Officials Seek To Dismantle Appeals Board for Montanans Denied Public Assistance
By Katheryn Houghton
February 6, 2025
KFF Health News Original
The Montana health department says the Board of Public Assistance is redundant and a bureaucratic hurdle that helps few people. Current and former board representatives say the rare cases in which the panel helps people are important.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': New Year, New Congress, New Health Agenda
January 9, 2025
Podcast
Health is unlikely to be a top priority for the new GOP-led 119th Congress and President-elect Donald Trump. But it’s likely to play a key supporting role, with an abortion bill already scheduled for debate in the Senate. Meanwhile, it’s unclear when and how the new Congress will deal with the bipartisan bills jettisoned from the previous Congress’ year-end omnibus measure — including a major deal to rein in the power of pharmacy benefit managers. In this “catch up on all the news you missed” episode, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
An Arm and a Leg: ‘Baby Steps’ in the Fight Against Facility Fees
By Dan Weissmann
October 9, 2024
Podcast
An extra $99 fee on top of a copay for a checkup didn’t sit right with a listener. Turns out, state legislators across the country aren’t buying it either.
An Arm and a Leg: Don’t Get ‘Bullied’ Into Paying What You Don’t Owe
By Dan Weissmann
August 27, 2024
Podcast
In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann speaks with Caitlyn Mai, a woman in Oklahoma who received a six-figure bill for a surgery her insurance promised to cover. This episode is an extended version of the “Bill of the Month” series, produced in partnership with NPR.
Readers Scrutinize Federal Cuts and Medical Debt
May 12, 2025
KFF Health News Original
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Covered California Pushes for Better Health Care as Federal Spending Cuts Loom
By Bernard J. Wolfson
May 2, 2025
KFF Health News Original
Monica Soni, Covered California’s chief medical officer, oversees an effort to hold health plans financially accountable for the quality of care they provide, including childhood vaccination rates, which have fallen in California and nationwide. She worries federal spending cuts could soon bring turbulence to the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace.
California Attorney General Boosts Bill Banning Medical Debt From Credit Reports
By Molly Castle Work
March 11, 2024
KFF Health News Original
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has thrown his weight behind state Sen. Monique Limón’s legislation to bar unpaid medical bills from showing up on consumer credit reports. If passed, California would join just a few other states with such protections.
Nearly 1 in 4 Adults Dumped From Medicaid Are Now Uninsured, Survey Finds
By Phil Galewitz
April 12, 2024
KFF Health News Original
A first-of-its-kind survey of Medicaid enrollees found that nearly a quarter who were dropped from the program in the last year’s unwinding say they’re uninsured.
States Expand Health Coverage for Immigrants as GOP Hits Biden Over Border Crossings
By Phil Galewitz
December 28, 2023
KFF Health News Original
More than 1 million immigrants, most lacking permanent legal status, are covered by state health programs. Several states, including GOP-led Utah, will soon add or expand such coverage.
Health Care Is Newsom’s Biggest Unfinished Project. Trump Complicates That Task.
By Angela Hart Christine Mai-Duc
January 7, 2025
KFF Health News Original
As Gov. Gavin Newsom enters the second half of his final term, health care stands out as his most ambitious but glaringly incomplete initiative for California residents. The issue will likely shape his national profile for better or worse. And now, Donald Trump brings a new wrinkle.
Trump Wants Harris To Pay a Political Price for Generous Immigrant Health Policies
By Joanne Kenen
November 1, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Several Democratic-led states have expanded public insurance programs to cover immigrants in the U.S. regardless of legal status. Donald Trump is trying to blame Kamala Harris for the policies.
An Arm and a Leg: To Get Health Insurance, This Couple Made a Movie
By Dan Weissmann
November 30, 2023
Podcast
On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” hear how a couple wrote and directed a short film, starring one of them — just to maintain health insurance through the actors union.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Abortion Heats Up Presidential Race
August 1, 2024
Podcast
The elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the presumed Democratic presidential ticket is newly energizing the debate over abortion, while former President Donald Trump attempts to distance himself from more sweeping proposals in the “Project 2025” GOP blueprint put together by his former administration officials and the conservative Heritage Foundation. Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Elisabeth Rosenthal, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” about a preauthorized surgery that generated a six-figure bill.
Trump Says He’ll Stop Health Care Fraudsters. Last Time, He Let Them Walk.
By Brett Kelman
April 1, 2025
KFF Health News Original
In his first term, President Donald Trump granted pardons or clemency to more than 60 convicted fraudsters, including health care executives who defrauded Medicare out of hundreds of millions of dollars, courts and juries found. Now, Trump says cracking down on fraud is a priority.
Amid Medicaid ‘Unwinding,’ Many States Wind Up Expanding
By Phil Galewitz
Updated September 24, 2024
Originally Published August 16, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The end of pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections coincided with changes in more than a dozen states to expand coverage for lower-income people, including children, pregnant women, and the incarcerated.
The Colonoscopies Were Free. But the ‘Surgical Trays’ Came With $600 Price Tags.
By Samantha Liss
January 25, 2024
KFF Health News Original
Health providers may bill however they choose — including in ways that could leave patients with unexpected bills for “free” care. Routine preventive care saddled an Illinois couple with his-and-her bills for “surgical trays.”
Cancer Patients Face Frightening Delays in Treatment Approvals
By Lauren Sausser
December 22, 2023
KFF Health News Original
Delaying cancer treatment can be deadly — which makes the roadblock-riddled process that health insurers use to approve or deny care particularly daunting for oncology patients.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Trump Puts Obamacare Repeal Back on Agenda
November 30, 2023
Podcast
Although Republicans have never united behind a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, 2024 GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said this week he wants to put the issue back on the national agenda. That delights Democrats, who have won at least two elections partly by defending the now-popular health law. Meanwhile, the Texas Supreme Court takes up a case brought by women who say their pregnancy complications further endangered their health due to the vagueness of Texas’ near-total ban on abortions. Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Victoria Knight of Axios News join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Rachana Pradhan, who reported and wrote the latest “Bill of the Month” feature.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': To End School Shootings, Activists Consider a New Culprit: Parents
February 8, 2024
Podcast
For the first time, a jury has convicted a parent of a school shooter of charges related to the child’s crime, finding a mother in Michigan guilty of involuntary manslaughter and possibly opening a new legal avenue for gun control advocates. Meanwhile, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case challenging the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, a medical publisher has retracted some of the journal studies that lower-court judges relied on in their decisions. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachana Pradhan of KFF Health News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
Across North Carolina, Medical Debt Exacts a Heavy Toll
By Ames Alexander, Charlotte Observer Noam N. Levey
September 23, 2024
KFF Health News Original
The state has among the highest levels of medical debt in the country, data shows.
