Latest KFF Health News Content

Latest KFF Health News Stories

Second Parkland Students Dies Of Apparent Suicide. Students, Activists Call For Improved Mental Health Services.

Morning Briefing

The tragedy continues one year after a gunman took the lives of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. While local leaders distributed information about how students can get help, others say the services being offered don’t go far enough.

This Year’s Flu Season Wasn’t As Extreme As The Last One, But It’s The Longest Lasting In Decades

Morning Briefing

Usually, flulike symptoms drop quickly after the peak of the season, which usually occurs mid- to late-February, but this season those symptoms have plateaued. “It looks like we still have a ways to go,” said Lynnette Brammer, the head of the CDC’s Domestic Influenza Surveillance team. In other public health news: memory, cancer treatment, sleep deprivation, contrast agents for CT scans, older fathers, stillbirths and more.

After Spate Of Failures, Some Warn That Searching For Magic Drug To Cure Alzheimer’s Is A Wild Goose Chase

Morning Briefing

The disease is too complex, experts argue. But drugmakers are still hoping for a foot in that lucrative door. In other pharmaceutical news: insulin drug pricing, pharmacy benefits managers, postpartum depression drugs, a rare genetic disease, and more.

Personal, Banking Data From Millions Of Survivors Of U.S. Environmental Disasters Accidentally Shared By FEMA

Morning Briefing

A spokesman for the agency said 1.8 million people had both their banking information and addresses revealed, and about 725,000 people had just their addresses shared. The victims included those from the California wildfires in 2017 and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Patients Are Confessing Suicidal Thoughts To Apps Meant To Manage Health Problems Like Diabetes, Leaving Startups To Grapple With What To Do

Morning Briefing

“To be honest, when we started this, I didn’t think it was as big an issue as it obviously is,” said Daniel Nathrath, CEO of Ada Health. The phenomenon, though, is, in some respects, no surprise: There’s a large body of research showing that people are more willing to confess potentially taboo thoughts to a computer than to a fellow human a few feet away.

GoFundMe Joins Social Media Peers In Cracking Down On Antivaccination Movement

Morning Briefing

“Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe’s terms of service and will be removed from the platform,” GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whithorne said. The company joins other high-profile tech companies that are stepping up to regulate their online communities. Other vaccination news comes out of Kentucky, Oregon, Michigan and Minnesota.

Guggenheim Museum Won’t Accept Any Future Gifts From Sacklers, In Latest Sign Of Shifting Tide Against Family

Morning Briefing

The Guggenheim’s decision follows in the footsteps of Britain’s National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Museum in cutting off ties with the family’s charitable arm. The Sacklers are currently mired in a court battle over their role in the opioid epidemic.

Abortion Rights Activists Flood Lower Courts With Their Eyes On SCOTUS. But Will The Justices Be As Friendly To The Cause As They Hope?

Morning Briefing

Twice in recent months, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has sided with liberal justices in abortion cases–a sign that to some suggests that the court isn’t likely to rewrite its longstanding holding, laid down in Roe v. Wade, that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion before the fetus attains viability. Meanwhile, there’s a growing push on the Democrats’ side to allow abortion coverage in publicly funded health programs. And in Ohio, health officials cut off funding to Planned Parenthood following court ruling over public money going to the group.

What Would Abolishing Our Complex, Confusing Private Health Care In Favor Of ‘Medicare For All’ Really Look Like?

Morning Briefing

For all the attacks it weathers, the health care system makes up a fifth of the nation’s economy and is quite baked into the country’s landscape. Completely upending that would be a large disruption at the level that experts say is unprecedented. Meanwhile, despite other countries having “universal coverage” in concept, their systems are different enough from the “Medicare for All” proposals that have gained steam in the U.S. that they don’t really serve as helpful models.

States Push For Caregiver Tax Credits

KFF Health News Original

Families often spend thousands of dollars caring for ailing loved ones at home. Lawmakers in California and at least seven other states want to provide some financial relief with state income tax credits.

She Was Dancing On The Roof And Talking Gibberish. A Special Kind Of ER Helped Her.

KFF Health News Original

With mental health beds in short supply, emergency rooms increasingly have become the care of first and last resort for people in the grips of a psychiatric episode. Now, hospitals around the country are opening emergency units that calmly cater to patients with mental health needs.