At the Baltimore City Health Department, we believe that where a person lives should

Baltimore health officials are warning residents that it is illegal and a health hazard to get inked in eyebrows at salons.

Many people don't realize that the procedures, which involves using needles to draw eyebrows with permanent, semi-permanent or long-lasting make up is considered illegal, according to a release from the Baltimore City Health Department. The salons often market the procedure as "microblading".

The department regulates tattoo parlors because the process can lead to bacterial infections and the spread of diseases such as HIV. Tattooing of any kind for compensation may only be done in a licensed tattoo facility by artists who are registered with the health department. 

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BALTIMORE, Md. - A synthetic opiate is responsible for four recent deaths in Maryland. Heroin and fentanyl killed hundreds in the last year but carfentanil is stronger than both and threatens the lives of its users as well as the people who come to their aid.

In the war on heroin, medics are on the front lines. They receive a daily barrage of calls for drug overdoses.

“I bet at this station they get about 10 a day for OD's,” said Rick Hoffman, president of IAFF Local 734 Baltimore firefighters.

Hoffman represents the first responders in the City with the most heroin-related deaths in the state. Three-hundred forty two people lost their lives in the first nine months of 2016.

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“We know that fentanyl is being trafficked from other countries and being mixed in with heroin and other drugs without the person using the drugs knowing it, so it's possible that carfentanil can also follow a similar pattern and cause many more deaths,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen.

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On Thursday, the American Health Care Act passed the House of Representatives by a 217–213 vote, crossing the 216 threshold needed. Under the latest health care plan, premiums would likely increase rapidly for people with pre-existing conditions. Some of those people are kids. One extremely common chronic illness in children is asthma, and those children would probably be affected by a rise in costs as a result of asthma being included as a pre-existing condition, which are no longer covered under the American Health Care Act as they were under the Affordable Care Act. But how much will insurance cost for kids with asthma under Trumpcare?

Think Progress reported that, under the latest Republican health care bill, enrollees could face premium increases skyrocketing into the tens of thousands of dollars. In particular, the Center for American Progress found that people with asthma would face a premium surcharge of $4,340. And asthma doesn't just go away — it can be managed, and triggers can be identified to control them, but asthma is the leading cause of chronic illness in children, and it's not something that can be cured to eliminate those costs. 

TIME also reported on findings that noted people with asthma could have raised premiums under the AHCA. And since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 6.2 million children currently have asthma, those kids would likely face costs similar to the estimate made by the CAP.

#AHCA how do I explain to my 13 year old daughter that she will have trouble finding insurance because she has asthma.

— Jennifer Catron (@jcatron243) May 4, 2017

U.S. News & World Report reported that, under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, neither women or children could be denied coverage or charged more due to pre-existing conditions — including asthma. But that protection is not exactly the same under the AHCA. Instead, according to Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore city health commissioner, "States could allow insurers to set much higher rates for patients who have a pre-existing condition. That's terrifying, because patients could in essence be priced out of coverage." So through no fault of their own, the parents of kids with asthma could face higher costs to have insurance coverage just because their child has a common illness that they can't control.

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