Kynect, Kentucky’s health benefit exchange, began its second annual open enrollment period on November 15 and will run through February 15, 2015. Governor Steve Beshear’s communications office reports that the first day of enrollment showed strong interest from Kentuckians as they began shopping for health coverage. Kentucky has remained a national leader in enrollment in health care coverage through kynect. In 2014, Kentucky had the second-highest reduction of uninsured people in the country, falling from [...]

Today is the Great American Smokeout, a day when the American Cancer Society encourages smokers to develop a plan to quit. The health impacts of smoking affect more than smokers, and a new law could protect workers from secondhand smoke. The Kentucky legislature has been debating passage of a smoke-free indoor workplace bill for several years now. It is easy for such debates to become about ideology, but the kickoff last week for the effort to [...]

Tooth decay continues to rank as one of the most prevalent chronic childhood diseases, especially in the state of Kentucky.  The Institute for Rural Health at Western Kentucky University completed a cross-sectional study in 2013, focusing on two main objectives in the bluegrass state: to assess socio-demographic differences between children affected and unaffected by decay, and to investigate the factors associated with the lack of treatment of this chronic condition. The Institute for Rural Health [...]