Latest KFF Health News Stories
Biden Administration Nibbles at the Maternal Health Crisis
Choosing where to give birth typically comes down to what hospital is most convenient to your home, where your obstetrician practices and your insurance company’s provider network. Now, the Biden administration has given expectant parents another factor to consider: whether their hospital has won the government’s new “birthing friendly” designation. But don’t worry — a […]
Why Do We Pay For so Much Worthless Health Care?
Medical advances are expensive. Take Wegovy, the wildly successful obesity drug that we learned last week may also reduce the risk of heart disease. If just 10 percent of Medicare beneficiaries start taking the drug, taxpayers could be on the hook for nearly $27 billion a year. So how can the country afford the latest […]
Abortion “Until the Day of Birth” Is Almost Never a Thing
It’s one of the most frequent claims made by antiabortion lawmakers: That abortion rights supporters favor allowing abortions literally until the end of pregnancy. “Frankly I think it’s unethical and immoral to allow for abortions up until the day of birth,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said at last week’s GOP presidential primary debate. At that […]
What One Expectant Mom’s Effort To Get an RSV Shot Says About Health Policy
Today we bring you the story of a patient seeking the RSV vaccine — and how her frustrating journey illustrates why it can be so hard in the United States to get an important medicine recommended by federal regulators. Hannah Fegley of Silver Spring, Md., says she spent seven hours on the phone last month […]
Gubernatorial Candidates Tout Opioid Settlements
Tuesday’s election served as a testing ground for themes that could resonate with voters in 2024. Abortion is obviously among the biggest. One that’s not getting as much attention as it deserves: opioid settlement money. In Kentucky, both the newly reelected Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, and his Republican challenger, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, were involved […]
Ohio Votes on Abortion Rights Today. Eleven States May Follow in 2024.
Voters in Ohio are deciding whether to add abortion rights protections to the state’s constitution today. The vote comes on the heels of last year’s string of ballot measure wins for abortion rights in six states: California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont. But this is just the start. Next year, 11 more states could see abortion-related […]
Nursing Homes Say They Can’t Afford Higher Staffing. But Their Finances Are Often Opaque.
Perhaps the biggest mystery, as the Biden administration moves to force nursing homes to boost staffing, is this: how much extra money do the nation’s 15,000 homes actually have to hire and retain more nurses and aides? Public comments are due Monday on the most sweeping regulatory changes to hit the industry in decades. The […]
The AMA May Reconsider Single-Payer Health Care
Is the American Medical Association going soft on single-payer health care? We’re about to find out. For more than a century, the most influential U.S. physician group has stridently opposed what could generally be described as “national health insurance.” It famously helped defeat health reform efforts in the 1930s and 1940s, delayed the establishment of […]
Street Medicine Practitioners Are Getting Paid. Now They Want Higher Rates.
Street medicine, the practice of caring for homeless people outdoors, is a burgeoning field — an unfortunate reality as America confronts a growing homelessness epidemic. But it’s at least become a little more rewarding after the Biden administration made an under-the-radar yet revolutionary change to Medicaid. Starting this month, doctors, nurses and other providers can bill […]
