Hawaii’s New Governor Takes Aim At Tax On Medication

AP:
Hawaii’s New Gov. Green Aims To End Tax On Food, Medication 

Hawaii Gov. Josh Inexperienced took the oath of workplace on Monday and instantly vowed to deal with homelessness and housing, and ask the Legislature to assist eradicate the state’s tax on meals and drugs. (McAvoy, 12/6)

In different well being information from throughout the U.S. —

Bangor Daily News:
A New Health Insurer In Maine Hopes Its Unique Model Will Lower Costs

Freelance bookkeeper Sara Ameigh of South Portland has by no means appreciated conventional medical insurance. “I felt like I used to be paying a ton of cash, a couple of hundred {dollars} a month, after which nothing was coated in any respect,” she says. “So it was like, what’s the purpose of it? Why do I even want this?” (Wight, 12/5)

The Boston Globe:
Mass. Could Be The Birthplace Of A Dental Revolution. Here’s Why

The battle over Query 2 on November’s poll primarily started as a showdown between a disgruntled orthodontist and a well-connected dental insurer. By the point Election Day arrived, it had develop into a lot greater than that. Perhaps even the beginning of a revolution. (Chesto, 12/5)

The Colorado Sun:
Here Are The Prescription Drugs Colorado Wants To Import From Canada

Colorado took one other step towards importing lower-cost prescribed drugs from Canada on Monday when it submitted a proper software to the federal authorities for approval of this system. The applying for the primary time reveals which medicine Colorado hopes to import — 112 of them in all, at a mean value financial savings of 65% over U.S. retail worth. (Ingold, 12/6)

Stateline:
More US Counties Lack A Clear Racial Majority (And People Are Getting Along Pretty Well)

Some booming suburbs, lots of them within the Solar Belt, have gotten as racially various as main coastal cities — and infrequently with much less racial battle. Sixty-nine counties, principally within the South and West, had clear racial majorities in 2010 however misplaced them by final 12 months, in line with a Stateline evaluation of census estimates. Nationwide, there at the moment are 152 such counties the place no racial group is greater than half the inhabitants, up 33% since 2010. (Henderson, 12/5)

KHN:
Florida Leaders Misrepresented Research Before Ban On Gender-Affirming Care 

Behind Florida’s choice to dam scientific providers for transgender adolescents is a speaking level — repeated by the state’s governor and prime medical authorities — that the majority instances of gender incongruence fade over time. The Florida Board of Medication voted Nov. 4 to approve a rule that barred physicians from performing surgical procedures on minors to change “main or secondary sexual traits” and from prescribing them treatment to suppress puberty and hormones. The rule included an exception for sufferers who have been already receiving these remedies. (Reyes, 12/6)

In abortion information —

AP:
Minnesota Town Drops Texas-Style Anti-Abortion Lawsuit Plan

A Minnesota city has backed away from a proposal to let folks sue abortion suppliers, together with organizations that present abortion medicine by mail, after the state’s legal professional basic warned that the plan was unconstitutional. (Karnowski, 12/5)

The 19th:
Here’s How States Plan To Limit Abortion — Even Where It Is Already Banned

As statehouses throughout the nation put together for subsequent 12 months’s legislative classes — most for the primary time since Roe v. Wade was overturned — Republican lawmakers are pushing for additional restrictions on reproductive well being, even in states the place abortion is already banned. (Luthra, 12/5)

AP:
Biden’s Efforts To Protect Abortion Access Hit Roadblocks

The Biden administration continues to be actively trying to find methods to safeguard abortion entry for tens of millions of ladies, even because it bumps up in opposition to a fancy net of strict new state legal guidelines enacted within the months after the Supreme Court docket stripped the constitutional proper. … In actuality, although, the administration is shackled by a ban on federal funding for many abortions, a conservative-leaning Supreme Court docket inclined to rule in opposition to abortion rights and a cut up Congress unwilling to go laws on the matter. (Seitz and Lengthy, 12/6)