Tony Leys - KFF Health News

Many farmers have traditionally handled their own problems, whether it’s a busted tractor or debilitating anxiety. “With the older generation, it’s still, ‘Suck it up,’ " says one mental health advocate and farmer.

More than 43 million Americans drink, bathe, and cook with water from private wells, which can be tainted by farm or industrial runoff, leaky septic systems, or naturally occurring minerals.

Faced with a slow rollout of the updated vaccines and without state mandates for workers to get vaccinated, most skilled facilities are relying on persuasion to boost vaccination rates among staff and residents.

The Biden administration says a recently proposed minimum staffing standard would help ensure quality care, but nursing home leaders predict it will accelerate a trend of closures in rural America.

Distrust of public health authorities, who say drinking raw milk is dangerous, fuels demand for unpasteurized milk products, leaders on both sides of the issue say.

They can no longer can be denied lifesaving care, including surgeries for heart defects. But now, aging adults with Down syndrome face a health system unprepared to care for them.

In-person mental health care is hard to arrange in rural nursing homes, so video chats with faraway professionals are filling the gap.

Many small-town care facilities that remain open are limiting admissions, citing a lack of staff, while a wave of others shutter. That means more patients are marooned in hospitals or placed far away from their families.

The number of U.S. health care providers certified to prescribe buprenorphine more than doubled in the past four years, and treatment advocates hope to see that trend continue.