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.
All Coverage
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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.
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Trump Demands Medicaid Data for Deportation. Some States Go a Step Further.
Several states have required their health agencies to take on another job: verifying immigration status among Medicaid recipients and reporting them to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. North Carolina is the latest to pass such a law, and experts expect more to follow.
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Hantavirus News Roundup: From Céline Gounder of KFF Health News
Following a recent outbreak of the deadly hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius, KFF Health News editor-at-large and infectious disease doctor Céline Gounder spoke to numerous media outlets about the risks from the disease.
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Trump and Kennedy Seek To Relax Safeguards for AI Healthcare Tools
For years, the Department of Health and Human Services built standards to make sure electronic health records were user-friendly and offered transparent advice to doctors. Now they’re relaxing those standards, and doctors and critics in the hospital industry are worried.
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RFK Jr. Swaps Vaccine Talk for Healthy Foods and Reading to Tots in Push To Woo Voters
He tested robotic hands on a heart surgery patient and chewed on microgreens in Ohio, but Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. couldn’t dodge questions about the Trump administration’s more controversial policies.
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Low Wages, Empty Plates, Heavy Toll: Rethinking Suicide Prevention
Decades of research indicate that interventions that bring down people’s cost of living, such as ensuring they have access to stable housing and food, are linked to lower suicide rates.
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Watch: 8 Health Insurance Terms You Should Know
Deductible. Copay. Out-of-pocket limit. What do these health insurance terms actually mean? We explain common phrases from insurance policies so navigating your plan is less of a headache.
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As Ranks of Uninsured Grow, Minnesota’s Hospitals Are Among Least Charitable in Nation
A Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation of hospital data and charity care programs shows most Minnesota hospitals provide little financial aid to patients and often make assistance difficult to get.
