The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
341 - 360 of 807 Results
Bucking the alarming spike in overall homicides in recent years, the homicide rate involving young children is down 70% in California from three decades ago. The nation has seen a parallel, albeit slower, decline.
Nearly all psychiatric residential treatment centers for children in South Carolina operate as for-profit businesses — some backed by private equity — and many prioritize out-of-state kids because it’s better for the bottom line. The scramble to secure treatment for children and teenagers has become so competitive that South Carolina will spend millions more each year as of April 1 to keep out-of-state patients from flooding the state's treatment facilities.
Despite increased public awareness, research advances, and wider insurance coverage for autism therapies, children often wait months — in some cases more than a year — to get an autism diagnosis and begin intervention services. The waits can be longer for Black and Latino children, and families in rural areas are also disadvantaged, without access to providers.
State health officials are using Medicaid funds to send children in their care to treatment programs in states with less stringent regulations, including programs accused of abuse and mistreatment.
Throughout history, parents have searched for the secret to getting fretful children to sleep through the night. The latest strategy involves giving children melatonin-infused gummies and tablets, a trend that concerns some doctors.
Kennedy Stonum, a 17-year-old high school junior, resisted getting vaccinated against covid-19, as did 20-year-old Tyler Gilreath, whose mother had nagged him for months to get the shots. Both died.
Officials testing water found high lead levels in more than 100 of the state’s nearly 600 school buildings. But as of mid-February, half the state’s schools had yet to provide samples.
Transgender young people and their parents have stepped up to testify against legislation targeting them. But as rhetoric escalates in the political fray, what does the anti-trans legislative push mean for their mental health?
The insurance company said that the birth of the Bull family’s twins was not an emergency and that NICU care was “not medically necessary.” The family’s experience with a huge bill sent to collections happened in 2020, but it exposes a hole in the new No Surprises law that took effect Jan. 1.
Nicolas Montero is 16, and that’s old enough to get a vaccine on his own in Philadelphia. Vaccine regulations vary around the country and, in more than a dozen states, teens can consent to their own medical care.
Dr. Mai Pham left her corporate career to spark change in a system that is failing millions of Americans with autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities.
As some states adopt covid vaccine requirements, not everyone agrees mandates for children are the way forward. Taking a page from history: We have two paths to putting the pandemic behind us: a quicker, more certain one of mandatory vaccination or a stuttering, drawn-out, likely more deadly affair.
Many parents of children too young for vaccines are exhausted. Some feel isolated and even forgotten by those who just want to move on even as omicron continues to sweep through parts of the country.
Without a federal law governing private, for-profit residential programs for children with behavioral problems, regulation has been left to the states. But even in states that have sought to increase oversight, deaths and controversial tactics such as seclusion still happen.
Assembly member who represents Oakland, is digging into abortion, vaccines and homelessness and drawing on her own health care experiences as she drafts bills.
Amid covid-related staffing shortages and testing requirements, school systems are stretched thin. And so are parents’ nerves.
Just 18% of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated, with rates varying significantly across the country, a KHN analysis of federal data shows. Pediatricians say the slow pace and geographic disparities are alarming, especially against the backdrop of record numbers of cases and pediatric hospitalizations.
Regular use of a more advanced screening method turns a low-cost procedure into a pricier one.
A mother’s immune response to covid can be a greater danger to the fetus than the virus itself.
After baby Dorian Bennett arrived two months early and spent more than 50 days in the neonatal ICU, his parents received a bill of more than $550,000 — despite having insurance. The Florida hospital had a not-so-helpful suggestion: monthly payments of more than $45,000 for a year.
© 2026 KFF