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Latest KFF Health News Stories

Abortion Bans Are Repelling the Nation’s Future Doctors

KFF Health News Original

Ash Panakam is about to graduate from Harvard Medical School. She’s from Georgia and always assumed she would return to the South for her residency. But the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the nationwide right to abortion changed everything. “Ultimately I shifted my selection pretty drastically,” she said. “I was struggling to find a residency […]

FDA Said It Never Inspected Dental Lab That Made Controversial AGGA Device

KFF Health News Original

Johns Dental Laboratories stopped making the Anterior Growth Guidance Appliance last year after a KFF Health News-CBS News investigation into allegations of patient harm. The company had “never” reported any complaints about its products to the FDA, according to the agency.

San Francisco Tries Tough Love by Tying Welfare to Drug Rehab

KFF Health News Original

Facing an overdose epidemic and public fury over conditions on the streets, famously tolerant San Francisco will start requiring welfare recipients to undergo drug screening, and treatment if necessary, to receive cash public assistance.

First Responders, Veterans Hail Benefits of Psychedelic Drugs as California Debates Legalization

KFF Health News Original

California lawmakers have modified a psychedelic drug bill that was vetoed last year, narrowing it to allow only supervised use of psilocybin mushrooms, ecstasy, and other hallucinogens rather than decriminalize more broadly. The current bill would establish new state agencies to regulate the program.

Democrats Seek To Make GOP Pay for Threats to Reproductive Rights

KFF Health News Original

Democrats running for office are using abortion rollbacks to galvanize voters, with abortion rights ballot initiatives amplifying their lines of attack. In Missouri, the leading Democratic candidate for the Senate also blames Republican Sen. Josh Hawley for threatening access to IVF.

Paid Sick Leave Sticks After Many Pandemic Protections Vanish

KFF Health News Original

The U.S. is one of nine countries that do not guarantee paid sick leave. Since the covid pandemic, advocates in states including Missouri, Alaska, and Nebraska are organizing to take the issue to voters with ballot initiatives this November.

Biden’s Nursing Home Staffing Rule Surfaces Horror Stories

KFF Health News Original

The Biden administration’s plan to set minimum staffing levels for nursing homes prompted comments from more than 46,500 people and organizations — including residents of homes and nurses with harrowing stories about conditions inside. Hundreds of comments like these cemented the resolve of officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month to […]

Tres personas heridas en el desfile del Super Bowl viven con balas que siguen alojadas en sus cuerpos

KFF Health News Original

A casi tres meses del tiroteo en el desfile del Super Bowl de los Kansas City Chiefs, que dejó al menos 24 personas heridas, recuperarse de esas heridas es algo profundamente personal e incluye una sorprendente área gris de la medicina: si las balas deberían o no extraerse.

Three People Shot at Super Bowl Parade Grapple With Bullets Left in Their Bodies

KFF Health News Original

Despite the rise of gun violence in America, few medical guidelines exist on removing bullets from survivors’ bodies. In the second installment of our series “The Injured,” we meet three people shot at the Kansas City Super Bowl parade who are dealing with the bullets inside them in different ways.

Forget Ringing the Button for the Nurse. Patients Now Stay Connected by Wearing One.

KFF Health News Original

Dozens of hospitals have deployed a device that uses artificial intelligence to monitor patients remotely. One hospital says it reduces nurses’ workloads — but some nurses fear the technology could replace them.

An NIH Genetics Study Targets a Long-Standing Challenge: Diversity

KFF Health News Original

In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced a precision medicine initiative that would later be known as the All of Us program. The research, now well underway at the National Institutes of Health, aims to analyze the DNA of at least 1 million people across the United States to build a diverse health database. The key word there is “diverse.” So […]

Biden Team’s Tightrope: Reining In Rogue Obamacare Agents Without Slowing Enrollment

KFF Health News Original

Federal regulators face a growing challenge — how to prevent rogue health insurance agents from switching unknowing consumers’ Obamacare coverage without making the enrollment process so cumbersome that enrollment declines.

What’s Keeping the US From Allowing Better Sunscreens?

KFF Health News Original

A decade after Congress told the FDA to expedite the approval of more effective sunscreens, the federal government still has not approved sunscreen ingredients that are safely being used around the world. Meanwhile, skin cancer is the nation’s most common cancer.

Amgen Plows Ahead With Costly, Highly Toxic Cancer Dosing Despite FDA Challenge

KFF Health News Original

The FDA told Amgen to test whether a quarter-dose of its lung cancer drug worked as well as the amount recommended on the product label. It did and with fewer side effects. But Amgen is sticking to the higher dose — which earns it an additional $180,000 a year per patient.