Health News
She Had a Broken Arm, No Insurance — And a $97,000 Bill
Katheryn Houghton As soon as she fell, Deborah Buttgereit knew she couldn’t avoid going to the hospital. “I could hear the bones moving around in my elbow,” said Buttgereit, who was 60 when she slipped on a patch of ice in December outside her apartment in Bozeman, Montana. Emergency room scans showed she had fractured […]
Amid Confusion Over US Vaccine Recommendations, States Try To ‘Restore Trust’
Céline Gounder When the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met last week, confusion filled the room. Members admitted they didn’t know what they were voting on, first rejecting a combined measles-mumps-rubella-chickenpox vaccine for young toddlers, then voting to keep it funded minutes later. The next day, they reversed themselves on the funding. Now Jim […]
Trump Claims ‘No Downside’ to Avoiding Tylenol During Pregnancy. He’s Wrong.
Madison Czopek, PolitiFact “There’s no downside” to avoiding Tylenol or acetaminophen use while pregnant. President Donald Trump on Sept. 22, 2025, in a press conference Obstetricians have long advised their pregnant patients that Tylenol is the safest option to reduce fever or pain. President Donald Trump stood before a national audience on Sept. 22 and […]
Big Loopholes in Hospital Charity Care Programs Mean Patients Still Get Stuck With the Tab
Michelle Andrews Quinn Cochran-Zipp went to the emergency room three times with severe abdominal pain before doctors figured out she had early-stage cancer in the germ cells of her right ovary. After emergency surgery four years ago, the Greeley, Colorado, lab technician is cancer-free. The two hospitals that treated Cochran-Zipp at the time determined that […]
AI Will Soon Have a Say in Approving or Denying Medicare Treatments
Lauren Sausser and Darius Tahir Taking a page from the private insurance industry’s playbook, the Trump administration will launch a program next year to find out how much money an artificial intelligence algorithm could save the federal government by denying care to Medicare patients. The pilot program, designed to weed out wasteful, “low-value” services, amounts […]
As Trump Punts on Medical Debt, Battle Over Patient Protections Moves to States
Noam N. Levey and Katheryn Houghton and Arielle Zionts With the Trump administration scaling back federal efforts to protect Americans from medical bills they can’t pay, advocates for patients and consumers have shifted their work to contain the nation’s medical debt problem to state Capitols. Despite progress in some mostly blue states this year, however, […]
As Trump Punts on Medical Debt, Battle Over Patient Protections Moves to States
Noam N. Levey and Katheryn Houghton and Arielle Zionts With the Trump administration scaling back federal efforts to protect Americans from medical bills they can’t pay, advocates for patients and consumers have shifted their work to contain the nation’s medical debt problem to state Capitols. Despite progress in some mostly blue states this year, however, […]
Public Health Further Politicized Under the Threat of More Firings
The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner @julierovner.bsky.social Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A […]
20 Years After Katrina, Louisiana Still Struggles With Evacuation Plans That Minimize Health Risks
In late August 2020, Ashlee Guidry and her staff kept a wary eye on guidance from local officials as Hurricane Laura passed over Cuba en route to southwestern Louisiana. Guidry was responsible for the safety of dozens of people living at Stonebridge Place, an assisted living and memory care facility in Sulphur. For days, Laura […]
Listen: Young Adults Turning 26 Face Health Insurance Cliff
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