3 Medical Routines That Older People May Not Need
Some screenings and treatments no longer make sense for patients as they age. Researchers have just added a few more to the list.
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Trump’s $50B Rural Health Bet Meets a Healthcare Desert in North Carolina
Republicans promise that $50 billion in new health funding will help rural America. But it’s not expected to aid the years-long effort in North Carolina’s Martin County to reopen its only hospital.
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Sen. Cassidy Unleashed
In the days after losing his reelection bid in Louisiana, Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy is already signaling that his loyalty to President Trump has waned. But how much Cassidy will try to accomplish toward his health agenda in his last months in office remains to be seen. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss this story and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews health policy professor Miranda Yaver, the author of a new book about health insurance denials.
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ICE Arrests Are Separating Families. Here’s How To Plan Ahead.
As immigration authorities carry out President Donald Trump’s promise to conduct what’s billed as the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, several states are passing laws to protect the children of detained immigrants. Guardianship can become complicated when no family or friends are available to take temporary custody.
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Colorado Charts Its Own Course on Vaccines Amid Federal Pullback
Doctors, lawmakers, and other advocates are joining forces to promote recommended childhood vaccines.
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Religious Anti-Abortion Center Finds Opportunity in Town Without OB-GYNs
A crisis pregnancy center in Sandpoint, Idaho, wants to expand women’s healthcare three years after the labor and delivery unit at the town’s hospital closed and its OB-GYNs moved out of state.
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What the Health? From KFF Health News
Watch: The Tug-of-War Over Taxpayer Dollars
Podcast host Julie Rovner chats with Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a top Democrat on health issues, about President Donald Trump’s stewardship of federal spending and the effectiveness of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
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Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
The “KFF Health News Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from our newsroom to the airwaves each week.
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Efforts To Understand the Nation’s Drugged Driving Problem Stall Under Trump
The data behind alcohol-related traffic deaths is well studied. Less understood is the toll of vehicle deaths involving drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol. Attempts to fix that have been stymied by federal budget and staffing cuts.
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Eroding ACA Enrollment Portends Higher Insurance Rates
An uptick in people skipping Obamacare premium payments in many states suggests the Affordable Care Act’s rising costs — driven partly by lower subsidies to help people buy plans — are hitting home for 2026 enrollees. The trend adds to voter concerns about affordability ahead of the midterm elections.
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A Danish Couple’s Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment in RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy
The work of Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn has long been controversial. Until Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the U.S. health policy chief, most vaccine scientists tended to ignore it. That has changed.
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Kids Keep Getting Stuck in Hospitals, Even After Being Cleared for Discharge
Some children are healthy enough to leave the hospital after a medical stay but have no place to go. Across the country, the practice of allowing children to remain hospitalized “beyond medical necessity” has become a costly problem, and states have struggled to address the issue.
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Trump Bought Stock in Drugmaker as His Government Boosted Its Obesity Drugs
New ethics disclosures show the president invested in Eli Lilly and a company that manufactures injectable devices as his health agencies implemented policies that benefited them.
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Journalists Unpack Latest on Vaccines, Vaping, and TrumpRx
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
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Kennedy Swaps Vaccine Rhetoric for Story Time but Can’t Quite Change the Subject
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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Minnesota Lawmaker Proposes Using Hospital Tax To Fill Charity Care Gap
A Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found charity care at hospitals in the state is offered at low and arbitrary levels, prompting Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to say, “There is more work in front of us.”
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FDA Blocked Melanoma Drug as Confusion Reigned Under Makary
A third of patients in a clinical trial had tumors shrink while taking a genetically engineered treatment known as RP1.
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Kennedy, Balancing MAHA and White House, Says He Won’t Run for President in 2028
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is trying to address the interests of his MAHA supporters, who view him as their hope for the future, while being a good soldier in the eyes of the Trump White House, which has been stepping back from some of the movement’s core priorities.
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In Search of a New FDA Commissioner
As widely expected, Marty Makary stepped down as head of the FDA this week. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court weighs blocking telehealth prescriptions for the abortion pill mifepristone. Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
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License To Deliver: Some Midwives Break the Law To Assist With Home Births
Some states bar professional midwives from attending home births if they don’t have a nursing license. Their advocates say laws to allow midwife licensing would make home birth safer and more accessible, plus help address a maternity care shortage.
