Narcan, Drones, and Concerts: How Governments Spent Opioid Settlement Windfalls
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Wielding Obscure Budget Tools, Trump’s ‘Reaper’ Vought Sows Turmoil in Public Health
Through shrouded bureaucratic maneuvers, White House budget director Russell Vought and DOGE have quietly upended outbreak response, HIV treatment, and dementia care in communities across America.
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Concerns Over Fairness, Access Rise as States Compete for Slice of $50B Rural Health Fund
Amid public forums and local cries for help, states are also talking with large health systems, technology companies, and others amid intensifying competition for shares of a $50 billion fund to improve rural health.
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Immigrants With Health Conditions May Be Denied Visas Under New Trump Administration Guidance
The Trump administration has directed visa officers to consider common health ailments, including obesity and diabetes, when would-be immigrants seek visas to enter the U.S.
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The State of the Affordable Care Act
Nov. 1 marked the start of open enrollment for 2026 health plans bought from Affordable Care Act marketplaces in most states. But this sign-up season is like no other in the health law’s 15-year history. It remains unclear, even at this late date, whether expanded tax credits launched during the pandemic in 2021 will be continued or allowed to expire, exposing millions of Americans to much higher out-of-pocket costs. In this special episode of “What the Health?” from KFF Health News and WAMU, host Julie Rovner interviews KFF vice president Cynthia Cox about the past, present, and possible future of the health law and how those who purchase ACA coverage should proceed during this time of uncertainty.
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White House Calls This 9/11-Era Fund ‘Wasteful.’ Red and Blue States Rely on It.
States from California to Texas say they rely on tens of millions in federal funding to help them prepare for the next pandemic, cyberattack, or mass-casualty catastrophe. The Trump administration wants to cut it.
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Farmers, Barbers, and GOP Lawmakers Grapple With the Fate of ACA Tax Credits
Small-business owners and their employees, who make up nearly half of the Obamacare marketplace, are worried about their health care and their livelihoods as insurance prices surge. Republicans, who have long opposed Obamacare, are at odds over how to respond to upset from one of their party’s most loyal constituencies.
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This Health Economist Wants Your Medical Bills
A longtime health economist sets her sights on lowering Americans’ insurance premiums.
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While Politicos Dispense Blame, These Doctors Aim To Take Shame Out of Medicine
Clinicians and researchers are starting to embrace an effort to develop what’s known as “shame competence” in physicians to combat burnout and prevent that uncomfortable emotion from being passed along to patients.
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Is Covid During Pregnancy Linked to Autism? What a New Study Shows, and What It Doesn’t
Massachusetts researchers examine how growth and learning are subtly shaped among children whose mothers had covid while pregnant.
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Louisiana Took Months To Sound Alarm After Two Babies Died in Whooping Cough Outbreak
Louisiana health officials appear to have deviated from the usual steps for public health communications amid a whooping cough outbreak after it killed two infants.
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Congressional Stalemate Creates Chaos for Obamacare Shoppers
This year, Affordable Care Act marketplace consumers will need to be more informed than ever to navigate their health coverage choices.
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From Narcan to Gun Silencers, Opioid Settlement Cash Pays Law Enforcement Tabs
Local governments have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the opioid settlements to support addiction treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts. Their spending decisions in 2024 were sometimes surprising and even controversial. Our new database offers more than 10,500 examples.
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Sock Hops and Concerts: How Some Places Spent Opioid Settlement Cash
States, counties, and cities are receiving millions in opioid settlement money to address the addiction crisis. The ways they spent the dollars in 2024 sometimes drew criticism from advocates and at least one state official, who alleged misuse.
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Trump’s HHS Orders State Medicaid Programs To Help Find Undocumented Immigrants
Federal health authorities have taken the “unprecedented” step of instructing states to investigate certain individuals on Medicaid to determine whether they are ineligible because of their immigration status, with five states reporting they’ve received more than 170,000 names collectively.
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Journalists Help Make Sense of Government Shutdown and Obamacare Open Enrollment
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 Nation’s Largest Food Aid Program Is About To See Cuts. Here’s What You Should Know.
The federal government is making sweeping changes to SNAP, the program that helped feed about 42 million people in the U.S. last year. Here’s a breakdown of the changes to come and potential impacts.
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Deal or No Deal? States Prepare for Congress To Act at the Last Minute on Obamacare
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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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.
