Public Health

Latest KFF Health News Stories

Care Gaps Grow as OB/GYNs Flee Idaho

KFF Health News Original

Not so long ago, Bonner General Health, the hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, had four OB/GYNs on staff, who treated patients from multiple rural counties. That was before Idaho’s near-total abortion ban went into effect almost two years ago, criminalizing most abortions. All four of Bonner’s OB/GYNs left by last summer, some citing fears that the state’s ban […]

Planned Parenthood’s Push to Get Voters to the Polls

KFF Health News Original

Planned Parenthood’s political and advocacy organizations will use a more than $40 million war chest to blitz GOP officeholders and candidates in an effort to flip the House and maintain Democratic control of the Senate and presidency. The plan is to focus on the records of Republicans who have repeatedly voted against access to abortion, contraceptives, in vitro fertilization or gender-affirming […]

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': At GOP Convention, Health Policy Is Mostly MIA

Podcast

After an assassination attempt last weekend sent former President Donald Trump to the hospital with minor injuries, the Republican National Convention went off with little mention of health care issues. And Trump’s newly nominated vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, has barely staked out a record on health during his 18 months in office — aside from being strongly opposed to abortion. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Renuka Rayasam, who wrote June’s installment of KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month,” about a patient who walked into what he thought was an urgent care center and walked out with an emergency room bill. 

A Little-Recognized Public Health Crisis

KFF Health News Original

About every 12 minutes, someone is killed on America’s roads and countless others are injured. More than 42,500 people died in car crashes in 2022, a death toll that rivals or surpasses those of other major public health threats, such as the flu and gun violence. “We have not recognized that traffic violence is a […]