Latest KFF Health News Stories
Gun Store Owner Marshals Voters To Expand Medicaid In Idaho
Idaho is one of four conservative states where voters next month will determine whether to buck the GOP’s resistance to the Affordable Care Act and implement or renew its expansion of Medicaid to adults.
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Trump, GOP Fight Back On Health Care
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Ollstein of Politico discuss a flurry of proposals from the Trump administration on prices Medicare pays for drugs and the Affordable Care Act.
Booming Economy Helps Flatten Medicaid Enrollment And Limit Costs, States Report
The drop in the number of people enrolled in the federal-state program for low-income residents is the first since 2007.
States Explore Paths To Pay Their Share For Medicaid Expansion — Using Political GPS
The state-federal health insurance program is more popular than ever. Now, states that want to expand eligibility are devising new strategies to pay for it — creating, in many red states, a significant political challenge.
Gavin Newsom Is Bullish On Single-Payer — Except When He’s Not
The front-runner in the California governor’s race, known for his political audacity, has officially endorsed the controversial move to create one public insurance program for all Californians. Yet he also faces formidable challenges, and liberal critics fear he’ll retreat.
Fixing Obamacare’s ‘Family Glitch’ Hinges On Outcome Of November Elections
This gap in the 2010 health law means health insurance remains unaffordable for millions of Americans. For now, relief is hard to come by.
Marketplace Subsidies May Be Option In 2020 For Plans That Skirt Obamacare
The new guidance allows states to ask for waivers from provisions in the Affordable Care Act governing not only subsidies, but also the benefits insurers must offer in all their plans.
Primary Care Doctors ‘Not Doing Enough’ To Curb STDs
As rates of sexually transmitted diseases surge, public health officials want physicians to step up screening and treatment of patients.
Politicians Hop Aboard ‘Medicare-For-All’ Train, Destination Unknown
Candidates are charging toward midterm elections on a platform of single-payer and universal coverage rhetoric. Yet “Medicare-for-all” and single-payer mean different things to different people.
As Billions In Tax Dollars Flow To Private Medicaid Plans, Who’s Minding The Store?
Insurance companies profit from government contracts but are subject to little oversight of how they spend the money or care for patients. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has only exacerbated the problem.
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Republicans’ Preexisting Political Problem
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss how protections for people with preexisting conditions have become a top issue in the elections, Trump administration efforts to make prescription drug prices more public and the start of Medicare’s annual open-enrollment period. Plus, Rovner interviews California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
Children’s Hospitals Again Cry For Help From Voters. But Are They Really Hurting?
California’s 13 children’s hospitals are asking voters in November to approve $1.5 billion in bonds to help them pay for construction and equipment, the third such measure in 14 years. Some health care experts and election analysts believe the repeated financial requests aren’t justified.
Health Care Tops Guns, Economy As Voters’ Top Issue
Nearly three-quarters of voters say that health care is the most important issue for them, but fewer than half are hearing much from candidates about it, according to a poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
GOP Gubernatorial Candidate John Cox: Limit Government In Health Care
John Cox, California’s Republican candidate for governor, contends that policies on abortion, health insurance and health care access should be guided by the conservative ideals of free market competition and personal responsibility. He hasn’t offered specific policy positions on health care, except that government should largely stay out of it.
Mysterious Polio-Like Illness Baffles Medical Experts While Frightening Parents
Federal health officials are investigating 127 cases of the disease, called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM.
States Act To Safeguard Young Cancer Patients’ Chances To Have Children
Fighting cancer often involves toxic therapies that can cause infertility. In the past couple of years, five states have moved to require that plans pay for services such as egg removal and storage.
Medicare For All? CMS Chief Warns Program Has Enough Problems Already
Seema Verma, who heads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, tells private insurance officials that a push by some Democrats to expand Medicare would only increase troubles the program already faces.
Influential Leapfrog Group Jumps In To Rate 5,600 Surgery Centers
In the wake of a KHN/USA Today Network investigation, Leapfrog will check the safety and quality of outpatient centers.
Drugmakers Funnel Millions To Lawmakers; A Few Dozen Get $100,000-Plus
Drugmakers’ contributions to lawmakers have peaked as surging drug prices emerge as a hot-button political issue. In the past decade, Congress has received nearly $79 million from 68 pharma PACs, run by employees of companies that make drugs treating everything from cancer to erectile dysfunction.
TV Ads Must Trumpet Drug Prices, Trump Administration Says. Pharma Tries A Plan B.
Drug pricing is a top issue in the run-up to the midterm elections.
