Latest KFF Health News Stories
Rural Health Providers Hit by $100K Trump Visa Fee
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Sticker Shock: Obamacare Customers Confront Premium Spikes as Congress Dithers
With subsidies that give consumers extra help paying their health insurance premiums set to expire, lawmakers are again debating the Affordable Care Act. The difference this time: It’s happening in the middle of ACA open enrollment.
Vaccine Panel’s Hepatitis B Vote Signals Further Turbulence for Immunization Policy, Public Trust
Clinicians and epidemiologists warn the decision to no longer recommend the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine could unravel decades of progress and expose newborns to a deadly, preventable disease.
Health Care Consolidation and Rising Costs Happen, but Obamacare Is Not the Key Culprit
The debate over expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits has given Republicans room to resurface old criticisms — such as blaming the ACA for mergers and consolidation within the health care industry.
Trump Rules Force Cancer Registries To ‘Erase’ Trans Patients From Public Health Data
In 2026, U.S. cancer registries that receive federal funding will be required by the Trump administration to classify patients’ sex as only male, female, or not stated/unknown.
This HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data, Then Quit the CDC
HIV physician John Weiser talks about why complying with President Donald Trump’s orders to erase transgender people is bad for science and society. And he notes that acquiescing didn’t spare the CDC from further harm.
Trump’s Idea for Health Accounts Has Been Tried. Millions of Patients Have Ended Up in Debt.
Republican calls to give Americans cash instead of health insurance subsidies double down on a decades-old strategy of moving people into high-deductible plans with health savings accounts.
Watch: What Do Republicans Really Want on Health Care?
On “What the Health? From KFF Health News,” distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and podcast host Julie Rovner sat down with Avik Roy, a GOP health policy adviser, to talk about how health care has evolved as a Republican Party issue.
Journalists Dig Into Maine HIV Outbreak and Ever-Closer End to Enhanced ACA Subsidies
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
In RFK Jr.’s Upside-Down World of Vaccines, Panel Votes To End Hepatitis B Shot at Birth
A session of a vaccine panel dominated by skeptics was chaotically at odds with past practices of the CDC, which HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has described as a “cesspool of corruption.” His crew voted to end a 34-year recommendation to vaccinate newborns against hepatitis B.
Feds Promised ‘Radical Transparency’ but Withhold $50B Rural Fund Details
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El estatus de Estados Unidos depende de si los principales brotes ocurridos este año tienen origen en el gran brote del oeste de Texas que comenzó oficialmente el 20 de enero.
While Scientists Race To Study Spread of Measles in US, Kennedy Unravels Hard-Won Gains
Scientists are conducting genetic analyses to see if the measles outbreak that started in Texas is still spreading from state to state. It’s a contentious question, because the findings may determine whether America loses its measles-free status.
Health Savings Accounts, Backed by GOP, Cover Fancy Saunas but Not Insurance Premiums
Health savings accounts can be used to cover medical expenses, tax-free. But while wealthier Americans are using them to pay for gym equipment, cedar ice baths, and hemlock saunas, poorer Americans can’t use them to pay their skyrocketing health insurance premiums.
What the Health? From KFF Health News: The GOP Still Can’t Agree on a Health Plan
Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Republicans still can’t decide whether they want to put forward their own alternative or what that might include. Meanwhile, the CDC and FDA are roiled by debates over vaccines. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Aneri Pattani about her project tracking opioid settlement payments.
Tracking Applications for Rural Health Transformation Funds
KFF Health News is working to collect and post complete application materials, by state, here and will update this repository as new materials, released in response to public records requests, arrive.
Under Kennedy, America’s Health Department Is in the Business of Promoting Kennedy
Under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services increasingly uses its social media channels to promote Kennedy himself and his agenda. Interviews with over 20 former and current employees provide a look inside an agency where personality and politics steer communications with the public.
Republicans Left Tribes Out of Their $50B Rural Fund. Now It’s Up to States To Share.
The Trump administration has championed its Rural Health Transformation Program as an investment in American families who have been left behind. But Native American tribes, whose communities have a significant presence in rural America and have some of the greatest health needs, are ineligible to apply directly for funding.
Aunque se reanuda SNAP, nuevas reglas laborales amenazan el acceso al programa de alimentos por años
Ahora, los estados deben cumplir con las nuevas reglas o enfrentar sanciones que podrían obligarlos a cubrir una parte mayor del costo del programa.
Un paquete de programas federales que por años han apoyado a mujeres y niños también está en la mira de Trump y de miembros de su gabinete, que dicen impulsar políticas pro natalidad.
