Health Care Costs

Latest KFF Health News Stories

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Bill With Billions in Health Program Cuts Passes House

Podcast

The House narrowly passed a budget reconciliation bill, including billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy along with billions of dollars in cuts to health program spending. But the Senate is expected to make major changes to the measure before it can go to President Donald Trump for his signature. This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Trump Exaggerates Speed and Certainty of Prescription Drug Price Reductions

KFF Health News Original

According to the timeline in the May 12 executive order, prescription drug price reductions would not happen “almost immediately,” but rather could take months or years. And extending the savings to Americans outside federal health insurance programs such as Medicare would likely require congressional action.

Los hospitales que atienden partos en zonas rurales están cada vez más lejos de las embarazadas

KFF Health News Original

Más de un centenar de hospitales rurales han dejado de atender partos desde 2021, según el Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. El cierre de los servicios de obstetricia se suele achacar a la falta de personal y la falta de presupuesto.

Trump retira servicios sociales de Medicaid, y pone en peligro la nutrición y la vivienda

KFF Health News Original

Sin hogar ni alimentos saludables, las personas corren el riesgo de enfermarse más, quedarse sin hogar y experimentar aún más dificultades para controlar afecciones crónicas como la diabetes y las enfermedades cardíacas.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': GOP Tries To Cut Billions in Health Benefits

Podcast

GOP-controlled House committees approved parts of President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” this week, including more than $700 billion in cuts to health programs over the next decade — mostly from Medicaid, which covers people with low incomes or disabilities. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before Congress for the first time since taking office and told lawmakers that Americans shouldn’t take medical advice from him. Julie Appleby of KFF Health News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

Newsom’s Pitch as He Seeks To Pare Down Immigrant Health Care: ‘We Have To Adjust’

KFF Health News Original

Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he’s proud his state expanded health care to all low-income residents regardless of immigration status but that tough budget times call for some adjustments. The Democrat’s new budget proposes scaling back benefits to adults living in the country illegally, as well as charging them a $100 monthly premium.

The GOP’s Trying Again To Cut Medicaid. It’s Only Gotten Harder Since 2017.

KFF Health News Original

Donald Trump is back in the White House, the GOP controls Congress, and Republicans have dusted off their 2017 plans to reshape Medicaid, the government health program for those with low incomes or disabilities.

After Promising Universal Health Care, California Governor Must Reconsider Immigrant Coverage

KFF Health News Original

Gov. Gavin Newsom was elected to office in 2019 on a promise of universal health care. He dramatically expanded coverage, but after six years, the Democrat is forced to contemplate deep cuts — including to the nation’s largest health care expansion to immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission.

Trump Team Faces Key Legal Decision That Could Put Mental Health Parity in Peril

KFF Health News Original

The administration is facing a May 12 deadline to declare if it will defend Biden-era regulations that aim to enforce laws requiring parity in insurance coverage of mental and physical health care.

A California Lawmaker Leans Into Her Medical Training in Fight for Health Safety Net

KFF Health News Original

As California’s budget deadline looms, state Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, a physician-turned-lawmaker, says state leaders may soon have to make some tough decisions on health care spending. With the state’s Medi-Cal program billions of dollars short, California’s health care safety net is at risk — even without federal cuts to Medicaid.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Cutting Medicaid Is Hard — Even for the GOP

Podcast

Republicans on Capitol Hill are struggling to reach consensus on cutting the Medicaid program as they search for nearly a trillion dollars in savings over the next decade — as many observers predicted. Meanwhile, turmoil continues at the Department of Health and Human Services, with more controversial cuts and personnel moves, including the sudden nomination of Casey Means, an ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s, to become surgeon general. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Maya Goldman of Axios, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Lauren Sausser, who co-reported the latest “Bill of the Month” feature, about an unexpected bill for what seemed like preventive care.