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In a Goliath-versus-David fight, UnitedHealth Group’s pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, has filed lawsuits in five counties to stop them from including the company in national opioid litigation.
Alarmed at Republicans’ deep cuts to health care and restrictions on reproductive rights, advocates are supporting California’s effort to counter a mid-decade gerrymander by the Texas GOP to pad their party’s fragile U.S. House majority.
Firearm violence is killing Americans at the scale of a public health epidemic. The suffering is concentrated in Black neighborhoods damaged by segregation, disinvestment, hate crimes, and other forms of racial discrimination.
LGBTQ+ youth lost dedicated support on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in July at a critical time. Advocates say mental health issues are rising in that population amid hostility from the Trump administration.
The housing crisis is requiring creative scrambling and new partnerships from health care organizations to keep older patients out of expensive nursing homes as homelessness grows.
Doctors and public health leaders, including at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommend that most people 6 months old and older get the 2025-26 flu vaccine — and it’s still covered by most insurance plans.
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
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The state is using an old source of funding to pay for a new money crunch: assisting out-of-state patients with the costs associated with abortion.
Insurers will take drug costs, frequency of use, and other factors into account as they set premium amounts for the 2026 plan year.
President Donald Trump’s latest executive order about science and medicine seeks to take funding decisions out of the hands of career scientists and give them to political appointees instead. And a gunman, reportedly disgruntled over covid vaccines, shoots at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killing a law enforcement officer. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Aaron Carroll, president and CEO of the health services research group AcademyHealth, about how to restore the public’s trust in public health.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to defund mRNA research is just the latest to put ideology above public health.
With intensified immigration enforcement in California, community clinics serving Latino and immigrant populations say they’ve noticed an increase in appointment cancellations and telehealth usage. But, as the covid-19 pandemic showed, accessing the necessary technology can be a challenge and virtual appointments can take a person’s health care only so far.
A couple in New York thought they bought insurance. Instead, they got fake “jobs.”
In rural Colorado and across rural America, Medicaid is a lifeline, especially for people who wouldn’t otherwise have easy access to health care. That includes low-income seniors who need supplemental coverage in addition to Medicare, and people of all ages with disabilities.
Consumers contemplating an early retirement or starting a business should calculate how Trump administration and congressional policy changes could increase their health insurance costs — and plan accordingly.
Some doctors and the groups that represent them say physicians’ extensive training leads to better emergency care, and that some hospitals are trying to save money by not hiring them. They support new laws in Indiana, Virginia, and South Carolina that require physicians to be on-site 24/7.
Young adults without jobs that provide insurance find their options are limited and expensive. The problem is about to get worse.
It’s a difficult rite of passage for young adults without job-based insurance. Here are some tips for getting started.
The Trump administration’s anti-regulatory approach and cost-cutting moves risk unraveling the system of checks and balances that helps ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply, say consumer advocates and former employees of the FDA and Department of Agriculture.
