Figuring out the insurance options for families often falls to women. Some say they’re delaying marriage, taking side jobs, and putting their kids on Medicaid as premium prices shoot up in 2026.
Lynn Arditi
Lynn joined The Public's Radio as health reporter in 2017 after more than three decades as a journalist, including 28 years at The Providence Journal. Her series "A 911 Emergency," a project of the 2019 ProPublica Local Reporting Network, won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award in the radio/podcast category in 2020.
A native of New York City, she graduated from Oberlin College and landed her first journalism job at The Center for Investigative Reporting (now known as Reveal) in Washington, D.C., where she did story development for 60 Minutes. When the T.V. market imploded in 1987, the D.C. office of CIR closed and within a year she moved to Massachusetts to take a reporting job at the former Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, a small daily newspaper.
A year later, she moved to Providence, R.I. to work at The Providence Journal. There, she worked for several years as a bureau reporter covering schools and local issues, before she began covering statewide beats including higher education, the economy, housing and health care. During those years, she also honed her skills in narrative journalism, and served as chairwoman of the newspaper’s writing committee. Her work has been recognized by New England Associated Press News Executives Association and the Society of American Business Editors & Writers.
Posted inHealth, Local
Rhode Island expands access to COVID vaccines
COVID vaccines will now be more widely available in Rhode Island this fall and winter with Gov. Dan McKee’s announcement Friday that pharmacists can vaccinate people under age 65 with no pre-existing medical conditions, and health insurers should cover all COVID vaccines at no cost to patients. Massachusetts and Connecticut have taken similar steps to […]
Posted inHealth, Local
Who can get a COVID vaccination in Rhode Island?
Rhode Islanders looking to get their updated COVID vaccinations are often left with more questions than answers. And some people may find it harder to get the shot. The Public’s Radio morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with health reporter Lynn Arditi about what we know right now about getting COVID shots in Rhode Island. Interview […]
Posted inEconomy, Health, Housing, Local
Rising housing costs put older Rhode Islanders’ health at risk
At 82, Roberta Rabinovitz had no place to go. A widow, she had lost both her daughters to cancer. She’d lived with one and then the other, nursing them until their deaths. Then she moved in with her brother in Florida and helped care for him, until he also died. “My doctor said, ‘Roberta, you […]
Posted inHealth, Labor, Local
Butler Hospital workers ratify new contract, ending strike
The three-month strike at Butler Hospital that forced the closure of roughly half of the psychiatric hospital’s beds ended as workers voted “overwhelmingly” on Monday to ratify a new contract. Butler Hospital and the Service Employees International Union 1199 New England announced the settlement Monday night in a joint statement. “This contract ends the strike […]
Posted inEconomy, Health, Local
Butler Hospital and striking union reach a ‘tentative agreement’
Butler Hospital and the union representing more than 700 nurses, mental health workers, dietary and maintenance staff announced Monday that they have reached a tentative agreement to end the three-month long strike. “On behalf of both Butler Hospital and members of the bargaining committee representing all job classifications of the hospital, we are pleased to […]
Posted inHealth, Local
Butler Hospital’s striking workers, management to return to the bargaining table
Butler Hospital’s striking workers and management are scheduled to resume talks with a federal mediator on Wednesday, marking the first formal negotiations since the union last week rejected the hospital’s “revised last, best, and final’’ offer. Roughly 700 unionized workers at the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side have been on strike since mid-May. The […]
Posted inHealth, Local
Butler Hospital’s president on the ongoing strike: ‘I have a responsibility to the future of the hospital’
Roughly 800 unionized workers at Butler Hospital entered the twelfth week of a strike on Thursday. They are striking over wages, benefits and workplace safety at the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side. The hospital’s President and Chief Operating Officer Mary Marran spoke with Lynn Arditi, health reporter at The Public’s Radio, about the strike’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Local
City of Woonsocket agrees to pay a half-million dollars to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU
The City of Woonsocket has agreed to pay $550,000 to settle a lawsuit by the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union for wrongfully arresting and incarcerating a homeless man for a 2022 break-in. The federal civil rights lawsuit alleged that Mack Blackie’s civil rights were violated when he was twice arrested and […]
Posted inHealth, Labor, Local
Staffing shortages, rise in workplace violence fueling strike at Butler Hospital
Andrew Kimball-Mirzaie had been working at Butler Hospital less than two months when he was attacked by a patient. At 30, Kimball-Mirzaie has the athletic build of someone who looks like he could defend himself if he had to. But he had no reason to think he might be in danger one afternoon in February […]
