Florida Hospitals Discharge Uninsured Gunshot Victims Faster Than Insured Ones
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Copay Assistance Is Meant To Defray Patient Drug Costs. Some Insurers Keep It Instead.
Drugmakers provide financial assistance to help patients afford increasingly expensive medications. But some insurers do not count those payments toward a plan’s deductible or out-of-pocket maximum and make patients pay instead.
By Daniel Chang -
Florida Hospitals Act Fast To Discharge Gun Victims — Especially if They’re Not Insured
Uninsured patients made up about 1 in 4 of the more than 20,000 gunshot wound inpatient hospitalizations in Florida from 2018 to 2024, an analysis of state data by KFF Health News and The Trace found. They also had shorter hospital stays than those with any form of coverage.
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Florida Delays Children’s Health Insurance Expansion as Uninsured Rate Rises
Florida’s KidCare expansion has been stuck in legal limbo since February 2024. Since then, the number of uninsured children in Florida has risen to 400,000 — one of the highest state tallies.
By Daniel Chang -
Florida Hasn’t Expanded Medicaid. Lawmakers Want To Add Work Requirements Anyway.
Florida is not mandated to add work requirements for Medicaid, because the state has not expanded eligibility to more low-income adults. But lawmakers have proposed requiring some adults in the state’s program to work anyway, a policy that could leave many uninsured.
By Daniel Chang -
Guns Marketed for Personal Safety Fuel Public Health Crisis in Black Communities
During the covid pandemic, gun marketers told many Americans they needed firearms to defend against criminals and protesters. Then firearm deaths mounted rapidly in racially segregated and low-income neighborhoods, according to federal data.
By Fred Clasen-Kelly and Daniel Chang -
Oregon Hospital Races To Build a Tsunami Shelter as FEMA Fights To Cut Its Funding
Columbia Memorial Hospital near Oregon’s coastline planned to add a tsunami shelter, counting on a FEMA grant. After the Trump administration cut the funding, hospital officials are building anyway, saying waiting is too risky. A judge ruled Dec. 11 that the administration unlawfully ended the program without congressional approval.
By Hannah Norman and Daniel Chang -
Investigation
At Least 170 US Hospitals Face Major Flood Risk. Experts Say Trump Is Making It Worse.
As a warming climate intensifies storms, KFF Health News has identified more than 170 U.S. hospitals at risk of significant and potentially dangerous flooding. Climate experts warn that the Trump administration’s cuts leave the nation less prepared.
By Holly K. Hacker, Brett Kelman, and Daniel Chang Videos by Hannah Norman and Data visualizations by Lydia Zuraw -
Even in States That Fought Obamacare, Trump’s New Law Poses Health Consequences
GOP lawmakers in 10 states have refused for a decade to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. But when President Donald Trump got another whack at Obamacare, these holdout states went unrewarded.
By Daniel Chang and Sam Whitehead -
With Enhanced Subsidies Set To Expire, Consumers Could Face Higher Obamacare Costs
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
By Daniel Chang -
The Price You Pay for an Obamacare Plan Could Surge Next Year
An estimated 4 million Americans will lose health insurance over the next decade if Congress doesn’t extend enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage, which expire at the end of the year. Florida and Texas would see the biggest losses, in part because they have not expanded Medicaid eligibility.
By Daniel Chang -
Immigration Crackdowns Disrupt the Caregiving Industry. Families Pay the Price.
Families, nursing facilities, and home health agencies rely on foreign-born workers to fill health care jobs that are demanding and do not attract enough American citizens. The Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies threaten to cut a key source of labor for the industry, which was already predicting a surge in demand.
By Vanessa G. Sánchez and Daniel Chang -
How Much Will That Surgery Cost? 🤷 Hospital Prices Remain Largely Unhelpful.
Health care price transparency is one of the few bipartisan issues in Washington, D.C. But much of the information that hospitals and health plans have made available to the public is not helpful to patients, and there’s no conclusive evidence yet that it’s lowering costs or increasing competition.
By Daniel Chang -
Doctor Wanted: Small Town Offers Big Perks To Attract a Physician
The town of Havana, Florida, is seeking a family doctor to practice in the rural community. Incentives include rent-free office space with medical equipment owned by the town. With a physician shortage hitting small communities hard, town leaders put want ads in newspapers and on social media.
By Daniel Chang -
As States Diverge on Immigration, Hospitals Say They Won’t Turn Patients Away
California and Massachusetts are teaching immigrants their rights while Florida and Texas are collecting patients’ immigration status. As states offer differing guidelines for interacting with immigrant patients, hospitals around the U.S. say they won’t turn people away for care because of their immigration status.
By Vanessa G. Sánchez and Daniel Chang -
Childhood Vaccination Rates, a Rare Health Bright Spot in Struggling States, Are Slipping
Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia — states with some of the worst health outcomes — also have some of the highest childhood vaccination rates. But doctors and health officials worry a rising tide of vaccine skepticism is causing those public health bright spots to dim.
By Daniel Chang and Sam Whitehead -
Trash Incinerators Disproportionately Harm Black and Hispanic People
Across the country, trash incinerators disproportionately overburden majority-Black and -Hispanic communities. Though the number of incinerators has declined nationwide since the 1980s, Florida offers financial incentives to waste management companies that expand existing facilities or build new ones.
By Daniel Chang -
Florida’s Deloitte-Run Computer System Cut Off New Moms Entitled to Medicaid
Florida discovered a glitch in its Deloitte-run Medicaid eligibility system. The problem, alleged in court testimony, led to new mothers wrongly losing their insurance coverage.
By Daniel Chang and Samantha Liss -
What’s at Stake: A Pivotal Election for Six Big Health Issues
Health care has ebbed and surged as an election issue throughout the presidential campaign. Here are the ways some of the most consequential changes in health policies could hinge on whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump wins.
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Florida’s New Covid Booster Guidance Is Straight-Up Misinformation
State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo spread more anti-vaccine misinformation by telling Floridians to avoid mRNA vaccines. Vaccine experts and historians can’t remember another state health leader urging residents to avoid an FDA-approved vaccine.
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