Latest KFF Health News Stories
Mississippi’s Black Communities Turned Around Their Covid Rates. Next Up: Make Strides on Vaccines.
Covid-19 tore through Mississippi’s Black population in the pandemic’s early days, but community efforts slowed the rate. Now health officials and community leaders aim to replicate the success as they dole out vaccines.
KHN Journalists Comment on Abortion Case, Wasted Covid Doses
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.
Only One Vaccine Is OK’d for Older Teens. It’s Also the Hardest to Manage in Rural America.
Of the three covid vaccines the U.S. government has authorized, only one is available to 16- and 17-year-olds: the Pfizer shot. It’s also the most complicated to manage in rural settings, with their small, dispersed populations. That forces some teens and their families to travel long distances for a dose — or go without.
Black Americans Are Getting Vaccinated at Lower Rates Than White Americans
Black Americans are receiving covid vaccines at a much lower rate than their white peers due to a combination of mistrust and access issues, leaving them behind in the mission to vaccinate the nation’s population.
Coming Abortion Fight Could Threaten Birth Control, Too
In discussions of the impact Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett could have on abortion rights, many overlook related issues, including the right to birth control that the court recognized in 1965. During her confirmation hearings, Barrett refused to say whether she felt that case was correctly decided.
La batalla por el aborto también puede amenazar al control de la natalidad
Una nueva jurisprudencia sobre el aborto podría afectar muchas más cosas, como borrar el derecho al control de la natalidad y el matrimonio entre personas de un mismo sexo.
Free Clinics Try To Fill Gaps As COVID Sweeps Away Job-Based Insurance
The volunteer medical providers at the Tree of Life Free Clinic in Tupelo, Mississippi, give crucial health care to the uninsured in the best of times, drawing crowds who line up for hours. Amid the current COVID pandemic, clinic staffers were advised to close. Instead, they chose to adapt — even without critical N95 masks to protect themselves — as the economic crisis intensifies the need for free care.
California Shies Away From Calls To Eliminate Restrictions On Nurse Practitioners
Many states are dramatically loosening regulations on nurse practitioners as the coronavirus pandemic increases demand for health care workers. But not California.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Prepping For A Possible Pandemic
Official Washington is sitting up and taking notice of the threat from the novel coronavirus as Congress and the Trump administration prepare for a potential pandemic. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates for president are still arguing about “Medicare for All.” Joanne Kenen of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Shefali Luthra of Kaiser Health News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews NPR’s Sydney Lupkin about the latest “Bill of the Month” installment.
Everything Californians Wanted To Know About Their Health Plan (But Were Afraid To Ask)
A new online database created by the Department of Managed Health Care can help consumers size up and compare insurance plans.
Competition Suffers Most If UnitedHealth Exits Obamacare In 2017: Analysis
A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis released Monday, a day ahead of UnitedHealth’s expected announcement, finds 1.1 million consumers would have no choice in health insurance plans if the giant insurer drops out of Obamacare marketplaces as threatened.