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The ASTHO State Health Policy team provides brief updates on 5 of the ten state health policy issues to watch in 2022: mental and behavioral health, rural health, e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products, HIV and PFAS.

Every year, ASTHO performs an annual environmental scan to identify these policy and programmatic priorities. The most recent scan occurred from June 2019 to May 2020. Through ongoing collection of data from a variety of sources—including ...

With many of the state and territorial legislatures reconvening over the next few weeks, we can look forward to new (and not-so-new) legislation start to crop up that will impact public health. To help navigate the new legislative ...

Responsible for planting, growing, harvesting, processing, and preparing the food we eat, agricultural workers are essential workers during the COVID-19 response to keep the U.S. food supply chain operating efficiently. But farmworkers are ...

Rural hospital closures exacerbate poor socioeconomic conditions, job loss, cost of health services, transportation times and barriers, and inequitable access to quality care, all of which contribute to unfavorable maternal and infant ...

Rural communities are developing tailored, self-determined solutions to their unique challenges, including directing investments into community health worker programs that reduce disparities.

The youth mental health crisis has created the need for a comprehensive workforce response, which requires educators and school administrative staff, school-based mental health professionals, and communities to work collaboratively to ...

Continuing ASTHO’s Legislative Prospectus series—which highlights the top 10 public health policy issues for 2022—this post focuses on mental and behavioral health, as well as supporting the public health workforce.

For more than a decade, rural hospitals have been closing (or are in danger of closure) at an alarming rate. As a result, states have used a variety of measures to address and prevent rural hospital closures, including tax incentives, ...

Interview with Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, Rachel Levine about how the commonwealth is working to increase access to healthcare in rural communities by working across agencies to support rural hospitals.

November 18 is National Rural Health Day, a commemoration started by State Offices of Rural Health to recognize the power and resilience of rural communities. Twenty percent of the U.S. population lives in rural communities. Recognizing ...

ASTHO has identified health equity and rural health as issues that policymakers across the country will consider in 2022.

The disparities experienced during the COVID pandemic have brought a national focus to health equity in our nation. The attention and resources currently being provided to help address health inequities provide an opportunity that I have ...

Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century, as well as some of the most powerful and cost-effective tools to prevent disease, disparities, disability, and death among children and adults. The COVID-19 ...

Strategies for Accessible Healthcare for People with Disabilities Living in Rural Communities Accessible Healthcare for People with Disabilities Association of state and territorial health officials, astho, public health, people with ...

You may be wondering why we should vote in the middle of a pandemic, when there are so many stresses on our lives and the process feels so polarized. But voting has a direct impact on health. It is one way that we care for our family, our ...

During the early spread of COVID-19, the National Rural Health Association senior vice president Brock Slabach stated: “Before the pandemic, rural hospitals were struggling for survival. COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the fractures that ...

Recent legislation at both the state and federal levels has significantly affected the ability of healthcare providers to serve patients virtually and across state lines.

Food insecurity is a pervasive barrier to the health and well-being of many differing vulnerable populations in the United States, including minority populations and rural communities.

Learn how flexible telehealth policies expand access to care.