Healthcare Is a Human Right
This edition is available to all (except the paid exclusives). Support my work and upgrade to paid here for as little as $5 a month.
Your lived experience and background are different from my own. That informs your writing in ways other newsletters don't. So much of climate writing is siloed and white. Your perspectives help me to think and feel outside that white world and the upbringing I had. You're willingness to engage with the trauma others experience, then write in ways that honor their experience while you knit it to wider climate issues is why I subscribe. You did that at Atmos—and continue today.
LISTENING: to last year's Possibilities playlist
FEELING: excited because I got tickets to see Chappell Roan!!!!
SEEING: my bag of plantain chips slowly empty out 🤭
As of Aug. 1, 2025, I joined the 25 million people in the U.S. who are uninsured. I guess it's a special privilege to have gone this long without experiencing this, but phew. The anxiety is at an all-time high. Every step I take feels one trip away from a mountain of healthcare debt.
Unfortunately, many more Americans are likely to know this feeling soon. At least 17 million of them. Donald Trump's Big Ugly Bill is slashing Medicaid coverage, and people will inevitably lose healthcare. And y'all know that's bad news for poor people, people of color, disabled people, Indigenous people, and frontline communities.
These are the communities most likely to breathe dirty air—whether that's a Black family in Louisiana's Cancer Alley living next door to a polluter or an immigrant farmworker picking your vegetables outside during a wildfire. Tuesday's air quality in New York was unsafe; I worried about the workers who have no choice but to work outside and likely without the proper protective equipment.
These communities are the most vulnerable to these federal changes. Some will have to jump through more hoops to remain eligible for Medicaid, hoping their employer will fill out the paperwork to verify their weekly hours. Others will lose access to coverage altogether.
Immigrants, even those who are here lawfully, will no longer be eligible for food stamps, aka SNAP benefits, or Medicaid coverage. Any benefits that remain will be tricky to find for undocumented people and citizens alike if they can't read the material. In reporting a story the past couple of weeks, several public health experts flagged to me concerns around language access.
In July, Trump's Department of Justice released a new memo underscoring its commitment to excluding non-English speakers from federal resources. In essence, it's pushing federal agencies to end offering services in languages other than English. Many community health centers are federally run, so what would this mean for them? One expert expressed concern around anticipatory compliance: Some groups may comply even if they don't need to out of fear of losing federal funds.
As a kid, my mom would take us to a local community health center for all our needs. We'd go once a year for our checkups. It was a whole-day event. I don't think my mom could make an appointment. She had to show up when they opened and wait until they could see us. I hated it, but those doctors kept me and my siblings and my mom healthy. My mom never had to worry about cost the way she does now.
No one should have to worry about bills when they go to the doctor. "Healthcare is a human right," Mara Youdelman told me. She's the managing director of federal advocacy for the National Health Law Program. She knows what she's talking about.
"Instead of ensuring universal coverage in the United States, this law takes us back decades," she said of Trump's Big Ugly Bill.
If only I didn't have to pay for healthcare. If only I could go to the doctor without paying $300 a month and then another $200 every visit until I meet my $6,000 deductible. If only I lived in Australia, Canada, Japan, Spain, or any of the dozens of countries that offer universal healthcare to their constituents. If only. 🌀
Subscription FYIs
You can always adjust your subscription here. The newsletter has several tiers, so if you're able to give more or need to give less, please adjust it as you see fit.
I'm also giving paid subscribers a first look into my children's book. I wrote about this last year, but here is the landing page where I'm keeping track of all the editions where you can find what I've shared so far. Send agents my way!
The newsletter ends here for free subscribers. Why not upgrade?
Rest in Power
While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.
The death toll from the floods in China is up to 60.
Flash floods and mudslides struck a region in northern India, killing at least four people. Some 100 people remain missing. The death toll is likely to go up.
Korea has been facing ugly heat waves this year. Since May, at least 19 people have died as a result of the high temperatures. This is more than double the amount during the same period last year.
A new study has found that over 400 deaths could be attributed indirectly to the L.A. fires in January.
Currently Reading
I love a good data visualization, and Shannon Osaka and Naema Ahmed killed it with this piece for the Washington Post on how China is leading the market on clean energy.
Alanna Vagianos exposes the harsh realities that women detained by ICE face for the HuffPost.
Always read Adam Mahoney. He writes for Capital B for the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina: "Researchers have found that Louisiana holds the ominous distinction of being the state most vulnerable to what psychologists call 'deaths of despair.' That phrase refers to fatalities from suicide, substance abuse, or chronic issues like respiratory and cardiovascular diseases linked to hopelessness and poverty."
Incarcerated people need more attention from environmental and climate reporters. Siri Chilukuri writes about a heat wave in Illinois and its impact on the people kept in prisons for Inside Climate News.
I'm obsessed with WIRED's coverage lately. Subscribe if you aren't already. Fernanda González digs deep into the first managed retreat of an entire country's population. Heartbreaking.
I couldn't get through the Washington Post's long list of Gaza's lost children. Can you?
Poetry
BREATHE
who can breathe in peace?
not the people who plant seeds
orange skies: they work
they work, and they sweat
they breathe in the smoke-filled air
they must: they have kids
who can breathe in peace?
those of us with privilege
we stay inside: safe
-ylf-
I'm overdue for a collage. I think I'll make some time this week for arts and crafts time. What are you creating these days?
- Yessenia x
Comments ()