In the “summer of plastic straw bans,” North Carolina’s restaurant industry is feeling the heat. “Drunk people, they are walking around without straws and they are confused,” Hibernian Assistant General Manager Susan Kemben said. After a video of…
For Cathy, opioids are part of the blend of medications that keep her functioning. After she caught polio as a baby — just three years before the vaccine was invented — she suffered from fibromyalgia, she developed arthritis as a teenager, and her nerves started to die as…
When addicts show up at emergency rooms, there’s a good chance they won’t find help. “I see individuals walk into the emergency department, saying, ‘I’m fed up, I’m done, I want to stop doing heroin. Can you help me?’” Dr. Stanley Koontz of New Bern…
Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst, discusses a new cost estimate for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” plan. Kokai offered these comments during the Aug. 3, 2018, edition of UNC-TV’s “Front Row with Marc Rotterman.”…
The state’s long-planned shift to Medicaid managed care took a major step forward Friday, Aug. 3. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced a contract with a global company to help participants in the government insurance program choose health-care plans. DHHS will pay an…
The General Assembly has so far failed to pass a bill to ensure nationally accredited school psychologists can get licensed. House Bill 933 would have instructed the State Board of Education to grant licenses to people certified by the National Association of School…
Dr. Gajendra Singh wants to help patients get an MRI scan for a fraction of the price hospitals and big health care networks charge. But state regulators and powerful lobbying allies restrain him. On Monday, July 30, Singh joined with the Institute for Justice to…
North Carolina’s certificate-of-need law blocks a Winston-Salem surgeon from buying an MRI machine that could help serve his patients. The CON restrictions prompted Dr. Gajendra Singh to file a constitutional lawsuit against the state. The legal action challenges CON’s limitations on economic liberty. Singh discussed the suit during a…
From Carolina Journal Radio Program No. 793: As stories about a national opioid epidemic continue to generate headlines, more and more states are considering new taxes on opioid drugs. Patrick Gleason, vice president of state affairs at Americans for Tax Reform, analyzes the growing interest in targeting opioids for…
From Carolina Journal Radio Program No. 792: State leaders will need to take more steps to shore up long-term funding for North Carolina’s State Health Plan. State Treasurer Dale Folwell describes recent steps his office has taken to help address the issue. Folwell explains why state policymakers need to…
