Readers and Tweeters Place Value on Community Services and Life-Sustaining Care
August 19, 2022
KFF Health News Original
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
States Have Yet to Spend Hundreds of Millions of Federal Dollars to Tackle Covid Health Disparities
By Phil Galewitz and Lauren Weber and Sam Whitehead
May 16, 2022
KFF Health News Original
A year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded states and local health departments $2.25 billion to help people of color and other populations at higher risk from covid. But a KHN review shows public health agencies across the country have been slow to spend it.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Health Enters the Presidential Race
January 25, 2024
Podcast
New Hampshire voters have spoken, and it seems increasingly clear that this November’s election will pit President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump. Both appear to be making health a key part of their campaigns, with Trump vowing (again) to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and Biden stressing his support for contraception and abortion rights. Meanwhile, both candidates will try to highlight efforts to rein in prescription drug prices. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, and Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Sarah Somers of the National Health Law Program about the potential consequences for the health care system if the Supreme Court overturns a key precedent attempting to balance executive vs. judicial power.
States Step In as Telehealth and Clinic Patients Get Blindsided by Hospital Fees
By Markian Hawryluk
April 3, 2023
KFF Health News Original
At least eight states have implemented or are considering limits on what patients can be billed for the use of a hospital’s facilities even without having stepped foot in the building.
Colorado Doubles Down on Abortion Rights as Other States — And the High Court — Reconsider
By Rae Ellen Bichell
March 29, 2022
KFF Health News Original
The Supreme Court is expected to overturn or weaken “Roe v. Wade.” If that happens, Colorado may become an abortion-access island, nearly surrounded by a sea of anti-abortion states. The state is bracing for impact, and advocates are trying to shore up its abortion defenses.
Some People in This Montana Mining Town Worry About the Dust Next Door
By Katheryn Houghton
June 8, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Residents of a Butte neighborhood are concerned about the dust from a nearby open-pit mine that can coat their homes and vehicles. In a city where past mining left a legacy of soil and water pollution, is the air unsafe, too?
Pandemic Poses Short- and Long-Term Risks to Babies, Especially Boys
By Liz Szabo
December 21, 2021
KFF Health News Original
A mother’s immune response to covid can be a greater danger to the fetus than the virus itself.
Colorado Considers Changing Its Red Flag Law After Mass Shooting at Nightclub
By Markian Hawryluk
December 23, 2022
KFF Health News Original
In El Paso County, where five people were killed in a mass shooting at a nightclub in November, officials have filed relatively few emergency petitions to temporarily remove a person’s guns, with scant approvals.
National Addiction Treatment Locator Has Outdated Data and Other Critical Flaws
By Aneri Pattani
May 9, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Three years after a government site launched to connect Americans to treatment, finding addiction care is still a struggle.
Climate Change May Push the US Toward the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ for West Nile Virus
By Melissa Bailey
March 28, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Colorado recently recorded the most West Nile virus deaths and cases of neuroinvasive infections in nearly two decades. Scientists warn that climate change will make conditions ripe for more West Nile transmission.
Crowdsourced Data on Overdoses Pinpoints Where to Help
By Renuka Rayasam
July 5, 2022
KFF Health News Original
University of Texas researchers are testing a program that would allow harm reduction groups to crowdsource data on fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses statewide. While the data relies on word of mouth, they say, it is more comprehensive than anything that exists now and can be used immediately to prevent overdoses.
Centene, Under Siege in America, Moved Into Britain’s National Health Service
By Christine Spolar
December 22, 2022
KFF Health News Original
A nine-minute public hearing gave the U.S. insurance giant a foothold in Britain’s prized National Health Service. One doctor called it “privatization of NHS by stealth.” And critics worry that business efficiencies will degrade the quality of care.
Why Black and Hispanic Seniors Are Left With a Less Powerful Flu Vaccine
By Arthur Allen
April 6, 2022
KFF Health News Original
Federal health officials haven’t taken a clear position on whether a high-dose influenza vaccine — on the market since 2010 — is the best choice for people 65 and older. Many in that group already opt for the costlier enhanced shot. Those who get the standard vaccine are disproportionately members of ethnic and racial minorities.
Emergency Contraception Marks a New Battle Line in Texas
By Sarah Varney
April 28, 2022
KFF Health News Original
In the shadow of Texas’ austere abortion regulations, grassroots organizers employ stealth tactics to help young women get emergency contraception.
Covid Is Killing Rural Americans at Twice the Rate of Urbanites
By Lauren Weber
September 30, 2021
KFF Health News Original
The pandemic is devastating rural America, where lower vaccination rates are compounding the already limited medical care.
What Does a Chatbot Know About Eating Disorders? Users of a Help Line Are About to Find Out
By Kate Wells, Michigan Public
June 12, 2023
KFF Health News Original
The National Eating Disorders Association’s help line has seen demand climb to unsustainable levels since the beginning of the covid pandemic, with more people reporting severe mental health problems, the nonprofit says. But staffers worry this chatbot may make things worse.
Long-Excluded Uterine Cancer Patients Are a Step Closer to 9/11 Benefits
By Erica Hensley
January 13, 2022
KFF Health News Original
More than 20 years after the terrorist attacks, the World Trade Center Health Program is considering covering the most common form of uterine cancer, in what patient advocates say is a key acknowledgment of the women affected by the 9/11 fallout.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': On Abortion Rights, Ohio Is the New Kansas
August 10, 2023
Podcast
Nearly a year to the day after Kansas voters surprised the nation by defeating an anti-abortion ballot question, Ohio voters defeated a similar, if cagier, effort to limit access in that state. This week, they rejected an effort to raise the threshold for approval of future ballot measures from a simple majority, which would have made it harder to protect abortion access with yet another ballot question come November. Meanwhile, the number of Americans without health insurance has dropped to an all-time low, though few noticed. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post, and Emmarie Huetteman of KFF Health News join KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Kate McEvoy, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, about how the “Medicaid unwinding” is going, as millions have their eligibility for coverage rechecked.
Patients Facing Death Are Opting for a Lifesaving Heart Device — But at What Risk?
By Daniel Chang and Holly K. Hacker
December 19, 2023
KFF Health News Original
The HeartMate 3 is considered the safest mechanical heart pump of its kind, but a federal database contains more than 4,500 reports in which the medical device may have caused or contributed to a patient’s death.
Schools, Pediatricians Look to Make Up Lost Ground on Non-Covid Vaccinations
By Kate Ruder
November 18, 2021
KFF Health News Original
Health officials hope the rollout of covid shots for young children and other initiatives will boost routine vaccine rates that dropped during the pandemic and narrow socioeconomic disparities.