Author

Deborah Yetter

Deborah Yetter

Deborah Yetter is an independent journalist who previously worked for 38 years for The Courier Journal, where she focused on child welfare and health and human services. She lives in Louisville and has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville. She is a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

‘Bad teeth cause life-threatening infections’ — push to expand Medicaid dental benefits continues

By: - September 27, 2023

Around 400 patients per week, most covered by Medicaid, flood the University of Kentucky’s dental clinic seeking care they can’t find elsewhere for advanced tooth decay or other oral disease. Some are in such critical condition they must be airlifted to UK, Dr. Melvyn Yeoh, the university’s chairman of oral health science, recently told a […]

Would dividing JCPS sacrifice diversity? Republican lawmaker, school board member disagree

By: - September 13, 2023

As Kentucky’s Republican legislators step up pressure on Jefferson County Public Schools, the Louisville Forum on Wednesday hosted a debate between Rep. Jason Nemes, a Louisville Republican and an outspoken JCPS critic, and Corrie Shull, the school board’s vice chairman. The discussion — focused on GOP lawmakers’ interest in overhauling Kentucky’s largest school system and […]

Surprise! You’ve lost your Medicaid

By: - August 24, 2023

Some patients find out they’ve been dropped from Medicaid when they come in to pick up a prescription. Others, when they arrive for a doctor’s appointment at one of the Family Health Centers’ Louisville clinics. And some are struggling to cope with paperwork or documentation required to prove eligibility for Medicaid under new rules that […]

Image of a man seated at hearing table with two women to his left.

GOP lawmakers cite ‘proper’ procedure as KY dental school deans plea for compassion

By: - August 11, 2023

Working at a public “safety net” dental clinic in rural Western Kentucky, Dr. Pamela Stein routinely saw a heartbreaking sight. “It was not unusual at 6 o’clock in the morning to see 10 or 15 people standing in line waiting to get in because they had tooth aches, because they couldn’t find anyone else to […]

Court fight raises doubts about Cameron’s commitment to transparency

By: - August 10, 2023

Denied records it sought in 2020 from Attorney General Daniel Cameron about a Ballot Integrity Task Force he co-chairs, American Oversight, a national advocacy group, pressed on. And that set up an ongoing legal battle that open records advocates say was unnecessary and shows Cameron is unwilling to release even the most routine documents related […]

Cameron accused of trying to ‘scare patients out of obtaining abortions’

By: - July 21, 2023

Calling it “a disgusting overreach of government authority,” Planned Parenthood officials in Kentucky are denouncing an effort by Republican attorneys general to block a federal expansion of medical privacy protections for patients who seek reproductive care. The rule change proposed by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department would enhance protections for patients who seek […]

Legislative hearing on Medicaid dental expansion canceled

By: - July 13, 2023

A public hearing on Gov. Andy Beshear’s plan to have Medicaid cover more dental, vision and hearing services for adults scheduled Friday, July 14, has been canceled. The hearing by the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee was to have been held at 1 p.m. in Frankfort for comments on Beshear’s plan that expands Medicaid to pay […]

Hearing on Kentucky Medicaid dental, vision, hearing services rescheduled for Friday

By: - July 11, 2023

A public hearing on Gov. Andy Beshear’s plan to have Medicaid cover more dental, vision and hearing services for adults has been rescheduled from Thursday, July 13, to Friday, July 14. The hearing by the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee will be held at 1 p.m. July 14 in Frankfort at the Capitol Annex in Room […]

Politics, pay and too few dentists: Barriers to healing the pain in Kentuckians’ mouths

By: - July 10, 2023

At the Red Bird Mission dental clinic in Southeastern Kentucky, patients with few or no teeth now are eligible for dentures through an expansion of the state’s Medicaid dental services for adults. “People are tickled to death,” said Dr. Bill Collins, the dentist at the United Methodist Church mission in a remote corner of Clay […]

Challenge to Kentucky’s abortion ban dismissed as advocates seek a patient to press case

By: - June 27, 2023

LOUISVILLE — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of two Kentucky laws that together ban nearly all abortions, a week after the state’s two licensed abortion providers signaled they planned to drop the case — for now. Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry on Tuesday signed an order the parties submitted agreeing to […]

Kentucky abortion providers want to dismiss challenge against near-total abortion ban

By: - June 20, 2023

In a surprise move, Kentucky’s two licensed abortion providers have asked a judge to dismiss their case seeking to overturn the state’s near-total ban on abortion. The joint motion on behalf of Planned Parenthood and EMW Women’s Surgical Center comes on the eve of the first anniversary of the June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court […]

How much partisan gerrymandering does Kentucky’s Constitution allow?

By: - June 20, 2023

A fight over Kentucky’s state House and U.S. congressional districts is now before the state Supreme Court, more than a year after new maps were adopted by the Republican supermajority that controls the General Assembly. On March 23, the high court agreed to take the challenge by state Democrats, bypassing the state Appeals Court, “in […]