Tribal Health Leaders Say Feds Haven’t Treated Syphilis Outbreak as a Public Health Emergency

The National Indian Health Board has urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare a public health emergency as an alarming syphilis outbreak, which disproportionately affects Native Americans, continues. This is the latest plea for more resources from tribal leaders after previous requests went unanswered.

El regreso de Trump a la Casa Blanca pondría en peligro la red de seguridad de atención médica

El triunfo electoral del ex presidente Donald Trump y su regreso a la Casa Blanca probablemente traerán cambios que reducirían los programas nacionales de salud públicos, aumentando la tasa de personas sin seguro e imponiendo nuevas barreras al aborto y otros servicios de salud reproductiva.

Trump’s White House Return Poised To Tangle Health Care Safety Net

The new Trump administration is likely to reduce subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans and roll back Medicaid coverage. Public health authorities worry that anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be empowered.

What’s at Stake: A Pivotal Election for Six Big Health Issues

Health care has ebbed and surged as an election issue throughout the presidential campaign. Here are the ways some of the most consequential changes in health policies could hinge on whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump wins.

Paid Sick Leave Is Up for a Vote in Three States

The coronavirus pandemic underscored the importance of paid sick leave, a benefit to help workers and their families when they fall ill. Now voters in Missouri, Nebraska, and Alaska are deciding whether employers must provide it.

Can a $10 Billion Climate Bond Address California’s Water Contamination Problem?

California voters will decide in November whether to approve a $10 billion climate bond that supporters say is needed to jump-start water system repairs for residents without safe drinking water. Opponents say those repairs should be prioritized in the state budget, not put on a credit card.

For People With Opioid Addiction, Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Raises the Stakes

Medications such as methadone can cut the risk of a fatal opioid overdose in half. Medicaid covers the medication. But as state Medicaid programs reevaluated coverage of each enrollee following a pause in disenrollments during the covid-19 pandemic, some patients lost a crucial pillar of their sobriety.

How a Proposed Federal Heat Rule Might Have Saved These Workers’ Lives

Laborers have suffered in extreme heat triggered by climate change. Deaths aren’t inevitable, researchers say: Employers can save lives by providing ample water and breaks.

Exclusive: Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases of Bird Flu

Emails show how health officials struggle to track the bird flu, partly in deference to the agricultural industry. As a result, researchers don’t know how often farmworkers are being infected — and could miss alarming signals.

Crackdown on Homeless Encampments Raises Public Health Questions

As states turn to the health-care system to help address homelessness, experiments with housing and other social services aimed at getting people healthier and off the streets are running up against new, aggressive crackdowns — with some cities ratcheting up enforcement of existing anticamping laws and others passing new restrictions. From Florida to California, elected […]

Watch: ‘Silence in Sikeston & The Effects of Racial Violence’

KFF Health News Midwest correspondent Cara Anthony talks about how racism affects health on Nine PBS’ “Listen, St. Louis with Carol Daniel,” stemming from her reporting for the “Silence in Sikeston” multimedia project, on the impact of a 1942 lynching and a 2020 police killing on a rural Missouri community.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': LIVE From KFF: Health Care and the 2024 Election

The Affordable Care Act has not been a major issue in the 2024 campaign, but abortion and reproductive rights have been front and center. Those are just two of the dozens of health issues that could be profoundly affected by who is elected president and which party controls Congress in 2025. In this special live episode, Tamara Keith of NPR, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Cynthia Cox and Ashley Kirzinger of KFF join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss how health policy has affected the campaign and how the election results might affect health policy. Plus, the panel answers questions from the live audience.

Super Bowl Rally Shooting Victims Pick Up Pieces, but Gun Violence Haunts Their Lives

Eight months after the Feb. 14 shooting, people wounded at the Kansas City Chiefs parade are wary of more gun violence. In this installment of “The Injured,” survivors of the shooting say they feel gun violence is inescapable and are desperately seeking a sense of safety.