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The Trump administration has pushed a significant amount of health costs to states, whose budgets may already be strained by declining state tax revenues, a slowdown in pandemic spending, and economic uncertainty. State and local governments now face difficult decisions.
Independent and rural hospitals are collaborating with their neighbors to shore up their finances instead of joining larger health systems to stay afloat.
As extremism and radicalization worsen in the United States, a group of researchers is trying out a new approach that addresses the issue as a public health problem.
Michigan’s former top health official spent a year and $30 million building a system to implement work requirements for Medicaid recipients. The difficulties he encountered have him worried about 40 states and Washington, D.C., having to launch such systems by 2027.
Conventional wisdom says GLP-1 drugs must be taken indefinitely to maintain weight loss. But a growing number of researchers, payers, and providers are challenging that consensus and exploring whether — and how — to taper patients off expensive GLP-1 drugs.
About 90,000 people spent months in limbo as central Missouri’s major, and often only, provider fought over insurance contracts. Patients getting caught in the crossfire of disputes has become a familiar complication, as about 8% of hospitals have left an insurer network since 2021. Trump administration policies could accelerate the trend.
A kindergartner in Missouri needed eye surgery. Her insurer granted approval for her to see a specialist nearby, yet her parents were confused when they still owed more than $13,000. Then her uncle, a former state senator, reached out to a colleague who contacted the hospital and the insurer.
The Trump administration's cuts of public health funds to state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of where someone lives, a new KFF Health News analysis shows.
As states prepare to implement changes to Medicaid required by President Donald Trump’s recent tax-and-spending law, tribal leaders say they are concerned Native American enrollees could lose their coverage, despite exemptions made by Congress.
A joint project of NPR and KFF Health News, Healthcare Helpline helps you navigate the health system hurdles between you and good care. Send us your tricky questions, and we may tap a policy sleuth to puzzle them out. Here is what to do if your preventive care gets denied.
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.
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.
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.
GOP lawmakers in 10 states have refused for a decade to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. But when President Donald Trump got another whack at Obamacare, these holdout states went unrewarded.
Veterans often face hurdles when they want the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for care from clinics and hospitals outside the federal system. A bill in Congress, coupled with a major funding request from the Trump administration, could help clear the path for many rural veterans.
More than a dozen states are seeking their own versions of Medicaid work requirements. But the incoming federal standards pose questions around how much leeway states have to design their rules.
The workforce of a federal agency that oversees billions in grants for primary health care, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health services, and workforce training has been slashed, sparking fears of what’s to come.
Native American groups declare that tribal sovereignty trumps state and federal efforts to restrict or ban gender-affirming care for two-spirit and LGBTQ+ tribal citizens. Tribes are analyzing the risk of opposing Trump’s policies, advocates say.
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