Latest KFF Health News Stories
Buffy Wicks Turns Her Health History Into Legislation
Assembly member who represents Oakland, is digging into abortion, vaccines and homelessness and drawing on her own health care experiences as she drafts bills.
As Omicron Surges, Effort to Vaccinate Young Children Stalls
Just 18% of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated, with rates varying significantly across the country, a KHN analysis of federal data shows. Pediatricians say the slow pace and geographic disparities are alarming, especially against the backdrop of record numbers of cases and pediatric hospitalizations.
With No End in Sight to Pandemic Life, Parents Find Disruption Is the New Normal
Amid covid-related staffing shortages and testing requirements, school systems are stretched thin. And so are parents’ nerves.
New Parents Slapped With Surprise Bills for Treating Newborns
Regular use of a more advanced screening method turns a low-cost procedure into a pricier one.
NICU Bill Installment Plan: That’ll Be $45,843 a Month for 12 Months, Please
After baby Dorian Bennett arrived two months early and spent more than 50 days in the neonatal ICU, his parents received a bill of more than $550,000 — despite having insurance. The Florida hospital had a not-so-helpful suggestion: monthly payments of more than $45,000 for a year.
Pandemic Poses Short- and Long-Term Risks to Babies, Especially Boys
A mother’s immune response to covid can be a greater danger to the fetus than the virus itself.
La pandemia presenta riesgos a corto y largo plazo para bebés, especialmente varones
Las embarazadas con covid tienen cinco veces más probabilidades que las que no lo están de necesitar cuidados intensivos. Pero las consecuencias para el bebé pueden ser a largo plazo.
Covid Shots for Kids Are Scarce — And Demand Is Mixed — In Rural Montana
Although covid vaccines have been available to children as young as 5 for more than a month, they’re not being offered in some rural Montana counties, and parents don’t know where to find them in others.
How LA, Calling the Shots on School Vaccine Mandates, Can Lead the Way on Covid Rules
In the middle of a measles outbreak in 1977, the Los Angeles school system required students to be inoculated or stay out of class. Other school systems followed the practice. Will it work again now that the county is insisting that teens have their shots against covid?
Watch: No Extra Resources for Children Orphaned by Covid
Grieving children face grave risks to their well-being, both in the short and long term. But there is no concerted government effort to help the estimated 140,000 children who have lost a parent in the pandemic.
Journalists Cover Issues From Pollution to Vaccines and the Spread of Covid in Hospitals
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Por qué los piojos siguen acechando, a pesar del distanciamiento social
Desafortunadamente, las medidas que han tomado muchas escuelas para prevenir la transmisión del covid-19 al reabrir hacen poco para prevenir la propagación del piojo de la cabeza.
A Covid Head-Scratcher: Why Lice Lurk Despite Physical Distancing
With kids back in school, business is picking back up for professional nitpickers. But how are kids getting head lice if they’re physically distancing in the classroom?
Schools, Pediatricians Look to Make Up Lost Ground on Non-Covid Vaccinations
Health officials hope the rollout of covid shots for young children and other initiatives will boost routine vaccine rates that dropped during the pandemic and narrow socioeconomic disparities.
Quarantine and Tracing Rules Are All Over the Map for Students
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers guidance but calls for localities to set quarantine rules for unvaccinated children exposed to someone with covid-19. That’s led to a pandemic patchwork of rules.
Journalists Offer Primers on Medicare Open Enrollment and Death Benefits Amid Covid
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Why Health Care Is So Expensive, Chapter $22K
Congress is making slow progress toward completing its ambitious social spending bill, although its Thanksgiving deadline looks optimistic. Meanwhile, a new survey finds the average cost of an employer-provided family plan has risen to more than $22,000. That’s about the cost of a new Toyota Corolla. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Rebecca Love, a nurse academic and entrepreneur, about the impending crisis in nursing.
Centro comunitario hispano lidera la vacunación infantil contra covid en Chicago
Esperanza Health Centers ha liderado la vacunación contra covid en la población infantil y adolescente de Chicago, ayudando a grupos que han sido más vulnerables al coronavirus.
How One Health Center Is Leading Chicago on Kid Covid Shots
A health center with clinics on Chicago’s southwest side that serves mostly Hispanic patients has provided the most covid shots to kids in the city by being accessible, (literally) speaking the language of the community and setting up pop-up clinics at schools and parks. It provides a few lessons as the nation gears up to vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds.
Hormone Blocker Sticker Shock — Again — As Patients Lose Cheaper Drug Option
Kids who need a hormone-blocking drug to delay puberty have lost an off-label option. The nearly identical drug the company still sells costs eight times more.
