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(Angela Hart/KFF Health News)

As GOP Cries Fraud, Newsom Backs Medicaid Spending on Housing and Food

Republicans say California’s use of Medicaid money for social services amounts to waste, fraud, and abuse. But even as Gov. Gavin Newsom voices concern about losing funding, he says he’s proud of the state’s holistic approach to caring for its sickest and most expensive patients.

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Today’s Haiku

THE WAIT AND THE WORRY

Insurance denied.
The please-hold music outlives
my lone prescription.

By Travis Park
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Special Reports

Priced Out

Skyrocketing healthcare costs and insurance premiums combined with congressional inaction have forced a perilous decision upon many people: Pay higher prices for health insurance or go uncovered. KFF Health News is telling their stories.

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Common Ground

Americans are split over many issues — immigration, guns, President Trump. But helping people with cancer and other serious illnesses retains broad bipartisan support, polls show.

A woman with white hair in a braid sits at a dining room table and looks through paperwork. A notebook, pill bottles, a phone, and a medal on a ribbon are on the table in front of her.

Bill of the Month

This crowdsourced investigation by KFF Health News dissects and explains your medical bills every month in order to shed light on U.S. health care prices and to help patients learn how to be more active in managing costs.

Payback: Tracking the Opioid Settlement Cash

Opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are paying tens of billions of dollars in restitution to settle lawsuits about their role in the overdose epidemic, with little oversight on how the money is spent. We’re tracking how state and local governments use — or misuse — the cash.

An aerial photo of a hospital in a rural part of West Virginia.

Rural Health Payout

Tracking the federal Rural Health Transformation Program granting $50 billion to states to expand access to health care.

A man wearing a red shirt and a baseball cap is seen through a cracked windshield

Eleven Minutes

Someone in America dies by suicide every 11 minutes. It’s a tragic and entrenched problem. A new approach to prevention shifts the focus from stopping harm in moments of crisis to upstream policies that give people reasons to live.

A collage of portraits of seven people affected by medical debt.

Diagnosis: Debt

More than 100 million people in America are saddled with medical bills they cannot pay. Medical debt — rather than fighting disease — is now a defining feature of the nation’s healthcare system.