Make Us Swoon: Send In Your Health Policy Valentines
Affordable health care is our love language. We want to see your most clever, heartfelt, or hilarious tributes to the policies that shape health care. And we've sweetened the deal with prizes.
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Trouble Getting Weight Loss Drugs Covered by Insurance? Here’s What To Know
If your doctor prescribes a GLP-1 medication for weight loss but your insurance won’t cover it, you have options.
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Hidden Help
7 Takeaways From an Investigation Into Financial Aid at Texas Hospitals
Hospitals can prevent medical debt by preemptively wiping out a patient’s bill. But a Tradeoffs analysis finds that few nonprofit facilities in Texas use this tool to the maximum benefit of patients.
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Trump Team Faces Key Legal Decision That Could Put Mental Health Parity in Peril
The administration is facing a May 12 deadline to declare if it will defend Biden-era regulations that aim to enforce laws requiring parity in insurance coverage of mental and physical health care.
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In Montana Senate Race, Democrat Jon Tester Misleads on Republican Tim Sheehy’s Abortion Stance
Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy has said he supports letting states decide the abortion parameters within their borders and supports including exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the pregnant woman in legislation to restrict abortion.
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As US Birth Rate Falls, Feds’ Response May Make Pregnancy More Dangerous
A funding notice for Title X shifts the program’s emphasis from contraception to fertility, family formation, and addressing conditions that could cause infertility, including endometriosis. Experts say these priorities overlook key demographic trends, epidemiology, prevention of unwanted pregnancies, and the nation's high maternal mortality.
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Plan-Switching, Sign-Up Impersonations: Obamacare Enrollment Fraud Persists
Investigators from the Government Accountability Office were able to register nearly 20 fake ACA enrollments in a probe of healthcare.gov. The federal government paid subsidies to insurers for some of the fake customers.
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Super Bowl Parade Shooting Survivors Await Promised Donations While Bills Pile Up
Families of the people hurt during the Feb. 14 mass shooting are carrying what one expert calls “victimization debt.” In the third story of our series “The Injured,” we learn about the strain of paying small and large medical bills and other out-of-pocket costs.
By Peggy Lowe, KCUR and Bram Sable-Smith Personal Finance Guru Faces Down an Insurance Denial
Season 15, Episode 2Ron Lieber, the “Your Money” columnist for The New York Times, shares ideas about how insurance companies, doctors, and patients can better handle prior authorization denials.
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Fearing the Worst, Schools Deploy Armed Police To Thwart Gun Violence
Officials reason that vigilance and familiarity with campuses would speed responses to shootings. But there is scant research about armed police in schools — and some studies suggest that racial bias in policing offers cause for caution.
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How Little Denmark Got Homegrown Giant Novo Nordisk To Lower Ozempic Prices
As Congress pushes for Medicare to cover payment for anti-obesity drugs, Denmark — Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk’s home — has limited coverage of the drug after cost overruns “emptied all the money boxes in the entire public health system.”
By Arthur Allen A Health Policy Veteran Puts 2025 in Perspective
Season 13, Episode 7Two stories from Washington, D.C., give listeners a sense of what changes the Trump administration has been making to health policy, with KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner and Arthur Allen.
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Six Years Into an Appalachia Hospital Monopoly, Patients Are Fearful and Furious
Ballad Health, with the largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in the nation, has failed for years to meet many quality-of-care goals, leaving some patients afraid of their local hospitals but with no other nearby options.
By Brett Kelman -
How Are States Spending Opioid Settlement Cash? We Built a Database of Answers
From addiction treatment to toy robot ambulances, we uncovered how billions in opioid settlement funds were used by state and local governments in 2022 and 2023. Find out where the money went.
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California Is Investing $500M in Therapy Apps for Youth. Advocates Fear It Won’t Pay Off.
California launched two teletherapy apps as part of the governor’s $500 million foray into health technology with private companies. But the rollout has been so slow that one company has yet to make its app available on Android, and social workers worry youths who need clinical care won’t get referrals.
Health Spending Is Moving in Congress
Episode 430Lawmakers appear on the brink of passing a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services and a bipartisan health policy bill delayed for over a year. But the outlook is bleaker for the health care outline released by President Trump last week. Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews oncologist and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel to discuss his new book, “Eat Your Ice Cream.”
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Readers Weigh In on Abortion and Ways To Tackle the Opioid Crisis
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
RFK Jr.’s Very Bad Week
Episode 437HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had another tough week. In addition to Kennedy having rotator cuff surgery, the nomination of his ally to become surgeon general is teetering, the controversial head of the FDA's vaccine center is resigning next month, and a new survey shows Americans trust government health officials less than they do former Biden official Anthony Fauci. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
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Helicopters Rescued Patients in ‘Apocalyptic’ Flood. Other Hospitals Are at Risk, Too.
The helicopter evacuation of 70 people from a Tennessee hospital during Hurricane Helene is considered a success story. The building was destroyed by floodwaters, but no one died. In hindsight, why was it built next to a river?
By Lauren Sausser and Holly K. Hacker -
What Florida’s New 6-Week Abortion Ban Means for the South, and Traveling Patients
Florida has served as a haven for Southern pregnant women with little or no access to abortions. But the Florida Supreme Court upheld a six-week abortion restriction that begins in May — so now women across much of the South seeking abortions will have to look farther afield.