An Age-Old Fear Grows More Common: ‘I’m Going To Die Alone’
As families fracture, people are living longer and are more likely to find themselves without close relatives or friends at the end of their lives.
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As families fracture, people are living longer and are more likely to find themselves without close relatives or friends at the end of their lives.
In Mississippi, a state with one of the highest obesity rates in the nation, Medicaid covers weight loss drugs, but few enrollees have signed up for the benefit.
As contractors position themselves to cash in on a gush of new business managing Medicaid work requirements, a cadre of senators has launched an inquiry into the companies paid billions to build eligibility systems.
Ketamine, long used as an anesthetic or illegal party drug, is being combined with psychotherapy to treat severe depression and post-traumatic stress — a potential tool for those with high trauma rates, like firefighters and police officers. Yet the drug’s stigma and unregulated marketplace leave first responders in uncharted territory.
President Donald Trump called the Digital Equity Act unconstitutional, racist, and illegal. Then the $2.75 billion program for rural and underserved communities to gain internet access disappeared.
The Trump administration has restored promised funds to a program that teaches people in health care how to work with aging Americans.
Democrats are pressuring Republicans to extend billions of dollars in federal tax credits that have dramatically lowered premiums and contributed to record-low rates of uninsured Americans. It’s a chance to talk about a winning issue — and maybe regain support from working-class voters.
Barbara Kingsolver won a Pulitzer Prize for her bestselling novel about Appalachia’s drug crisis. She invested some of the proceeds into a home for women trying to beat substance use disorders.
As a warming climate intensifies storms, KFF Health News has identified more than 170 U.S. hospitals at risk of significant and potentially dangerous flooding. Climate experts warn that the Trump administration’s cuts leave the nation less prepared.
While surgeons argue over who gets the best results, patients may struggle to make sense of credentials.
Some injured patients say they wish they had tried harder to check the backgrounds of doctors and clinics they trusted, but those records are hard to find.
Under a new law, many Americans will have to meet a work requirement to obtain and keep their Medicaid coverage. But due to an exemption, millions living in areas of high unemployment could be spared.
States are taking aim at chemicals and additives in foods as Republicans and Democrats alike embrace at least one aspect of the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” push. It’s a shift for Republicans, who had vilified past Democratic efforts to impose government will on what people eat and drink.
As the climate changes, hurricanes are intensifying more quickly, leaving Louisiana’s current mass evacuation plan in limbo. But transportation officials say the price is too high to switch to methods used in Florida and Texas.
A pilot program testing the use of artificial intelligence to expand prior authorization decisions in Medicare has providers, politicians, and researchers questioning Trump administration promises to curb an unpopular practice that has frustrated patients and their doctors.
Some states are enacting medical debt laws as the Trump administration pulls back federal protections. Elsewhere, industry opposition has derailed legislation.
The decisions by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices matter, because insurers and federal programs rely on them, but they are not binding. States can follow the recommendations, or not.
North Carolina and Idaho are cutting their Medicaid programs to bridge budget gaps, raising fears that providers will stop taking patients and that hospitals will close even before the brunt of a new federal tax-and-budget law takes effect.
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meeting on vaccines pitted scientific expertise against vaccine skepticism. An often confusing debate ended with critics of the current vaccine schedule tabling a vote to remove one of its cornerstones.
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