HealthQ Special: Caregiving in the Sandwich Generation
Join the conversation as the HealthQ team explores the messiness, humor, and satisfaction that comes with caregiving when you’re sandwiched between aging parents and growing kids.
Midwest Bureau
KFF Health News covers health care in the Midwest, with a bureau headquartered in St. Louis and staff reporters based in Iowa, Michigan, and South Dakota.
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A Mom Said Infant Formula Killed Her Baby. The Manufacturer Closed the File.
When makers of infant formula hear that babies got sick or died while using their products, what happens next is left largely to the manufacturers. They decide whether to inform the FDA about possible harm, which could trigger steps to protect the public.
By David Hilzenrath and Holly K. Hacker -
She Struggled To Get a Lifesaving Drug Even After Insurers Vowed To Help
Margaret Hvatum ended up in the hospital after her insurer denied coverage of a medicine she relies on to boost her immune system. Hvatum got entangled in the preapproval process, which the insurance industry has vowed to improve.
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Worried About Your Aging Parents? Welcome to the Caregiving Club
Being a caregiver can start long before you go to a doctor appointment with a loved one or move your parents into your house. The HealthQ team explores how embracing the role matters — and how the recognition and support that come next can ease a difficult season of life.
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Medicare’s AI Push Snarls Patients and Doctors in Errors and Delays
Medicare is testing the use of artificial intelligence to preapprove several healthcare services. Federal health officials say prior authorization can help reduce fraud and contain costs. But doctors and patients describe the trial as “horrendous” and full of red tape so far.
By Darius Tahir -
Indiana Takes On Powerful Hospitals by Capping Prices They Charge Employers
“Government has to intervene, because healthcare is run like an unregulated utility,” Indiana’s GOP governor says of the state’s effort to regulate hospital prices.
By Phil Galewitz and Samantha Liss -
More Americans Are Surviving Cancer. But the Mental Health Challenges Can Persist.
Amid advancements in treatment and screening, more Americans are surviving the disease. But many are left with psychological scars, such as lingering anxiety and depression.
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Long-Awaited Rule Aims To Boost ACA Choices While Embracing Higher Deductibles
The Trump administration finalized a rule that embraces new types of Obamacare coverage, including 30% higher out-of-pocket costs for some plans, and a more novel approach that allows insurers to offer coverage without set networks of doctors and hospitals.
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Final Rules for Medicaid Work Requirements Are Out. Here’s What You Need To Know.
The Trump administration has laid out what millions of Americans on Medicaid must do to prove they’re working or completing other activities. Health policy researchers and consumer advocates say there are some important takeaways.
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By September, Nearly a Third of Americans Will Live in States With Legal Aid in Dying
Despite widespread support in polls for legalizing aid in dying, the number of people who go through with the practice remains very small.
By Paula Span -
RFK Jr. Seeks To Peek at Americans’ Medical Records for Clues on Autism and Vaccines
To collect and scrutinize millions of Americans’ health data, U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. aims to work with state organizations that help health systems share medical records. In Nebraska, millions in federal dollars has flowed into one nonprofit cooperating with Kennedy’s project.
By Amanda Seitz and Darius Tahir -
Trump’s Medicaid Work Rules Force States To Scrap Plans and Rework Systems
Health experts and advocates for low-income people say federal rules implementing President Donald Trump’s new Medicaid work requirements upend months of work by state governments to prepare the computer systems that determine who’s eligible for benefits.
By Rachana Pradhan and Samantha Liss -
Michigan Found a Way To Reduce School Vaccine Waivers. Until It Backfired.
The state had high rates of parents not vaccinating their children, so it started making them attend vaccine education sessions to opt out their kids. It seemed to work. Then things got ugly.
By Kate Wells -
Festering Infections to Untreated Cancer: ICE Detainees Describe Medical Neglect Across US
Immigrant detainees have told courts across the nation that detention officials have failed to treat or stabilize their conditions, from pregnancy to prostate cancer, suggesting that systemic lapses in care extend well beyond record deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
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Cheaper, Alternative Health Plans Are Having a Moment, but Critics Urge Caution
Congress' decision not to extend enhanced marketplace tax credits has boosted the appeal of alternative health coverage with lower monthly premiums. Consumer advocates dismiss the plans as "junk insurance,” while proponents say patients need alternatives to pricey marketplace options.
By Sarah Kwon -
Kennedy Swaps Vaccine Rhetoric for Story Time but Can’t Quite Change the Subject
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
By Amanda Seitz -
Minnesota Lawmaker Proposes Using Hospital Tax To Fill Charity Care Gap
A Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found charity care at hospitals in the state is offered at low and arbitrary levels, prompting Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to say, “There is more work in front of us.”
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Trump Demands Medicaid Data for Deportation. Some States Go a Step Further.
Several states have required their health agencies to take on another job: verifying immigration status among Medicaid recipients and reporting them to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. North Carolina is the latest to pass such a law, and experts expect more to follow.
By Andrew Jones -
License To Deliver: Some Midwives Break the Law To Assist With Home Births
Some states bar professional midwives from attending home births if they don’t have a nursing license. Their advocates say laws to allow midwife licensing would make home birth safer and more accessible, plus help address a maternity care shortage.
By Lisa Rab -
RFK Jr. Swaps Vaccine Talk for Healthy Foods and Reading to Tots in Push To Woo Voters
He tested robotic hands on a heart surgery patient and chewed on microgreens in Ohio, but Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. couldn’t dodge questions about the Trump administration’s more controversial policies.
By Amanda Seitz