Deal or No Deal? States Prepare for Congress To Act at the Last Minute on Obamacare
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At The Hollow in Florida, the ‘Medical Freedom’ Movement Finds Its Base Camp
Florida’s surgeon general, spiritual healers, and Trump allies push their cures in a swampy outpost of anti-government absolutism and mystical belief.
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Better Treatments Buoy Multiple-Myeloma Patients, Bound by Research Cuts and Racial Disparities
Although racial disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of multiple myeloma remain, Black survivors of multiple myeloma say the latest developments in treatment give them hope even as federal research cuts create a grim forecast for cancer research.
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A Bite, a Bill, and a Bureaucratic Chill in Winning Halloween Haikus
This year’s most spirited Halloween haikus were inspired by tick migration, Medicaid work requirements, and rising copays.
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Happy Open Enrollment Eve!
A standoff in Congress is keeping much of the government shut down as open enrollment begins in most states for Affordable Care Act plans. Democrats are demanding Republicans agree to extend ACA tax credits, but there has been little negotiating — even as customers are learning what they’ll pay for coverage next year. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is telling states they can’t pass their own laws to keep medical debt off consumers’ credit reports. Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Maya Goldman of Axios, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more.
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Refugees Will Be Among the First To Lose Food Stamps Under Federal Changes
Under the budget law that Republicans call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, food assistance for refugees will be sliced. The change is sowing fear, uncertainty, and a struggle for survival — a sign of what’s to come for millions of Americans.
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California Faces Limits as It Directs Health Facilities To Push Back on Immigration Raids
California now has a law requiring hospitals and clinics to improve patient privacy and have clear protocols for handling requests by immigration agents. Legal experts say the state can’t fully protect immigrant patients, because federal authorities are allowed in public places, including hospital lobbies, general waiting areas, and parking lots.
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The Quiet Collapse of America’s Reproductive Health Safety Net
The HHS office that administers the Title X family planning program has been effectively shut down. And with cuts to federal funding for other family health programs, expected Medicaid cuts, and the potential lapse of ACA subsidies, health leaders fear they are seeing the biggest setback to U.S. reproductive care in half a century.
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So Your Insurance Dropped Your Doctor. Now What?
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.
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Doctor Tripped Up by $64K Bill for Ankle Surgery and Hospital Stay
A doctor in Colorado became the patient after an accident totaled her car and sent her to the operating room. The hospital kept her overnight, but her insurer stopped paying after she left the emergency room.
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Trump Team Takes Aim at State Laws Shielding Consumers’ Credit Scores From Medical Debt
Reversing guidance from the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concludes that states cannot bar medical debt from their residents’ credit reports.
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A Listener’s DIY Project Helps Others Deal With High Medical Bills
A medical student’s DIY project brings “An Arm and a Leg” listeners together with new tools to fight medical debt.
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Many Fear Federal Loan Caps Will Deter Aspiring Doctors and Worsen MD Shortage
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.
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A Ticking Clock: How States Are Preparing for a Last-Minute Obamacare Deal
Even if Congress strikes a deal soon to extend more generous Affordable Care Act subsidies, the prices and types of ACA plans available could change dramatically. Unprecedented uncertainty and upheaval could cloud this year’s open enrollment season, which begins in most states on Saturday.
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Doctors Muffled as Florida Moves To End Decades of Childhood Vaccination Mandates
Florida has announced plans to end mandatory vaccination. Now scientists are assessing which of several diseases deadly to children — whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus — are likely to make a resurgence and when.
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As Sports Betting Explodes, States Try To Set Limits To Stop Gambling Addiction
Some advocates and lawmakers want to impose national regulations on the gambling industry but would settle for reining in excessive betting at the state level.
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Reporters Cover the Shutdown and the Use of AI in Health Care
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
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‘Cancer Doesn’t Care’: Volunteer Lobbyists Push Past Washington’s Ugly Politics
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
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GOP Talking Point Holds ACA Is Haunted by ‘Phantom’ Enrollees, but the Devil’s in the Data
Enhanced Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies have emerged as a flash point in the congressional standoff over the federal government shutdown. Republicans point to what they characterize as increasing amounts of fraud as a reason to hold up the subsidies. But there are two sides to the story.
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Listen: Amid Shutdown Stalemate, Families Brace for SNAP Cuts and Paycheck Limbo
KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” to discuss how the government shutdown is affecting food benefits and the help many Americans get to offset their health insurance premiums.
