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The research is clear: Among the various complex issues that contribute to suicide, loneliness is a big one. Now, there’s a growing push to address loneliness not just through personal choices but also through public policy.
Immigrant detainees have told courts across the nation that detention officials have failed to treat or stabilize their conditions, from pregnancy to prostate cancer, suggesting that systemic lapses in care extend well beyond record deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Many telehealth companies have emerged in recent years offering easy access to GLP-1 weight loss drugs as demand has exploded. Meanwhile, researchers and doctors are concerned that some of these online companies aren't properly screening or monitoring patients. “It gives a black eye to telemedicine,” one researcher said.
Several rural communities were thrust into a charged national debate over the Trump administration’s mass deportation strategy when federal officials sought to place new detention centers in them. In Social Circle, Georgia, locals fear the effort will overburden its modest healthcare infrastructure.
Conservative Shasta County stopped a measles outbreak from spreading, enlisting teachers, church leaders, and other trusted community members to get the public on board with health guidelines. Infectious disease specialists say the successful effort could be a guide for other communities struggling to contain the highly contagious virus.
The state is ramping up to implement the federal work requirements six months ahead of the deadline. But Montana is one of several states already struggling to pay for health services.
Congress' decision not to extend enhanced marketplace tax credits has boosted the appeal of alternative health coverage with lower monthly premiums. Consumer advocates dismiss the plans as "junk insurance,” while proponents say patients need alternatives to pricey marketplace options.
Republicans promise that $50 billion in new health funding will help rural America. But it’s not expected to aid the years-long effort in North Carolina’s Martin County to reopen its only hospital.
A crisis pregnancy center in Sandpoint, Idaho, wants to expand women’s healthcare three years after the labor and delivery unit at the town’s hospital closed and its OB-GYNs moved out of state.
The data behind alcohol-related traffic deaths is well studied. Less understood is the toll of vehicle deaths involving drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol. Attempts to fix that have been stymied by federal budget and staffing cuts.
A Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found charity care at hospitals in the state is offered at low and arbitrary levels, prompting Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to say, “There is more work in front of us.”
Some states bar professional midwives from attending home births if they don’t have a nursing license. Their advocates say laws to allow midwife licensing would make home birth safer and more accessible, plus help address a maternity care shortage.
He tested robotic hands on a heart surgery patient and chewed on microgreens in Ohio, but Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. couldn’t dodge questions about the Trump administration’s more controversial policies.
A Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation of hospital data and charity care programs shows most Minnesota hospitals provide little financial aid to patients and often make assistance difficult to get.
Hundreds of hospitals nationwide are bracing for Medicaid cuts as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Some state lawmakers are eyeing loans and other forms of financial aid to distressed hospitals in rural and urban areas, as healthcare providers warn of cuts to critical services and scramble for funding.
A federal agency has dramatically slowed its review of visa waiver applications that allow international physicians completing U.S. training programs to stay in the country to work in underserved areas. The delay may send hundreds of doctors back to their home countries.
Using Hurricane Helene as a teachable moment, a group of doctors outlined concrete steps that lawmakers can take to reverse a crisis in getting substance use medications during natural disasters.
Someone in America dies by suicide every 11 minutes. It’s a tragic and entrenched problem. A new approach to prevention shifts the focus from stopping harm in moments of crisis to upstream policies that give people reasons to live.
A $50 billion federal fund is supposed to modernize rural health with electronic health records, AI, telehealth, and more. But community clinics and rural health advocates fear that the contractors administering the money for states will bite off a big chunk before it reaches rural patients.
A bug bite and an allergic reaction ultimately sent a North Carolina woman to the emergency room, where she had a couple of brief chats with a doctor and a dose of medicine. Now she questions why the charges were so high.
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