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An Arm and a Leg: How Do You Deal With Wild Drug Prices?

By Dan Weissmann February 12, 2025 Podcast

“An Arm and a Leg” is collecting stories for a new series about how Americans get the medicine they need when faced with sticker shock.

So Your Insurance Dropped Your Doctor. Now What?

By Bram Sable-Smith Illustrations by Oona Zenda October 29, 2025 KFF Health News Original

Patients sometimes find themselves scrambling for affordable care when a contract dispute causes a hospital — and most of the doctors and other clinicians who work there — to be dropped from an insurance network. Here are six things to know if that happens to you.

Readers and Tweeters Take a Close Look at Eye Care and White Mulberry Leaf

September 29, 2022 KFF Health News Original

KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.

Turned Away From Urgent Care — And Toward a Big ER Bill

By Sam Whitehead September 29, 2022 KFF Health News Original

Russell Cook was expecting a quick and inexpensive visit to an urgent care center for his daughter, Frankie, after she had a car wreck. Instead, they were advised to go to an emergency room and got a much larger bill.

Many Fear Federal Loan Caps Will Deter Aspiring Doctors and Worsen MD Shortage

By Bernard J. Wolfson October 28, 2025 KFF Health News Original

Health care professionals fear that new caps on federal student lending, set to start in July, will put medical school out of reach for many who want to become doctors and exacerbate physician shortages. Others say unlimited federal lending has fed a rise in academic costs, saddling families and, ultimately, taxpayers with debt.

Trump Won’t Force Medicaid To Cover GLP-1s for Obesity. A Few States Are Doing It Anyway.

By Lauren Sausser May 21, 2025 KFF Health News Original

Late last year, South Carolina Medicaid approved a class of medications known as GLP-1s to treat obesity, placing it among the few state programs covering these effective but expensive drugs. But access remains limited, even for patients covered by Medicaid, because of stringent prerequisites that must be satisfied before starting the drug.

As Record Heat Sweeps the US, Some People Must Choose Between Food and Energy Bills

By Melba Newsome September 6, 2024 KFF Health News Original

An increasing number of Americans struggle with energy poverty, the inability to adequately heat or cool one’s dwelling. Health officials and climate experts are sounding the alarm as record-breaking heat sweeps the nation.

If You’re Worried About the Environment, Consider Being Composted When You Die

By Bernard J. Wolfson October 11, 2022 KFF Health News Original

The idea of human composting — to help restore a forest or grow flowers — may be a little off-putting to some, but it has many advantages over traditional-but-toxic methods of burial and cremation.

Some Employers Test Arrangement To Give Workers Allowance for Coverage

By Michelle Andrews October 2, 2024 KFF Health News Original

Employers are showing interest in a type of health reimbursement account that gives workers a contribution to choose and buy their own plans, rather than participating in group plans.

Medicaid Tries New Approach With Sickle Cell: Companies Get Paid Only if Costly Gene Therapies Work

By Phil Galewitz January 21, 2026 KFF Health News Original

The government is using sickle cell treatments to test a new strategy: paying only if the therapies benefit patients. With more expensive treatments on the horizon, the program — created by the Biden administration and continued under President Trump — could help Medicaid save money and treat more patients.

Nuclear Missile Workers Are Contracting Cancer. They Blame the Bases.

By Patricia Kime October 3, 2025 KFF Health News Original

People who maintained the nation’s land-based nuclear missile arsenal are coming down with similar cancers. The Air Force is wrapping up a large study of the health risks they may have faced.

States Target Health Insurers’ ‘Prior Authorization’ Red Tape

By Bram Sable-Smith February 12, 2024 KFF Health News Original

Doctors, patients, and hospitals have railed for years about the prior authorization processes that health insurers use to decide whether they’ll pay for patients’ drugs or medical procedures. The Biden administration announced a crackdown in January, but some state lawmakers are looking to go further.

Worried About Health Insurance Costs? There May Be Cheaper Options — But With Trade-Offs

By Julie Appleby December 18, 2025 KFF Health News Original

As the clock ticks down on the 2026 Obamacare open enrollment season, frustrated consumers may have to make sacrifices on coverage to get a price they can stomach. But cheaper alternatives come with risks.

States Get in on the Prior Authorization Crackdown

By Bram Sable-Smith February 15, 2024 KFF Health News Original

Last month, my colleague Lauren Sausser told you about the Biden administration’s crackdown on insurance plans’ prior authorization policies, with new rules for certain health plans participating in federal programs such as Medicare Advantage or the Affordable Care Act marketplace. States are getting in on the action, too. Prior authorization, sometimes called pre-certification, requires patients […]

Clinics Sour on CMS After Agency Scraps 10-Year Primary Care Program Only Months In

By Andrew Jones February 13, 2026 KFF Health News Original

A planned 10-year federal program called Making Care Primary was supposed to help primary care doctors by easing administrative burdens, allowing them to focus on improving patients’ health. A year after the Trump administration eliminated the program, federal officials created an alternative plan that favors companies.

Newsom Walks Thin Line on Immigrant Health as He Eyes Presidential Bid

By Christine Mai-Duc February 5, 2026 KFF Health News Original

Progressives are assailing Gov. Gavin Newsom for proposing to pull back coverage for some legal residents, such as refugees and asylum-seekers, while conservatives lambaste the California Democrat for using limited state funds on Medicaid coverage for immigrants without legal status.

Nursing Homes and the AMA, Once Medicaid Defenders, Hang Back as GOP Mulls Big Cuts

By Noam N. Levey March 11, 2025 KFF Health News Original

The American Medical Association and the leading nursing home trade group both are lobbying Republicans in Congress on other priorities.

Senior CDC Officials Resign After Monarez’s Ouster, Citing Concerns Over Scientific Independence

By Céline Gounder August 29, 2025 KFF Health News Original

Four senior officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced their resignations in recent days, citing what they described as growing political interference in the agency’s scientific work, particularly regarding vaccines.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Funding for the Next Pandemic

March 31, 2022 KFF Health News Original

In his proposed budget, President Joe Biden called for a boost in health spending that includes billions of dollars to prepare for a future pandemic. But that doesn’t include money he says is needed immediately for testing and treating covid-19. Also this week, federal regulators authorized a second booster shot for people 50 and older yet gave little guidance to consumers about who needs the shot and when. Amy Goldstein of The Washington Post, Jennifer Haberkorn of the Los Angeles Times, and Rachana Pradhan of KHN join KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey to discuss these issues and more. Plus, Julie Rovner interviews KHN’s Julie Appleby, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode about a very expensive air ambulance ride.

The Nation’s Largest Food Aid Program Is About To See Cuts. Here’s What You Should Know.

By Katheryn Houghton and Samantha Liss and Renuka Rayasam October 31, 2025 KFF Health News Original

The federal government is making sweeping changes to SNAP, the program that helped feed about 42 million people in the U.S. last year. Here’s a breakdown of the changes to come and potential impacts.

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