Journalists Assess Risks of Tick Bites, Wildfire Smoke, Rising Health Costs
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
All Coverage
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Altercations Between Residents in Dementia Care Is a Frequent Danger
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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To Afford Aging in Place, Older Adults Turn to ‘Golden Girls’ Housing
A growing network of home-sharing programs is helping people find compatible housemates. And demand is rising, driven by housing shortages, rising rents, and sales prices that affect both the old and the young.
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Watch: GOP Senator Says Trump’s Tariffs Could Mean Safer Drugs — For a Price
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana chairs the Senate’s health committee. In an interview with KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner, he discusses the drug supply, his proposal to defray out-of-pocket costs, and his controversial vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary.
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‘The Child Is Terrified’: Doctors on the Front Lines of a Measles Comeback Speak Out
Hear from six pediatricians in measles hot spot Utah as the U.S. faces infection levels not seen in over three decades and prepares to lose its status as a country that eliminated the dangerous disease.
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A Shrinking Safety Net
A new report finds that participation in the federal food stamp program is down far more than was predicted when the Republican-led Congress approved cuts in 2025. That portends a similar fate for Medicaid, as states ready comparable changes. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss the news. Also, as part of the “How Would You Fix It?” series, Rovner interviews GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
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Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
The “KFF Health News Minute” brings original healthcare and health policy reporting from our newsroom to the airwaves each week.
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POSTCARD FROM GEORGIA
Public Health Improvements Stall Amid Trump’s DEI Crackdown
A year after the Environmental Protection Agency stripped grant money from dozens of communities nationwide during Trump’s DEI crackdown, a small Georgia city is struggling to address environmental health concerns.
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A Death Revives Concerns About Police Brutality Six Years After National Reckoning
In a church in rural Missouri, mourners lined up to say goodbye to Lloyd Gilmore, a 44-year-old Black father who died in police custody last month. His death sparked protests in a city with a long history of racial violence, even as the national conversation about police brutality has waned. Six years after worldwide calls for change, what’s happened to the movement?
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American Scientists See Prosecutions as Part of Federal Campaign Against Them
Federal officials charged two virologists they stopped en route from an African disease outbreak with violating import rules. But scientists tell KFF Health News the inactivated samples they carried posed no threat to the public, and they characterize the arrests as part of a government harassment campaign.
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Trump’s Personnel Agency Says It Will Remove Some Identifying Info as It Sweeps Up Medical Records
The Office of Personnel Management said it will “pseudonymize” medical records it collects on more than 8 million people — federal workers and retirees, and their family members. Democrats and employee unions say the agency’s move is an overreach.
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Leadership Vacuum: Agencies in New York and Beyond Pass the Buck on Opioid Cash Oversight
The opioid settlements are a multibillion-dollar windfall with only loose spending suggestions rather than strict requirements. Some people directly affected by the crisis want stronger guardrails. But New York state’s experience highlights the challenge in finding a fiscal watchdog.
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A Deloitte-Run System Denied Medicaid Benefits for Michigan’s Disabled. Now Trump’s Law Piles On.
Complex computer systems that decide whether people, including the disabled, get Medicaid benefits have a history of errors. Now changes to comply with Trump’s signature tax and domestic policy law are inundating those systems.
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Severely Ill Prisoners Granted Early Release Are Left Stuck Behind Bars
Prisoners with severe medical conditions can be granted compassionate release, but without a long-term care facility willing to accept them, many continue to wait in prison as their conditions worsen.
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Violence Repeatedly Erupts at Dementia Care Facilities Despite Warnings, Inspections Show
Nursing homes and assisted living facilities can be fertile ground for violence between residents with dementia, including fatal assaults. A KFF Health News examination of health reports and court records shows how warning signs are missed and safeguards fall short.
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Doctors ‘Cringe’ at Possibility of Documenting Which Medicaid Enrollees Too Sick To Work
Final regulations on Medicaid work requirements say enrollees must regularly obtain documentation — possibly from medical professionals — to prove that they’re too sick to work. Doctors say the rules put them in a tough spot.
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Pregnant Woman’s Roadside Death Triggers Push To Reopen Mississippi Delta Hospital
The deaths of Harmony Ball-Stribling and her unborn daughter five years ago have galvanized local leaders determined to reopen a Mississippi Delta hospital. But once a rural community loses a hospital, bringing it back can be nearly impossible.
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Journalists Dig Into HHS’ Covid Injury List, ACA Sign-Ups, and Telehealth
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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Big Employers Increasingly in Hot Seat as Medicaid Work Requirements Loom
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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Watch: ‘Robust’ Primary Care, Transparency Top Employers’ Reform Wish List
KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner interviews Elizabeth Mitchell, the president and CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health, about systemic healthcare changes backed by large employers, which cover millions of Americans.
