Pennsylvania ranks 20th in child well-being, according to the 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book, a 50-state report of recent data developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzing how kids are faring in post-pandemic America. The data show Pennsylvania leaders — particularly its congressional delegation — must do more to protect critical safety net programs that help children thrive.

In the Data Book’s economic well-being domain, which examines child poverty among other indicators, Pennsylvania ranks 22nd. In 2023, approximately 16%, or 404,000 of the state’s children, lived in poverty (defined as yearly income below $30,900 for a family of two adults and two children).

According to the Data Book, Pennsylvania ranks 20th in the health domain, with 147,000 uninsured children in the commonwealth. In every community across Pennsylvania, Medicaid plays a significant role in keeping kids covered and healthy. As families grapple with the rising costs of everyday expenses, it’s more important than ever that they have access to high-quality, affordable health care for both physical and mental health.

Congress is considering the largest cuts to Medicaid in the program’s history, which would jeopardize coverage for more than 1.2 million children (39% of the state’s child population) who rely on it. This includes children with special health care needs, those living in the foster care system, children in rural areas, children from military families, and those in low-income working families.

Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budgets and afford nutritious food essential to health and well-being, is also on the chopping block as Congress considers massive federal cuts to the program. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, 24% of all Pennsylvania children and young adults under 21 (or nearly 760,000) are enrolled in SNAP.

Each year, the Data Book presents national and state data from 16 indicators in four domains — economic well-being, education, health, and family and community factors — and ranks the states according to how children are faring overall.

In its 36th year of publication, the KIDS COUNT® Data Book provides reliable statewide numbers to help leaders see where progress is being made, where greater support is needed and which strategies are making a difference. Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children encourages lawmakers and officials to use this detailed information to unite across party lines and respond with initiatives that invest in young people. By offering a local road map, the Data Book equips policymakers, advocates and communities with the information they need to make decisions that help kids and young people thrive.

The 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book is available at www.aecf.org/databook and Pennsylvania’s data profile can be found here.

State medical licensure requirements are often cited as a barrier to adopting telehealth due to the administrative steps needed to obtain licensure for provision of out-of-state telehealth services (OOS-TH). State-level policies to address these barriers include licensure compacts (e.g., the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact [IMLC]) or adoption of limited telehealth licenses. The IMLC – conceptualized in 2013 – is the most common approach. States and territories authorize participation in the IMLC through state legislation, and eligible physicians obtain licenses in participating states through expedited information-sharing. Many states relaxed licensure restrictions during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). This brief seeks to classify the changes in telehealth-related policies pertaining to physician medical licensure for use of OOS-TH that occurred between 2018 and 2022.

Among findings are that 23 states were part of the IMLC prior to 2018 and 14 states joined between 2018 and 2022. Between July 2022 and October 2022, most of those 47 states further relaxed their telehealth licensure policies (distinct from their participation in the IMLC) by accepting an OOS medical license for a physician in good standing from another state or establishing an expedited approval process for an OOS provider.

Please click here to read the brief.

Rural Telehealth Research Center
Rural Telehealth Research Center, University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, 1008 RCP, Iowa City, IA 52242
Email: rtrc-inquiry@uiowa.edu
www.ruraltelehealth.org

Medical debt, which includes unpaid bills, loans, and other debt incurred from health care expenses, affects roughly 15% of adults in the U.S. This is despite more than 90% of U.S. adults having some form of health insurance. Medical debt is an important social driver of health, with disproportionate impacts for populations already experiencing greater health risks. Overall, rural residents report more problems paying medical bills and are more likely to be unable to pay their medical bills altogether in comparison to urban residents. This case series from the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center examines how two rural hospitals aim to reduce medical debt for their patient populations and address barriers to medical debt relief.

A new article published in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) focuses on integration of antibiotic stewardship an infection prevention and control programs in dentistry. The authors conclude that infection control and stewardship programs complement each other and work synergistically to improve patient safety and health outcomes.

Click here to read the article.

A new analysis sheds light on the far-reaching costs of the opioid epidemic. The bill for opioid use disorder treatment shouldered by Pennsylvania and local governments in the state neared $5.3 billion in 2024, according to a report from Avalere Health. Pennsylvania ranked high in both the cost of treatment and the price tag for property crime linked to opioid addiction.

Read more.

Some hospitals are operating on a razor-thin margin. Any disruption can lead to the elimination of services or complete closures. With declining Medicare reimbursement and cuts to Medicaid, uncompensated care will increase and budgets will not be sustainable.  Over the past 25 years, Pennsylvania has seen 78 closures or reductions in core services statewide, 26 of which were in rural counties. The Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN) has identified eight criteria that describe a hospital’s likelihood to be impacted should cuts or changes to the Medicaid program occur.

View the report.

Today, ARC released their Fiscal Year 2026 economic status designations for Appalachia’s 423 counties.

• In FY 2026, the number of Appalachian counties designated as economically distressed will decrease to 75.
• This is the lowest number since ARC began using this index-based classification system 20 years ago.
• Improvement comes from a decrease in the number of distressed counties in Appalachian Alabama, Ohio and West Virginia. Thirty-three counties will see a positive shift in their economic status.

Work remains to ensure that all of Appalachia experiences upward growth. Fourteen of Appalachia’s counties experienced a decline in economic status. ARC uses county designations to set grant match rates, monitor trends and direct investments to the region’s most distressed communities. Learn more about the FY 2026 data

The Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports on recent data showing that the number of rural people of working age (between 15 and 64 years old) has fallen in recent years, dropping to 28 million in 2023 from more than 30 million in 2010.  At the same time, the number of rural residents aged 65 and over grew from 7.4 million in 2010 to 9.7 million in 2023.

Read the report here.

The Medicaid portion of the House GOP’s massive domestic policy bill would result in 10.3 million people losing Medicaid coverage by 2034 and 7.6 million people going uninsured, according to a partial (CBO) Congressional Budget Office estimate. Republicans released the estimates just ahead of the start of Tuesday’s markup of the Energy and Commerce portion of the party-line legislation.

Source: The Hill