Latest KFF Health News Stories
Care Gaps Grow as OB/GYNs Flee Idaho
Not so long ago, Bonner General Health, the hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, had four OB/GYNs on staff, who treated patients from multiple rural counties. That was before Idaho’s near-total abortion ban went into effect almost two years ago, criminalizing most abortions. All four of Bonner’s OB/GYNs left by last summer, some citing fears that the state’s ban […]
Planned Parenthood’s Push to Get Voters to the Polls
Planned Parenthood’s political and advocacy organizations will use a more than $40 million war chest to blitz GOP officeholders and candidates in an effort to flip the House and maintain Democratic control of the Senate and presidency. The plan is to focus on the records of Republicans who have repeatedly voted against access to abortion, contraceptives, in vitro fertilization or gender-affirming […]
A Little-Recognized Public Health Crisis
About every 12 minutes, someone is killed on America’s roads and countless others are injured. More than 42,500 people died in car crashes in 2022, a death toll that rivals or surpasses those of other major public health threats, such as the flu and gun violence. “We have not recognized that traffic violence is a […]
The national 911 emergency response system is in the midst of its own code red. The lack of federal funding to upgrade aging 911 systems has created significant disparities in state emergency response services, with older operations plagued by outages and longer response times. Last month, for instance, Massachusetts was hit with a statewide 911 […]
The Court Case That Could Upend Access To Free Birth Control
A lawsuit winding its way through the courts could undermine the power of federal agencies to mandate the services health insurance providers must cover. And that could threaten access to free birth control for millions of Americans. The case is called Braidwood Management Inc. v. Becerra, and it was brought by plaintiffs looking to strike […]
Relieving the Growing Burden of Medical Debt
Medical debt is a growing burden for millions of people around the country, from parents in Illinois to immigrants in Colorado to residents of the “Diabetes Belt” across the South, and it’s now being recognized as a health-care problem. People often forgo care or prescriptions if they have debt, according to a KFF Health News […]
When Hospital Cyberattacks Compromise Care, Not Just Data
When hospitals are hit by cyberattacks that compromise crucial technology systems for managing patient care, the stakes are staggering. “We’ve started to think about these as public health issues and disasters on the scale of earthquakes or hurricanes,” said Jeff Tully, a co-director of the Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity at the University of California at […]
Two Rival Hospitals Want To Join Forces. Will Patients Lose?
In Terre Haute, Ind., two rival hospitals want to merge, a move that supporters say will save patients money and help people live longer. But similar hospital consolidations in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina have resulted in government reports documenting diminished care. In more than a dozen states, certificates of public advantage (COPAs) permit deals […]
Abortion Ballot Measures Won’t Automatically Undo Existing Laws
On Tuesday, a judge in Michigan blocked some of the state’s lingering restrictions on abortion access, including a mandatory 24-hour waiting period. The ruling comes 19 months after voters added abortion rights to the state constitution in November 2022. Michigan was one of the first states to protect abortion access at the ballot box after […]
Federal Budget Constraints May Hurt Older Americans With HIV
Researchers say that by the end of the decade, 70 percent of people in the United States living with HIV will be older than 50. Thanks to advances in medicine, the diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. “I’ve been fortunate to take care of some people with HIV for over 30 years,” said Melanie Thompson, a physician […]
How Two States Reveal a Deeper Divide on Insuring Kids’ Health
Arizona and Florida lawmakers saw trouble ahead for children in 2023, with states slated — as the covid-19 pandemic waned — to resume disenrolling ineligible people from Medicaid. So, legislators in both states voted to expand a safety net known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which covers those 18 and younger in […]
Presidential Politics, Polka and Wisconsin
Wisconsin, the land of fried cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers, is one of a half-dozen key battleground states where President Biden is trying to make health care a key issue in his expected November matchup with former president Donald Trump. Biden narrowly won Wisconsin in 2020, after it went for Trump in 2016. […]
Like Doctors, More Nurse Practitioners Are Heading Into Specialty Care
If your doctor can’t see you now, maybe the nurse practitioner can. Nurse practitioners have long been a reliable backstop for the primary-care-physician shortfall, which is estimated at nearly 21,000 doctors this year and projected to get worse. But easy access to NPs could be tested in coming years. Even though nearly 90 percent of […]
California Dabbles With Reining in Health Spending
California is now among the states trying to keep health-care costs down by setting spending caps — a task that pits public officials against a deeply entrenched and heavily lawyered set of players. It’s uncertain whether the state can get insurers, hospitals and medical groups to collaborate on containing costs even as they jockey for […]
End of Internet Subsidy Leaves Millions Facing Telehealth Disconnect
When the clock struck midnight on May 31, more than 23 million low-income households were dropped from a federal internet subsidy program that for years had helped them get connected. The Affordable Connectivity Program was created in 2021, in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, to help people plug into jobs, schools and health care by reducing their internet […]
Weight-Loss Drugs Are So Popular They’re Headed for Medicare Negotiations
The steep prices — and popularity — of Ozempic and similar weight-loss and diabetes drugs could soon make them a priority for Medicare drug price negotiations. List prices for a month’s supply of the drugs range from $936 to $1,349, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. The Inflation Reduction Act President Biden signed in […]
Biden Wants Hospitals To Report Data on Gunshot Wounds
The Biden administration is enlisting America’s doctors to help combat gun violence. About 160 health-care executives and officials have been invited to the White House today and Friday to promote public health solutions to the epidemic. A top priority, I’m told: The White House wants hospital emergency departments to collect more data about gunshot injuries […]
Wyden Demands Penalties for Obamacare Enrollment Fraud
Lawmakers and state officials are turning up the heat on federal regulators to stop unscrupulous, commission-hungry insurance agents from enrolling thousands of people in Affordable Care Act plans, or switching their coverage, without their knowledge. Customers often don’t discover the changes until they’re denied medical coverage or get stuck with a bill for ACA tax […]
The South Can Be a Dangerous Place To Be Black and Pregnant
In much of the developed world, dying while pregnant or delivering a child is practically unknown. In Australia, for example, there were just 3 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2021. But that’s not the case in the American South. And especially not for Black women. In South Carolina, Black women were more […]
California Pays People With Addiction To Stay Clean — With Feds’ Blessing
Led by California, a few states are testing an experimental program that pays people to stop using hard drugs. The Golden State was the first to win approval from the Biden administration to cover the sobriety payments, with Medicaid wrapping it into an ambitious health-care initiative spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to provide the […]
