Watch: ‘Going It Alone’ — A Conversation About Growing Old in America
December 12, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Judith Graham, KFF Health News’ “Navigating Aging” columnist, talks with older adults who live alone by choice or circumstance. They share what it means to thrive in later years.
Montana Sticks to Its Patchwork Covid Vaccine Rollout as Eligibility Expands
By Katheryn Houghton
Photos by Tailyr Irvine
April 5, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Montana’s overstretched counties and tribal governments have developed a mishmash of policies and plans that require ingenuity and mutual support to work. A reporting project by KHN, Montana Free Press and the University of Montana School of Journalism finds the biggest test of that disparate system looms as vaccine eligibility expands. Plus: a county-by-county guide to vaccine availability in Montana.
Denmark To Destroy A Million Unused, Expiring Covid Shots
May 3, 2022
Morning Briefing
Danish health officials said Monday that efforts to donate the unused shots — around 81% of Danes have had two shots already — had failed. Meanwhile, in South Africa a surge of covid cases is worrying experts who suggest the pattern may be repeated in the U.S. soon.
Tech Companies Mobilize to Schedule Vaccine Appointments, But Often Fall Short
By Miranda Green
February 11, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Techies and startups have thrown together vaccine appointment websites to address the chaotic rollout of covid shots. But software can’t replace vaccines, and for many people the sites are just another piece of the vaccination “Hunger Games.”
Getting a Prescription to Die Remains Tricky Even as Aid-in-Dying Bills Gain Momentum
By Katheryn Houghton
March 30, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Access to physician-assisted death is expanding across the U.S., but the procedure remains in Montana’s legal gray zone more than a decade after the state Supreme Court ruled physicians could use a dying patient’s consent as a defense.
Biden Boasts About Equitable Senior Vaccination Rate by Race Without Data to Back It Up
By Victoria Knight
May 12, 2021
KFF Health News Original
There is no public national data source that tracks vaccination rates based on a combination of race or ethnicity as well as age. Most state-level data shows that disparities exist in vaccine rates between white people and people of color.
To Vaccinate Veterans, Health Care Workers Must Cross Mountains, Plains and Tundra
By Patricia Kime
February 19, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Veterans Affairs officials are flying COVID-19 vaccines to remote locations in Montana and Alaska to quickly inoculate rural veterans before the drugs expire.
Most Adults Wary of Taking Any Vaccine Approved Before the Election
By Jordan Rau
September 10, 2020
KFF Health News Original
About 60% of poll respondents are worried that federal regulators will rush to allow a vaccine because of political pressure. Opposition to getting a vaccine that might be authorized before the November election is strongest among Republicans.
8 In 10 Authors In Prestigious Medical Journals Didn’t Disclose Payments
January 20, 2022
Morning Briefing
An analysis of authors in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association found 81% didn’t properly disclose payments that came from drugmakers or medical device manufacturers. A different report says “negative” language is more common in Black patients’ medical notes.
As Patients Fell Ill With Covid Inside Hospitals, Government Oversight Fell Short
By Lauren Weber Christina Jewett
Photos by Heidi de Marco
December 23, 2021
KFF Health News Original
A KHN investigation finds that hospitals with high rates of covid patients who didn’t have the diagnosis when they were admitted have rarely been held accountable due to multiple gaps in government oversight.
San Francisco Wrestles With Drug Approach as Death and Chaos Engulf Tenderloin
By Rachel Scheier
January 7, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Covid-19, distrust of police and cheap narcotics have turned parts of the wealthy city into cesspools of filth and drug overdose. City officials and residents profoundly disagree on what needs to be done.
Vaccination Chaos in California Fuels Push to Recall Gov. Newsom
By Angela Hart
January 29, 2021
KFF Health News Original
The growing public backlash over California’s messy vaccine rollout is putting immense pressure on Gov. Gavin Newsom, a first-term Democrat facing a Republican-driven recall effort.
Regeneron Says Antibody Treatment Protects Against Covid
November 9, 2021
Morning Briefing
Regeneron said its antibody treatments reduced the risk of contracting covid by 81.6% in a late-stage trial. In other news, the Texas health department issues a study showing unvaccinated people are 20 times more likely to die of covid.
Medical Debt Soars To $140B; States Without Medicaid Expansion Hit Hard
July 23, 2021
Morning Briefing
The debt estimate, from a study in JAMA, was up from $81 billion in 2016. Other reports look at the cost of prescription medicine and contraception.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Trump Twists on Virus Response
July 23, 2020
KFF Health News Original
President Donald Trump has, for now at least, become a realist on the extent of the COVID-19 crisis around the country, and he is urging Americans to socially distance and wear masks. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Republicans facing a July 31 deadline are scrambling to come together on their version of the next COVID relief bill. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Tami Luhby of CNN join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews NPR’s Pam Fessler, author of the new book “Carville’s Cure,” which traces the history of the United States’ only federal leprosarium.
Drug Overdose Deaths Showed a One-Year Decline in 2018. But There’s More to the Story.
By Julie Appleby
August 27, 2020
KFF Health News Original
The statistic is accurate but experts say other factors make it difficult to say indicators to think about that make it hard to say it’s a “huge win.”
Ataques a la salud pública generan éxodo de funcionarios en medio de la pandemia
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester Hannah Recht Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press Lauren Weber
December 15, 2020
KFF Health News Original
Estas partidas son una erosión adicional a la ya frágil infraestructura de salud pública del país, antes de la campaña de vacunación más grande en la historia de los Estados Unidos.
Device Makers Have Funneled Billions to Orthopedic Surgeons Who Use Their Products
By Fred Schulte Elizabeth Lucas
June 17, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Federal officials say that some of the money changing hands has corrupted doctors and endangered patients.
NIH Project Homes In on COVID Racial Disparities
By Ashley Gold
July 21, 2020
KFF Health News Original
The pandemic has given the National Institutes of Health an opportunity to show the value of its $1.5 billion “All of Us” research program. A major effort to make the platform’s database representative of America resulted in minorities making up more than half of its more than 270,000 volunteers.
‘An Arm And A Leg’: What We’ve Learned And What’s Ahead For The Show
By Dan Weissmann
February 14, 2020
KFF Health News Original
For this bonus episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” Dan Weissmann gives up the host’s chair and answers questions from reporter and colleague Sally Herships.
