He Fell Ill on a Cruise. Before He Boarded the Rescue Boat, They Handed Him the Bill.
By Bram Sable-Smith
May 22, 2024
KFF Health News Original
A man from Michigan was evacuated from a cruise ship after having seizures. First, he drained his bank account to pay his medical bills.
Biden Plan To Save Medicare Patients Money on Drugs Risks Empty Shelves, Pharmacists Say
By Susan Jaffe
June 11, 2024
KFF Health News Original
President Joe Biden is campaigning for reelection on his efforts to cut costs for Medicare patients at the pharmacy counter. But independent pharmacists say one strategy makes it unaffordable for them to keep some brand-name medicines in stock.
Los Angeles County Launches Ambitious Plan To Tackle Medical Debt. Hospitals Groan.
By Molly Castle Work
May 23, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous county, is spearheading a comprehensive plan to tackle a $2.9 billion medical debt crisis. Hospitals are still getting on board with the project, which is helmed by the public health department.
Employers Haven’t a Clue How Their Drug Benefits Are Managed
By Arthur Allen
October 9, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The Big Three pharmacy benefit managers say they return nearly all the rebates they get from drugmakers to the employers and insurers who hire them. But most employers seem to doubt that.
Bipartisan Effort Paves Way for Reviving Shuttered Hospitals in Georgia
By Andy Miller Sam Whitehead
August 19, 2024
KFF Health News Original
“Certificate of need” laws, largely supported by the hospital industry, limit health facility construction in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Georgia lawmakers decided its law was complicating the reviving of two hospitals critical to their communities.
Many People With Disabilities Risk Losing Their Medicaid if They Work Too Much
By Tony Leys
March 25, 2025
KFF Health News Original
As politicians demand that more Medicaid recipients work, many people with disabilities say their state programs’ income and asset caps force them to limit their work hours or turn down promotions.
Her Life Was at Risk. She Needed an Abortion. Insurance Refused To Pay.
By Sarah Varney
August 26, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Insurance coverage for abortion care in the U.S. is a hodgepodge. Patients often don’t know when or if a procedure or abortion pills are covered, and the proliferation of abortion bans has exacerbated the confusion.
The No Surprises Act Comes With Some Surprises
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
February 14, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The No Surprises Act, the landmark law intended to protect patients from surprise out-of-network medical bills, has come with, well, some surprises. A little more than two years after it took effect, there’s good and bad news about how it’s working. First, it’s important to note that the law has successfully protected millions of patients […]
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Trump-Harris Debate Showcases Health Policy Differences
September 12, 2024
Podcast
As expected, the presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris offered few new details of their positions on abortion, the Affordable Care Act, and other critical health issues. But it did underscore for voters dramatic differences between the two candidates. Meanwhile, the Biden administration issued rules attempting to better enforce […]
This State Isn’t Waiting for Biden To Negotiate Drug Prices
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
March 26, 2024
KFF Health News Original
As the federal government negotiates with drugmakers to lower the price of 10 expensive drugs for Medicare patients, impatient legislators in some states are trying to go even further. Leading the pack is Colorado, where a new Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board is set to recommend an “upper payment limit” for drugs it deems unaffordable. In late […]
Trump Administration Retreats From 100% Withholding on Social Security Clawbacks
By David Hilzenrath Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group
April 28, 2025
KFF Health News Original
The Social Security Administration will now withhold 50% of many recipients’ monthly benefits to claw back alleged overpayments — down from the 100% it announced in March, but way up from the 10% cap imposed under former President Joe Biden.
Why One New York Health System Stopped Suing Its Patients
By Noam N. Levey
May 15, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Most U.S. hospitals aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills. One New York hospital system decided to work with them instead.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': On Autism, It’s the Secretary’s Word vs. the CDC’s
April 17, 2025
Podcast
Tensions between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his employees at the Department of Health and Human Services are mounting, as he made a series of claims about autism this week — contradicting his agency’s findings. Plus, President Donald Trump unveiled an executive order to lower drug prices as his administration explores tariffs that could raise them. Shefali Luthra of The 19th, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KFF Health News’ Emmarie Huetteman to discuss these stories and more. Plus, KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner interviews two University of California-San Francisco researchers about an upcoming Supreme Court case that could have major ramifications for preventive care.
Longtime Head of L.A. Care To Retire After Navigating Major Medi-Cal Changes
By Bernard J. Wolfson
September 11, 2024
KFF Health News Original
John Baackes, who steered Medi-Cal’s largest health plan following the Affordable Care Act expansion, and later prepared it for a state overhaul of Medi-Cal, will retire after this year. Baackes believes low payments to doctors and other providers, along with an acute labor shortage, hamper Medi-Cal’s success.
California Dabbles With Reining in Health Spending
By Bernard J. Wolfson
June 12, 2024
KFF Health News Original
California is now among the states trying to keep health-care costs down by setting spending caps — a task that pits public officials against a deeply entrenched and heavily lawyered set of players. It’s uncertain whether the state can get insurers, hospitals and medical groups to collaborate on containing costs even as they jockey for […]
Readers Issue Rx for Clogged ERs and Outrageous Out-of-Pocket Costs
June 3, 2024
KFF Health News Original
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
A Tale of Two States: Arizona and Florida Diverge on How To Expand Kids’ Health Insurance
By Daniel Chang
June 20, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Both Florida and Arizona want to expand eligibility for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, but their approaches to charging low-income families premiums for the coverage showcase the nation’s ideological divide on helping the disadvantaged.
Hospitals and Doctors Are Fed up With Medicare Advantage
By Julie Appleby
November 29, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Medicare Advantage plans are pretty popular with both lawmakers and ordinary Americans — they now enroll about 31 million people, representing just over half of everyone in Medicare, by KFF’s count. But among doctors and hospitals, it’s a different story. Across the country, provider grumbling about claim denials and onerous preapproval requirements by Advantage plans […]
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Arizona Turns Back the Clock on Abortion Access
April 11, 2024
Podcast
A week after the Florida Supreme Court said the state could enforce an abortion ban passed in 2023, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that state could enforce a near-total ban passed in 1864 — over a half-century before Arizona became a state. The move further scrambled the abortion issue for Republicans and posed an immediate quandary for former President Donald Trump, who has been seeking an elusive middle ground in the polarized debate. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Molly Castle Work, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature, about an air-ambulance ride for an infant with RSV that his insurer deemed not medically necessary.
PBM Math: Big Chains Are Paid $23.55 To Fill a Blood Pressure Rx. Small Drugstores? $1.51.
By Andy Miller
October 24, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Criticism of prescription drug middlemen has intensified recently in the wake of a federal agency’s actions and legislative reform attempts. Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, though, vetoed a related bill that would have helped independent pharmacies, citing the unfunded cost of the move.
