 84. Hull struggled with short-term memory loss and impaired judgment over his final decade. He chose to donate his brain after seeing former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Stan Mikita decline late in his life.
Chicago residents struggling with mental health issues often encounter barriers to accessing traditional care like therapists or medication.
The $880 billion Medicaid program is financed mostly by federal taxpayers, who pick up as much as 80% of the tab in some states. And states, too, have said they’re having trouble financing years of growth and sicker patients who enrolled in Medicaid.
“At a time of such political division, Americans need to find common ground,” said Dr. Scott Oakes, who studies the role of cells in diseases at the University of Chicago. “We should all agree that medical research is one of those areas where we can all come together.”
The firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency’s centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products — which includes oversight of electronic cigarettes. It was not clear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted.
Common signs of autism include trouble with social communication and a fixation on certain routines or topics and may go unnoticed during someone’s childhood. It can be costly and difficult to obtain an autism diagnosis later in life.
Cook County officials and health care providers gathered at a Friday news conference to remind residents to get tested and use a condom to protect against sexually transmitted infections.
Nearly 1,300 probationary employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — roughly one-tenth of the agency’s workforce — are being forced out under the Trump administration’s move to get rid of all probationary employees.
The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their health care has already been compromised by the president’s order.
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence.
Housing and shelter, utility assistance, access to food and employment and income assistance were the most common needs for residents, according to 211 Metro Chicago program leaders.
Lurie Children’s Hospital will continue to provide hormone therapy and puberty blockers, a hospital spokesperson confirmed, and specifically noted that mental health care will also continue as part of the hospital’s gender care program.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston challenges the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health over efforts to reduce funding that goes to so-called indirect costs — including lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs.